Miserable ghost Malcolm Turnbull’s ill-timed bigger picture
Australia is well ahead of most of the West in suppressing coronavirus. Out of a population of 25 million Australia…
Tim Brooke-Taylor: not just a Goodie
When I heard this morning that Tim-Brooke Taylor had been taken by the despicable coronavirus, I could have been knocked…
George Pell remains a guilty man
Today, legal justice has been thankfully, belatedly, served. Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on all counts was quashed unanimously by the…
Dodgy Dan’s short sainthoood
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has been getting a lot of brownie points, first for his role in coordinating responses to…
Send Xi the reparations bill
China must be made to cough up for the coronavirus
Will Mr Invisible destroy the Morrison government?
What a shemozzle. A week after the mad uncle, Barnaby Joyce, tilted unsuccessfully to snatch the National party leadership back…
Mad Uncle Barnaby stays in the attic
Politics is the natural stage for egotists, narcissists and attention-seekers. So it was no surprise today to see Barnaby Joyce,…
Scott Morrison stopped the boats. If he wants to seize back the political agenda, he can stop the rorts
So Bridget McKenzie has bitten the dust. Finally, and not because of the flagrant pork-barrelling she and her office were…
Why I’m over Australia Day
So Australia Day has come and gone for another year. Yet again we had the Lay On the Guilt With…
Blunderbuss Bridget’s boondoggle blasts back
Once the Bridget McKenzie grant approval story broke a week ago, it was never going to go away. The revelation…
Sports Rorts revisited: Bridget’s big boo-boo
In 1996, I was interim chief of staff to new health minister, Michael Wooldridge. I occupied a small room next…
We need a natural disaster supremo – and Tony Abbott’s the man for the job
As catastrophic bushfires continue to rage across south-eastern Australia, as property continues to burn, human and animal lives continue to…
Stuff the diversity warriors and say it loud, say it proud: Merry Christmas!
An outfit called the Diversity Council claims to be the place to go for advice on diversity and inclusion in…
Beijing Bob bangs the wrong drum?
On Monday, ABC’s panel programme The Drum discussed Australia’s complicated relationship with China, and the Chinese Communist Party’s government decision…
Winnie, you and your Peking party panjandrums can’t purge our pols
It seems that two prominent Liberal MPs, James Paterson and Andrew Hastie, have blotted their copybooks with the panda panjandrums…
John Howard’s one big blunder: persuading Malcolm Turnbull to stay
John Howard is a great Australian and a great Liberal. Over the 75 years if its existence, only two figures…
What the world needs now is love, sweet love: ScoMo
In a speech to the Hillsong church in Sydney on Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison riffed intriguingly on the power…
G’day Albo, mate. Welcome to Hell
When a loved one dies, the real grieving is often postponed. The senses numb the immediate shock, helping the bereaved…
Cassidy’s cheerio reveals the groupthink luvvieland that is the ABC’s Insiders
For political groupies, Barrie Cassidy’s last episode of Insiders on the ABC was reason to look both backwards and forwards.…
Kristina Keneally: Albo’s golden girl – or a golden goose?
The week just past in politics, the week to come: Rarely in federal politics has there been as meteoric rise…
The election is over; the future beckons
The week in politics, the week to come. The theme for this election-period weekly column has been Backwards and Forwards.…
Tony Abbott: with thanks to the fallen warrior
Last night former prime minister Tony Abbott succumbed to a perfect political storm: a climate zealot candidate dressed up as…
Mr Shorten, we knew Bob Hawke…
It didn’t take long, did it? After yesterday likening himself to Gough Whitlam, this morning Bill Shorten used Labor’s greatest…
Israel Folau is a bloody footballer, not St Thomas More
When I was on Sky’s The Front Page programme the other night the topic of Israel Folau and his religious…
We don’t want Shorten to succeed, but Liberals to act like Liberals
The week in politics, the week to come: The final week of this meandering election campaign is upon us. The…
