Tony Wright
Tony Wright is the National Affairs Editor of The Age. He has been based in the Canberra Press Gallery for 20 years, working for The Canberra Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Bulletin before joining The Age in 2007. He has written two plays and two best-selling books, was named Magazine Feature Writer of the Year twice, has won several UN Media Peace Prizes and has been a Walkley Awards finalist five times.
Something has been broken at the heart of politics
Tony Wright Late last month, a woman stood alone on the forecourt of Canberra's Parliament House, inhaling gulps of cigarette smoke. ''All very nice,'' she said. ''Too late. Tomorrow it'll be wrapping chips.''
Political thriller be damned, Bowen's going to save Labor instead
Tony Wright Chris Bowen's publishers, you'd imagine, are hoping he can write better than he can count. Finding himself with unexpected time on his hands over the past weeks, Bowen has been busily scribbling a...
Crean and punishment: from minister to sacrificial goat
Tony Wright Simon Crean believed the Labor Party needed something approaching a bomb to blow a hole in its thin facade as a competitive political outfit.
Prepare ye the way to a northern promised land
Tony Wright The Abbott Liberal Party's draft plan to settle and develop Australia north of the Tropic of Capricorn is a very long way from being the most remarkable scheme for a northern promised land.
Tony Wright
From the icy depths, Planet Kevin serves up revenge
Tony Wright The mining tax and its disappearing benefits are as confusing as the sports doping saga.
Pregnant pause leads into day of reckoning
Tony Wright JULIA GILLARD has consigned Australians to something approaching a national pregnancy.
Tony Wright
MPs' day of grieving: for asylum seekers lost and a Labor marriage gone cold
Tony Wright It was as awkward as an anniversary dinner for a marriage gone cold; everyone attempting desperate pleasantries until Uncle Ernie swerves two swigs over his limit and decides it's time to be frank.
The best entitlement of all - for a man who knows the system
Tony Wright He is considered by political watchers to be tricky as a ferret and slick as a weasel - except when he needed to make a quick getaway from a Parliament House lavatory some years ago.
Tony Wright
Daylight robery as grand new Speaker sinks the slipper
Tony Wright The Honourable Peter Slipper seemed awfully keen to impress as he swept to the majesty of his new throne as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Tony Wright
And Julia said. . .
Tony Wright 'The real Julia'? Tony Wright disects the PM's comments to see what she really means.
Tony Wright
Run on baseball bats as Labor descends into viciousness
Tony Wright Just before boarding his jet, Rudd employed his dirtiest tactic. 'People power' he cried.
Tony Wright
I'm Kevin and I'm here to help Julia
Tony Wright Kevin Rudd took not a single question as he stood before the media to declare he accepted without rancour the Labor caucus's judgment of him, more than two-thirds of which rejected his wild hope of...
Tony Wright
Losers turn on Bligh, who fires a final shot
Tony Wright The blame game was sweeping Qld's Labor Party even before the poll that ripped out its heart.
Tony Wright
Keep on digging, PM, even if the hole's too big
Tony Wright There's nothing quite like a trip to Gallipoli to focus the mind on lost causes.
Tony Wright
Craig's list: the greatest conspiracy of them all
Tony Wright If you were to believe him, Craig Thomson is the victim of the greatest conspiracy in modern Australian public life.
Tony Wright
Raising a glass while they can
Tony Wright Our leaders are holding traditional end-of-year drinks for the press gallery, but only a fool would predict who might be throwing the parties next year.
Tony Wright
Time for a bit of selective recall
Tony Wright It ought to take no more than a morning and lunch for Labor's review committee to work out what went wrong in the election campaign, but memories can play tricks.
Tony Wright
Hey, it's good to be monarch
Tony Wright The new Speaker will be the one who gets to say, ''Off with his head!'' if the Fourth Estate starts getting too pesky after Parliament returns.
Goanna Tracks
Sins of the state system
Tony Wright Don't live in New South Wales or Queensland? Then don't expect any love and attention from our leaders.
