Anxious government ‘floods the zone’ with defence dollars for Trump

The government is anxious to impress that Australia is doing more on defence than spending 2 per cent of GDP, ahead of a possible meeting with the US...

previous day 10

Phillip Coorey

Ley’s task has never been simpler – or harder to achieve

The Liberal Party has a simple objective but a difficult task. Attract more younger voters while retaining the traditional base.

12.09.2025 9

Phillip Coorey

Sussan Ley would rather die on her feet than live on her knees

Whether it’s staring down the Nationals or taking on Jacinta Price, the opposition leader has demonstrated that she’s not going to die wondering.

12.09.2025 20

Phillip Coorey

Indian community and internal politics an explosive mix for Ley

Whether it’s stubborn pride, a wish to destabilise Sussan Ley or both, the row started by Jacinta Price is being duly noted within ethnic communities.

08.09.2025 9

Phillip Coorey

Timid or savvy politics? The reasons behind the shift on super tax

The prime minister is serious when he says he wants this year to be one of delivering on promises to generate voter goodwill for more contentious...

06.09.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

When it comes to EVs, climate target anxiety outweighs budget anxiety

Despite the clear agreement from the economic roundtable about getting on with the road user charge, the language from Canberra remains one of...

04.09.2025 4

Phillip Coorey

Why middle-class Australians are joining March for Australia rallies

Not everyone who joined the Sydney Harbour Bridge protest supported Hamas, just as most people who protested against high immigration on Sunday were...

01.09.2025 8

Phillip Coorey

For the Coalition, it’s back to ground zero on net zero

The party has wound back the clock to where the Nationals and the conservatives are simply not going to toe the line.

28.08.2025 4

Phillip Coorey

PM had no choice but to act after explosive Iran revelations

After years of rejecting overtures to sever ties with Iran, the government was left with no other option.

27.08.2025 5

Phillip Coorey

Another Coalition climate explosion appears inevitable

Each time Barnaby Joyce demands an end to the pursuit of net zero, most voters hear a different message. Climate change denial.

25.08.2025 6

Phillip Coorey

Budget repair a goodwill gesture for higher taxes

The government has realised it would be unfair and unwise to hike taxes while doing nothing to rein in spending.

22.08.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

Hosting COP next year could be a case of be careful what you wish for

It seemed like a good idea from the opposition when Albanese was leading it, but it’s now a more delicate proposition.

15.08.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

Albanese won’t bring peace to Gaza, but he’s pacified the ALP

The recognition of Palestine may not change anything in the Middle East, but it does prevent a fracture in Labor’s unity.

11.08.2025 2

Phillip Coorey

Sitting on the fence on WFH won’t do much for productivity

Questioning work from home is not only politically taboo, it has become a wedge, regardless of the consequences.

07.08.2025 4

Phillip Coorey

On Palestine, Labor recognises most voters just want the war to stop

Anthony Albanese’s position on the Middle East taps into the same middle-Australia sentiment that delivered Labor an overwhelming victory on May 3.

31.07.2025 9

Phillip Coorey

Memo to Nats: You can’t abolish net zero if you can’t form government

Sussan Ley had a process to manage the Coalition’s climate policy. The mad rush by Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack to abandon it undoes all that.

25.07.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

Tasmania election shows Libs have a pulse but that’s it

After the fourth snap election in seven years, and almost the same result as last time, Tasmanians may well be asking: what was that all about?

20.07.2025 4

Phillip Coorey

Tax may test Albanese and Chalmers’ relationship at roundtable

The prime minister speaks about Labor being the party of aspiration, but the treasurer is more of a redistributor of wealth than a creator.

17.07.2025 3

Phillip Coorey

Ken Henry’s not calm, he’s seething. And with good reason

For a bloke whose every utterance on tax is regarded as holy writ, Ken Henry is equally dismissed by many of those same economic adherents as “a...

16.07.2025 2

Phillip Coorey

Sydney-centric government oblivious to SA climate catastrophe

The government wants to host the 2026 COP summit in Adelaide. It should pay attention to the climate disaster unfolding there now.

03.07.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

Talk of tax is starting to consume Jim Chalmers’ reform summit

The propensity to chase revenue rather than rein in spending, or at least aim for a mixture of both, is beginning to loom large over the August...

26.06.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

Sussan Ley takes on the old guard, not for the first time in her life

The opposition leader, as her colleagues are starting to discover, can handle herself.

25.06.2025 4

Phillip Coorey

Meeting Trump has become a box Albanese needs to tick

There’s a growing sense of urgency within government about the need to secure a meeting with the US president.

20.06.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

PM can’t be seen to be begging when it comes to Trump

Given the fallout from the G7 snub, a second in as many weeks would be disastrous.

18.06.2025 5

Phillip Coorey

He came, he saw, but he had no meeting. What now for AUKUS and trade?

Anthony Albanese is not to blame for Donald Trump’s early departure, but he’ll return home with nothing to report.

17.06.2025 7

Phillip Coorey

PM won’t get raucous over AUKUS, however hard he’s pushed

Anthony Albanese’s approach with US President Donald Trump is to neither beg nor be bullied.

12.06.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

Business aims for the ‘achievable’ at productivity summit

Business groups accept wholesale tax reform is too much to expect from the August productivity conference.

11.06.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

Business will go to productivity summit with eyes wide open

After being burnt by the Jobs and Skills Summit in 2022, business will want more from Anthony Albanese’s August productivity jamboree.

10.06.2025 3

Phillip Coorey

Albanese has one weapon in tariff talks: the periodic table

Convincing Trump that Australia can guarantee a reliable supply of critical minerals remains Albanese’s best option of securing a tariff exemption.

08.06.2025 20

Phillip Coorey

Look at what governments do on super, not what they say

In isolation, Labor’s proposed new Division 296 tax on superannuation balances above $3 million is not the end of the world. But it’s not an...

05.06.2025 8

Phillip Coorey

Ley might not save the Liberal Party, but she won’t die wondering

Sussan Ley speaks like someone reading a children’s book. Behind the scenes, she’s as ruthless as Thatcher.

28.05.2025 7

Phillip Coorey

Coalition or no Coalition, Libs should do a deal on environment laws

Sussan Ley had yet to bury her dead mother when the Nationals decided to become the Prince Harry of politics.

22.05.2025 5

Phillip Coorey

After three wobbly years, Albanese’s second term is taking off

The stack of new Labor MPs is reminiscent of the “class of 96”, which acted as John Howard’s praetorian guard for many years.

15.05.2025 2

Phillip Coorey

Ley can’t win in 2028 but maybe she can carve a competitive Coalition

Sussan Ley’s challenge is so onerous that just making it to the next election will be achievement enough.

14.05.2025 20

Phillip Coorey

Canavan’s net zero crusade spawns problem for Liberals

Greater influence for the Nationals and a city rout don’t augur well for anyone trying to move what is left of the Liberal Party back to the centre.

12.05.2025 7

Phillip Coorey

How Albanese’s winning game put his opponents to the sword

For 20 years, the establishment has wondered who would be the next John Howard. It might have been looking at the wrong party.

09.05.2025 20

Phillip Coorey

Albanese makes history, the Liberals have no soul to search

This win is so emphatic, Labor is virtually guaranteed a third term. There is nothing anywhere for the Liberal Party to hold on to as encouraging.

03.05.2025 30

Phillip Coorey

Campaigns always matter, but this one more than most

Peter Dutton has effectively conceded his campaign was a shocker.

01.05.2025 4

Phillip Coorey

This time, a hung parliament is unlikely to be as bad

If Labor finishes with a seat count a handful shy of the absolute minimum of 75 seats, as polls indicate is a distinct possibility, there will be no...

01.05.2025 6

Phillip Coorey

Danger for Labor is undecided voters tuning in to Dutton for last 10 days

A late surge by the Coalition may be enough to deny Anthony Albanese majority government.

23.04.2025 6

Phillip Coorey

Dutton decides it’s time to drop a big rock in the pond

Dutton’s decision to launch his campaign the same day as Labor was strange. Every day he and Albanese neutralise each other, Albanese wins, write...

14.04.2025 20

Phillip Coorey

Trump is now the third candidate. That’s good news for the PM

Incumbency, not so long ago deemed a curse in global politics, is suddenly an advantage.

12.04.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

Albanese cruises as budget discipline barely rates with voters

“Cuts” is a dirty word during an election campaign. But its increasing resonance underscores a scant regard for the need to address debt and deficit.

10.04.2025 4

Phillip Coorey

Work from home fiasco risks pleasing no one

Peter Dutton’s best hope is that voters give him points for admitting he overreached.

06.04.2025 10

Phillip Coorey

How Labor is running rings around the Coalition with base politics

Peter Dutton needs people around him to start getting their hands dirty as the government makes it all about him.

03.04.2025 8

Phillip Coorey

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 6

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

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

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

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

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Anxious government ‘floods the zone’ with defence dollars for Trump

Phillip Coorey

Ley’s task has never been simpler – or harder to achieve

Phillip Coorey

Sussan Ley would rather die on her feet than live on her knees

Phillip Coorey

Indian community and internal politics an explosive mix for Ley

Phillip Coorey

Timid or savvy politics? The reasons behind the shift on super tax

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When it comes to EVs, climate target anxiety outweighs budget anxiety

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Phillip Coorey

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Another Coalition climate explosion appears inevitable

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Budget repair a goodwill gesture for higher taxes

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Hosting COP next year could be a case of be careful what you wish for

Phillip Coorey

Albanese won’t bring peace to Gaza, but he’s pacified the ALP

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Sitting on the fence on WFH won’t do much for productivity

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On Palestine, Labor recognises most voters just want the war to stop

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Memo to Nats: You can’t abolish net zero if you can’t form government

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Tasmania election shows Libs have a pulse but that’s it

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Sydney-centric government oblivious to SA climate catastrophe

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Talk of tax is starting to consume Jim Chalmers’ reform summit

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Sussan Ley takes on the old guard, not for the first time in her life

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Meeting Trump has become a box Albanese needs to tick

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PM can’t be seen to be begging when it comes to Trump

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He came, he saw, but he had no meeting. What now for AUKUS and trade?

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PM won’t get raucous over AUKUS, however hard he’s pushed

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Business aims for the ‘achievable’ at productivity summit

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Business will go to productivity summit with eyes wide open

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Albanese has one weapon in tariff talks: the periodic table

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Look at what governments do on super, not what they say

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Ley might not save the Liberal Party, but she won’t die wondering

Phillip Coorey

Coalition or no Coalition, Libs should do a deal on environment laws

Phillip Coorey

After three wobbly years, Albanese’s second term is taking off

Phillip Coorey

Ley can’t win in 2028 but maybe she can carve a competitive Coalition

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Canavan’s net zero crusade spawns problem for Liberals

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How Albanese’s winning game put his opponents to the sword

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Albanese makes history, the Liberals have no soul to search

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Campaigns always matter, but this one more than most

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