Mike Carlton
Mike Carlton began his career in journalism at the ABC in 1963. He has been a war correspondent in Vietnam, ABC News bureau chief in Indonesia, a TV news and current affairs reporter, and then talk radio presenter in Sydney and London. A keen student of naval history, his next book, on Australia’s entry into the First World War, will be published this coming Spring.
A magnificent PM - when she drops her guard
Mike Carlton Julia Gillard is so much better when not trying. Stuck behind a lectern, droning away at some boilerplate speech cranked out by her office gnomes, she is cold and remote, more than a bit prissy.
Mike Carlton
Kevin postpones his walk on the water
Mike Carlton Kevin Rudd has abandoned a celebrity tour of Sydney's western suburbs to avoid an embarrassing clash with the Prime Minister's election campaign visit there next week.
Mike Carlton
A tax too lax kills off the Paris option
Mike Carlton Like any hard-working Aussie family, at our place we're a bit disappointed with the mining tax. Sadly, it's not all it was cracked up to be.
Mike Carlton
Get set for a long and grinding road
Mike Carlton The pundits - I suppose that includes me - have been frothing with excitement from the instant the Prime Minister announced she'd send us to the polls on September 14. The clamour was deafening.
Mike Carlton
Galling defiance amid the shame
Mike Carlton Grave of mien, choosing each word with studied care, every inch a prince of Rome, Cardinal George Pell defied the accusers.
Mike Carlton
Just another slip of the Abbott
Mike Carlton Abbott - v.t. To make a wrong, tasteless, controversial or foolish remark, only to retract it the next day.
Mike Carlton
Prissy shrieks of fear and loathing
Mike Carlton Something to know about Alan Jones - the key thing, really - is that he's not all that bright.
Mike Carlton
Oh for a glimpse of the mum I knew
Mike Carlton My mother turns 90 today, but she probably won't know it. Alzheimer's disease and the onset of nameless fears have hollowed out what was a lively and humorous mind.
Mike Carlton
Last tango for critics of gay marriage
Mike Carlton One hundred years ago, prelates and parsons and other assorted killjoys were up in arms against a frightful evil sweeping the Western world.
Sympathy for the devils we know
Mike Carlton We must hope Tony Abbott is lying when he says he will turn back the boats. If he is not lying and actually means it, he is ignorant, foolish and reckless. Let me count the ways.
Mike Carlton
PM must go or the party will be over
Mike Carlton Time to face facts. Time to pull the pin. Julia Gillard is leading the Australian Labor Party towards a catastrophic election defeat, probably the worst in its federal history.
Mike Carlton
The party's over. Rest in despair
Mike Carlton The last time a minority government fell apart like this was in 1941, when Robert Menzies' wartime Tories tore each other to shreds.
Mike Carlton
The failure of Smith's slick political fix
Mike Carlton Time to go. The Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, should resign or be sacked. His handling of the Skype sex scandal at the Australian Defence Force Academy has been botch and bungle from start to...
Mike Carlton
Booming economy is the main event
Mike Carlton Harold Macmillan, the former British prime minister, was once asked what had troubled him most in office.
Mike Carlton
Have a cigar, Tony - the nation fumes at money up in smoke
Mike Carlton Phoney Tony spent a lot of time this week demanding to know which was the real Julia Gillard. We might ask the same of him. No current political leader can chop and change like he does.
Mike Carlton
Why did no one call the cops? Princes of church failed royally
Mike Carlton As this latest tsunami of child sexual abuse engulfs the Catholic Church, a question for the Pope: did anyone ever call the cops? When it became known that a priest had raped or sexually molested a...
