Michelle Grattan
Michelle Grattan is the political editor of The Age. In 2008, she shared the Melbourne Press Club Lifetime Achievement Award with Laurie Oakes. She edited the books 'Reconciliation' and 'Australian Prime Ministers' (2000), and wrote 'Back on the Wool Track' (2004).
Michelle Grattan
Asian future isn't just about mining
Michelle Grattan If Australians need a prod to think more broadly about the opportunities Asia presents, a sharp one has come with the claim that the new tax on mining super profits yielded no revenue in its initial...
Michelle Grattan
Abbott's casual approach to Ashby issue indicative
Michelle Grattan Tony Abbott has scored a notable own goal by admitting that he's been vigorously defending Mal Brough without having read the court judgment in the Ashby sexual harassment case that strongly...
Michelle Grattan
Surplus swansong leaves Labor in stormy waters
Michelle Grattan Wayne Swan's ditching of the promise the government made in 2010 - is a difficult and humiliating backflip. It is a broken promise of the first order.
Michelle Grattan
Figures frenzy turns spotlight on Canberra's bureaucracy
Michelle Grattan IT WAS a government sting, and then an opposition counter-sting, which left the public servants in the federal Treasury feeling the pain.
Michelle Grattan
Gillard stonewalls opponents
Michelle Grattan It looks like being a happier Christmas for the Prime Minister than either Rudd or Abbott might have expected.
Michelle Grattan
Road map to Asia
Michelle Grattan The government's white paper on the Asian century is released today. We ignore it at our peril.
Rudd talks up more Chinese opportunities
Michelle Grattan Kevin Rudd yesterday predicted the Chinese market would hold 'vast' opportunities for Australia's service industries as the resources boom cooled, in another high-profile appearance by the former...
Michelle Grattan
Is Abbott on thin ice? Absolutely
Michelle Grattan The Opposition Leader's greatest strength may turn into his Achilles heel as the parliamentary term goes into its last year.
Michelle Grattan
Media Paradox: many more voices, much less reporting
Michelle Grattan Economics and readers' consumption habits have made newspapers the headline story.
Abbott's positive hitch
Michelle Grattan The point is Abbott knows that many people feel either that they don't have a handle on him or, worse, that they dislike or even fear him.
Michelle Grattan
From Brough to Palmer, the Queenslanders are at it again
Michelle Grattan What is it about the conservatives in Queensland? They can deliver a heap of seats but they always seem to bring trouble, too, for their Canberra crew.
Michelle Grattan
Tough choices would confront a recycled PM Rudd
Michelle Grattan LET'S cut to the chase. What would political life be like if Kevin Rudd became PM again? Would there be a quick election? What would happen to the present frontbench? Would the carbon tax be...
Michelle Grattan
Playing field tilts in Labor's favour
Michelle Grattan Two of the Treasurer's three special targets, Palmer and Andrew Forrest, are canvassing High Court actions against the government's two big taxes.
Swan slips up on tax guarantee
Michelle Grattan Wayne Swan appeared to give a guarantee that small business would get its company tax cut regardless of what happened to the cut for larger businesses - but later his office said he had been talking...
Michelle Grattan
PM must keep up strike rate
Michelle Grattan A defeat in tomorrow's Queensland state election will further trash the Labor brand, writes Michelle Grattan.
Michelle Grattan
The more things change ...
Michelle Grattan The balance at COAG has tipped in favour of the conservatives, posing a challenge for Gillard, but the tensions of federalism always remain the same.
Michelle Grattan
Clive Palmer and the politics of pot shots
Michelle Grattan Mining magnate Clive Palmer's announcement that he will seek Liberal National party preselection to run against Swan is the equivalent of the loaded gun at the Treasurer's head.
Workmanlike Abbott presents a small target
Michelle Grattan Tony Abbott's budget reply was little more than workmanlike.
Michelle Grattan
Leaders preach to perceived choirs
Michelle Grattan The mining billionaires have become used to being the butt of attacks by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan.
Michelle Grattan
Labor facing battle to save the furniture
Michelle Grattan Behind the horror scenes, the ALP must now switch to election survival mode.
