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Phillip Coorey

Phillip Coorey

Financial Review

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This election feels like it’s been run already

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are both fighting precedent this election, but the hurdles the opposition leader faces are more formidable.

28.03.2025 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Labor’s environmental promise sleeps with the fishes

Labor went to the last election talking big on the environment, but political reality has got in the way.

27.03.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

For the party of lower taxes, this is an odd hill to die on

It’s a lot harder to run a campaign promising to repeal an already legislated tax cut than oppose the other side’s idea.

26.03.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

The budget is in ‘better nick’ than in 2022, but that’s not the point.

With Anthony Albanese to call the election as early as Friday, this is a grim set of numbers that have been tarted up with a tax cut and some upbeat...

26.03.2025 30

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Dark winter looms without a plan to get the budget in shape

Affordability used to matter once but not so much in the post-COVID era, and the nation seems to have lost its fear of debt and deficit.

20.03.2025 9

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Labor’s Dutton plan paying dividends but can it be sustained

In the Coalition’s favour is the collapsing weight of expectation that was more a hindrance than a help.

16.03.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

As Dutton falters, Labor polishes discarded budget

The government is confident Peter Dutton has started to unravel as it prepares to hand down a budget it initially judged was not in its best interest.

13.03.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Jim wins the battle of Queensland as Dutton lies low

Politicians of all stripes have cashed in on the extreme weather in the northern state, but the treasurer was the standout.

11.03.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Albanese can’t afford to lose anywhere. WA just gave him hope

The state election result shows the Labor brand is still in good shape in the west. Anthony Albanese will be hoping some of the gloss shines his way.

09.03.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Election date is now caught in the eye of the storm

Cyclone Alfred threatens to inject more uncertainty into a contest, the outcome of which is already impossible to predict.

06.03.2025 2

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Alfred the one thing neither Albanese nor Dutton can control

The prime minister claims he’s not thinking about the election as the tropical cyclone threatens his best-laid plans.

06.03.2025 20

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Labor wants to define Dutton before he does it himself

Raising the share allegations is not to resolve them one way or another, but to throw mud on the cusp of an election in the hope people believe the...

27.02.2025 2

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Timing of health insurance rise another sign an election is nigh

In the current environment, no such proclamation would be complete without the counterfactual, otherwise known as Peter Dutton.

26.02.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Bulk billing pledge is Mediscare with an $8.5b price tag

The new spending, alongside $600 million to boost the supply of nurses and general practice doctors, will be added to the nation’s burgeoning debt...

23.02.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Trumpet of Patriots a reminder that donation laws target Clive not teals

Those vowing to dismantle the laws in the event of a hung parliament should be careful what they wish for because the billionaire might just change...

20.02.2025 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

RBA opens a window for the PM, but will he take the chance?

Anthony Albanese may seek to capitalise on Tuesday’s rate cut with a March 29 election, but he could also decide that it is not enough to sway voters.

18.02.2025 4

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Senate will be a problem for Dutton if he wins

Forget the hung parliament, a Coalition government’s biggest obstacle will be the in the upper house.

13.02.2025 4

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Albanese is right to keep his powder dry when it comes to Trump

There’s a reason Albanese won’t comment on every outburst of Donald Trump. He needs to keep his powder dry.

11.02.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Labor’s worst fears confirmed, Greens get another reality check

If the Werribee swing was replicated uniformly in Victoria at the federal election, Labor would lose about 11 seats.

09.02.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

A growing weight of expectation is not what Dutton needs

The sentiment that the Coalition is a shoo-in to form the next government is in need of a reality check.

06.02.2025 6

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Peter Dutton is not Donald Trump. He can’t afford to be

The opposition leader’s role in delivering marriage equality should be a reminder that he is not an arch-conservative, as a growing narrative by his...

30.01.2025 2

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Labor ready for a rate cut to break poll deadlock

A February rate cut could mean an April election. Otherwise, it’s the Hail Mary option of another budget and a May poll.

29.01.2025 20

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

PM promises the voters his full attention, but are they listening?

The PM tacitly conceded the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum had been a major blunder.

24.01.2025 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Three-year terms keep us stuck in short-term thinking

As campaigning starts earlier each election, politics becomes overtly tactical, the public service enters zombie mode and business watches on...

24.01.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Dutton makes a pitch for a values-based election victory

Peter Dutton has observed seven prime ministers in his 23-years in politics, but John Howard is clearly the greatest influence.

12.01.2025 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Dutton not match fit after dodging the pack, or so Labor hopes

When the opposition leader has made a foray into policy detail, he’s found himself on the sticky paper.

20.12.2024 7

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Early election or not? MYEFO keeps us guessing

We enter the Christmas break none the wiser whether the government will hand down another budget before going to the polls.

18.12.2024 4

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Albanese looked like he was playing catch-up because he was

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.

12.12.2024 4

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Forget the logistics, Dutton is selling a concept

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...

12.12.2024 6

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

‘Doing our best’ to fight antisemitism? Far from it

In Victoria, Jews live in a climate of fear because next to nothing has been done to stop the attacks against them.

06.12.2024 9

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Teals aren’t letting the Liberals whitewash them as Greens

Allegra Spender’s push to change the definition of small business complicates the Coalition’s attempts to pigeonhole the independents as lefties.

05.12.2024 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Chalmers greenlights more spending - but only until the election

After three years of putting little emphasis on the private sector, Labor is now spruiking the value of a business-led recovery.

04.12.2024 2

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Like Morrison, Albanese’s hoping for a summer of love

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...

28.11.2024 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Albanese weighed down abroad by parlous state of world

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 coming...

21.11.2024 2

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Labor’s plight is not unique but the solution remains elusive

As each month passes without noticeable improvement in the cost of living, it’s all starting to appear rather fraught for the government.

17.11.2024 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Playing flick the ambassador is an old diplomatic game

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.

14.11.2024 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Why we may not see another budget before the election

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.

08.11.2024 20

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Inflation kills incumbents. Not that Labor needed a reminder

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?’, and...

08.11.2024 4

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Unlike Albanese, RBA not declaring mission accomplished on inflation

When it comes to inflation, we are at the point where spin is clashing with substance., writes Phillip Coorey.

05.11.2024 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

PM’s plan to spend Labor’s way out of trouble

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.

04.11.2024 8

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Without trust, our institutions lose authority. Just ask Trump

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.

31.10.2024 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Qantas upgrades leave PM exposed at the worst possible time

Ultimately, it adds up to another lost week for a government already running out of time to sell its message.

28.10.2024 4

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Claims Labor did well in Qld is like Poms saying they won the Ashes

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...

27.10.2024 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Dutton has tales to tell, but no log cabin story

For a bloke who has been in parliament for 23 years, much about the Liberal opposition leader remains unknown to the broader electorate.

24.10.2024 5

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

In a sea of volatility, the ACT is Labor’s ‘forever government’

Labor has held power in the territory for 23 years. The Liberals hope that will prove to be enough in this weekend’s election.

17.10.2024 4

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Is this the PM’s ‘Hawaii moment’?

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.

16.10.2024 10

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Desperate Labor resorts to the ‘wedgislation’ it used to mock

This government is still in its first term yet is deploying end-of-days tactics – an observation not lost in an anxious backbench.

10.10.2024 4

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Will Steven Miles be Albanese’s sacrificial anode? Labor hopes so

Feds beware: Miles has shamelessly thrown money at the cost of living and no-one has thanked him for it.

29.09.2024 5

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

Resorting to riddles on negative gearing treats voters as mugs

This week showed the government’s performance remains far from polished when events wander off script.

26.09.2024 4

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey

‘Airbus Albo’ grounded as domestic struggles take over

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...

19.09.2024 3

Financial Review

Phillip Coorey