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Alexandra Smith

Alexandra Smith

WA Today

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To be a political cleanskin, here’s a tip: Abstain from wineries

To be a political cleanskin, here’s a tip: Abstain from wineries

Both sides of politics have skeletons in the wine cellar. Now the door is being flung open.

26.02.2025 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

For jaded rail commuters, this is a city circle of misery

Like plenty of anxious parents, I spent the summer holidays prepping my daughter for her public transport commute to her new high school several...

20.02.2025 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

The $4500 sticking point that sent Sydney trains into chaos

The $4500 sticking point that sent Sydney trains into chaos

After months of stalled negotiations, on Thursday rail union bosses were convinced a deal was almost done. By Friday morning, the system was in...

14.02.2025 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Words of harm from a place of care add chilling new dimension to wave of hate

Words of harm from a place of care add chilling new dimension to wave of hate

That anyone could use public healthcare as a weapon of hate is a most distressing thought. But we’ve been compelled to consider that reality.

12.02.2025 5

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Unforced errors like Haylen’s are signs of hubris. Voters will have taken note

Jo Haylen’s unauthorised use of a government car and driver begs the question: has the Minns government grown too comfortable with the trappings of...

05.02.2025 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Why Haylen had to go – and why the premier resisted pushing her

Premier Chris Minns is only changing the rules for parliamentary drivers because Jo Haylen was caught out. The government has better things to do with...

04.02.2025 8

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Why Haylen has to go – and the premier is having so much trouble pushing her

Premier Chris Minns is only changing the rules for parliamentary drivers because Jo Haylen was caught out. The government has better things to do with...

04.02.2025 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Premier’s leadership is strong, but he will need to find another gear to reassure Jewish community

Premier Chris Minns and NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb says covert investigations were crucial in the latest escalation of antisemitism attacks.

30.01.2025 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Sydney can shake off its summer of bad news. Albanese may not be so lucky

Chris Minns is two years away from an election, so he can ride out these bad times, but an angry, scared Sydney is a big risk for Anthony Albanese.

29.01.2025 5

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

The U-turn on Sydney’s housing crisis no one saw coming

As far as new year’s resolutions went, no one saw this coming. Could it be that in 2025, an opposition party in NSW takes the unprecedented step of...

08.01.2025 5

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

How a 45-year-old act is holding Sydney hostage on housing reform

03.01.2025 4

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

The PM has been shown how to respond to antisemitism, but not by Peter Dutton

Here is a tale of two Labor leaders. On Friday night, Premier Chris Minns was at Sydney’s Central Synagogue, supporting a community stunned by a...

11.12.2024 8

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

A year ago it was Minns’ mini-city, but was he backing the wrong horse?

NSW Labor (and plenty of trainspotters) celebrated some highs in 2024, largely thanks to the government having the good fortune of being able to...

04.12.2024 3

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

After a trial that pleased no one, NSW’s biggest gambling loser is clear

To buy itself more time and escape the wrath – and campaigning prowess – of the state’s powerful clubs and pubs ahead of last year’s election, NSW...

03.12.2024 3

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

He almost became PM, now Latham’s the rank outsider who can’t stop spewing bile

The one-time federal Labor leader Mark Latham – who has a history of defecting to political parties willing to take him – finished the 2024...

28.11.2024 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

This shutdown will turn Pearl Jam into traffic jam, and commuters will play the blame game

The one-time Liberal transport minister David Elliott used to boast about his collegial relationship with the all-powerful Rail, Tram and Bus...

21.11.2024 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Who cares? Voters will if NSW nurses start quitting state of origin

Colette Duff is angry and ready to quit her job. Duff, a registered nurse with 30 years of experience, works in the emergency department of...

14.11.2024 4

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

I loathe private health insurance. Do I have it? Of course

It is easy to begrudge private health insurance. It is even easier to begrudge private health insurers. They are the smaller cousins to the big...

30.10.2024 2

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Damaged Liberals can’t blame Scott Morrison for latest teal trouncing

On Sydney’s insular peninsula, which has always voted blue except for a dalliance with an independent in 2005, the NSW Liberals were not prepared...

23.10.2024 7

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Thorpey, a bishop, sex workers and a grieving mum walk into the premier’s office. It’s no joke

For a bill that was left languishing in NSW parliament for more than a year, it moved with incredible pace once an Olympic swimming great, a...

17.10.2024 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Can someone fix the diabolical rental market before I evict my kids?

Like most parents with young kids, I assume mine will live with us forever. Or at least far longer than most of my generation stayed at home. It...

09.10.2024 2

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

When life gives you Libertarians, you build a lemonade stand (with or without permission)

The new kid on the conservative block reckons it has the answer to the state’s crippling housing crisis. Approve every development application...

18.09.2024 2

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

The NSW Liberals have many problems but they are finally fixing one

The looming byelections in Epping, Hornsby and Pittwater are somewhat unusual for the NSW Liberals. Not because two of the seats were left empty by...

12.09.2024 8

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

The PM is sigma, but his social media ban belongs in the skibidi toilet

Of course Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was right when he declared “parents are worried sick” about social media. As a mother of an almost...

11.09.2024 3

WA Today

Alexandra Smith

The PM is sigma, but his social media ban belongs in the skibidi toilet

Of course Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was right when he declared “parents are worried sick” about social media. As a mother of an almost...

11.09.2024 2

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

The PM is sigma, but his social media ban belongs in the skibidi toilet

Of course Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was right when he declared “parents are worried sick” about social media. As a mother of an almost...

11.09.2024 3

The Age

Alexandra Smith

The PM is sigma, but his social media ban belongs in the skibidi toilet

Of course Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was right when he declared “parents are worried sick” about social media. As a mother of an almost...

11.09.2024 6

Brisbane Times

Alexandra Smith

The Libs had a man with a plan to fix their problems. If only they’d told him

If we needed a further reminder of the Liberals’ woeful ability to carry out basic admin critical to the party’s functions, it was on full display...

04.09.2024 5

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

I always knew Sydney school parents had lost their minds. Now I have proof

If we ever needed a reminder of the weird world that is Sydney schooling, it was the spectacle of parents hacking the NSW Department of Education’s...

28.08.2024 3

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

My night out with the transport minister: 12km, three bars, one new metro line

23.08.2024 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

How ‘metro mania’ could derail the housing crisis

From little kids waving cardboard signs to trainspotters, long-suffering commuters and people – like me – who simply love being part of history:...

21.08.2024 2

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Liberals’ spectacular council failure could not have been more disastrous

The catastrophic administrative bungle that has plunged the NSW Liberals into chaos will have long-lasting impacts for a party that needs to...

15.08.2024 3

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Forget the metro delay, why is my mother of a train trip not getting faster?

Sydney has become accustomed to the eternal wait for trains. Whether it’s the go-slow network every time heavy rain hits the city or missed...

14.08.2024 2

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

Webb has many enemies and they will not stop until they topple her

When a senior public servant is lurching from controversy to controversy, any misstep can explode into a full-blown crisis. NSW Police Commissioner...

08.08.2024 10

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith

The crazy WFH experiment is over. Water coolers are the biggest winners

It was a blunt and unexpected message from NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns. Public servants, who make up the biggest workforce in the country, are to...

07.08.2024 2

The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexandra Smith