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Phillip CooreyFinancial Review |
When the opposition leader has made a foray into policy detail, he’s found himself on the sticky paper.
We enter the Christmas break none the wiser whether the government will hand down another budget before going to the polls.
This week was not the first time the prime minister’s instincts have been called into question following an inability to get ahead of thorny issues.
If the Coalition’s plan for nuclear energy sounds too good to be true, it probably is, but it will be two and a half decades before we’ll know for...
In Victoria, Jews live in a climate of fear because next to nothing has been done to stop the attacks against them.
Allegra Spender’s push to change the definition of small business complicates the Coalition’s attempts to pigeonhole the independents as lefties.
After three years of putting little emphasis on the private sector, Labor is now spruiking the value of a business-led recovery.
Given the confirmation this week by Treasurer Jim Chalmers of a bigger budget deficit this financial year, it would make sense to call a federal...
It hasn’t hurt for the prime minister to witness first hand the changing global forces, more so as countries preposition for Trump’s second...
As each month passes without noticeable improvement in the cost of living, it’s all starting to appear rather fraught for the government.
If Albanese fails where Turnbull succeeded, and tariffs are imposed, it won’t just be Rudd who will be blamed, but the bloke who gave him the job.
The government might not deliver another budget before the election, even though it says it will. The reason? Deficits as far as the eye can see.
Amid all the fluff, bile and nonsense of the US election campaign, the seminal question was ‘are you better off than you were four years ago?’,...
When it comes to inflation, we are at the point where spin is clashing with substance., writes Phillip Coorey.
Over the weekend we saw the emergence of a plan, or at least the latest plan, to try to shift the government out of its torpor.
In 2016 Donald Trump stormed into office on the back of a widespread voter cynicism and distrust. He is a coin toss away from doing so again.
Ultimately, it adds up to another lost week for a government already running out of time to sell its message.
Labor spent much of the night believing it did better than it ultimately did. Still, there are a few green shoots for Anthony Albanese in the most...
For a bloke who has been in parliament for 23 years, much about the Liberal opposition leader remains unknown to the broader electorate.
Labor has held power in the territory for 23 years. The Liberals hope that will prove to be enough in this weekend’s election.
The PM can hardly complain when the politics of envy rears its head, as it has after he was revealed as the buyer of a $4.3 million beach house.
This government is still in its first term yet is deploying end-of-days tactics – an observation not lost in an anxious backbench.
Feds beware: Miles has shamelessly thrown money at the cost of living and no-one has thanked him for it.
This week showed the government’s performance remains far from polished when events wander off script.
Like a farmer waiting for rain, Albanese will hold out for a pre-election rate cut that could do a lot more to shift the dial than anything he’s...
It is well worth remembering how spectacularly wrong the Productivity Commission was in 2017 when it gave the green light to the National Disability...
The latest moves are emblematic of a broader offensive buoyed by polls that suggest a very slim possibility of winning enough seats to negotiate...
Bipartisanship and reform, two rarities these days, have combined in the shape of the age care funding changes.
The short-lived census row has sharply reminded the government that it cannot take its eye off the economic ball now, writes Phillip Coorey.
The average trade union member these days is not a big beefy bloke in a hard hat and black T-shirt, but a 46-year-old female nurse.
The government wants us to believe Peter Dutton is dangerous and divisive. It might need to focus on the leader of the Greens as well.
The NDIS breakthrough, the CFMEU deal, and in-principle agreement on aged care reform shows it’s not all about the antics of crossbench issue...
Allowing the straight-talking Michele Bullock a press conference after every rates meeting has diluted the government’s power to control the...
Five years ago, Labor promised to subsidise childcare wages and was howled down. Now, it hardly moves the dial.
Labor’s leadership succession plan seems less obvious than it did six months ago.
Jacqui Lambie, Pauline Hanson and some independents have played a role in enabling the militant union.
As the federal election nears, the question is whether Labor in power across the entire mainland has become a problem for the Albanese government in...
An unanticipated backlash in WA is the last thing the government needs, given the prospect of the creation of a pro-Muslim political movement...
For the second time in this sitting session Fatima Payman has stolen the agenda and derailed the government’s attempts to spruik cost-of-living...
Unlike the West Australian senator who gifted the Greens a propaganda victory, Penny Wong stayed in the tent and effected change from within on...
Julian Assange’s release is not the first time a US president has done such a favour for an Australian prime minister.
The signature difference between what the Coalition unleashed on Wednesday and the debilitating climate fights of the past is that both parties are...
You only have to consider the political context in which the nuclear power pledge was made to understand the Coalition feels it is a risk worth...
The circus of embassy staff trying to block vision of journalist Cheng Lei at a ceremony involving the visiting Chinese premier reinforces the...
In December 2022 Anthony Albanese enjoyed a 26-point lead over Peter Dutton as preferred prime minister, but it has now dwindled to just two points.
Peter Dutton reckons the cost of living doesn’t discriminate between the teal seats and the rest.
The party these days bears only a passing resemblance to the political conservation movement started by Bob Brown that fought nobly against habitat...
The former government never embarked on a deliberate strategy to suppress wages. But you wouldn’t know it.
The optics of a bloke pushing aside a woman, especially in a teal seat, just because it’s suddenly become winnable, will be poor.
To move Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, a close factional ally of the Prime Minister and member of his praetorian guard, could cause more problems...