Paul Sheehan

Greens stay silent after abject elections

Paul Sheehan It was surprising how little was made about the meltdown in the Greens vote in statewide local elections held in NSW over the weekend.

Nationals in no rush with a welcome mat for Joyce in NSW

Paul Sheehan OK. A federal election in June. Kevin Rudd against Tony Abbott.

Odds shorten on PM's little mate

Paul Sheehan The media's obsession with Kevin Rudd may be missing the point. Shorten may be the better bet.

Paul Sheehan

Changing captains will not save this side from a proper walloping

Paul Sheehan Julia Gillard should stay where she is. The Labor Party has run out of party tricks. The federal government's perceived unpopularity is a collective effort, an effort that began with Kevin Rudd, who...

Paul Sheehan

Abuse is Treasurer's stock in trade

Paul Sheehan One member of the federal cabinet is the Member for Gutter. Another is the Member for Sewer. One resides permanently in the gutter, the other resides permanently in the sewer.

Paul Sheehan

Rort comes back to bite bottom lines

Paul Sheehan One of the most odious things I've seen from a government agency, real Orwellian double-speak, is in the latest annual report of Waverley Council.

Paul Sheehan

Welcome to Cesspit, another town sucked into the political machine

Paul Sheehan This story concerns events involving the town of Cessnock, though for the purposes of this column it could be called Cesspit.

Paul Sheehan

Union's best-laid plans may come back to bite it - and PM

Paul Sheehan When a group of construction workers held a rally outside the Melbourne headquarters of the building industry watchdog on a winter's day in 2010, they were addressed by a union official, John Setka,...

Paul Sheehan

Firestorm set to ignite when power runs out

Paul Sheehan Any subject, even the humble household energy bill, can become interesting if it turns into a horror story. In 2015, the NSW government will face an election. It will also face an energy shock.

Paul Sheehan

Swinging in breeze over the abyss

Paul Sheehan Julia Gillard was rarely to be seen in the byelection campaign for Melbourne, which culminated on Saturday.

Paul Sheehan

O'Farrell finally pulls trigger on reform

Paul Sheehan In the language of hunting there are two kinds of shot, the ''sight shot'' and the ''sound shot''. Opportunities are often fleeting, so the sound shot is a reaction to noise only.

Paul Sheehan

Judgment day here for Labor's life of shame

Paul Sheehan In the months leading up to the 2007 federal election that ended the Howard era, the NSW central coast was alive with a political blitzkrieg.

Paul Sheehan

Don't blame Gillard, Labor's nadir has been a team effort

Paul Sheehan Whoa. The political storm engulfing Julia Gillard has become hysterical. When the unelected and unaccountable start baying for her blood, the cure is worse than the disease.

Paul Sheehan

Swan's song of praise to be lost amid all the clucking

Paul Sheehan The sound I'm hearing now is the sound of chickens coming home to roost. They are starting to drown out the sound coming from Wayne's World.

Paul Sheehan

Gillard treading water as ALP continues its slippery slide

Paul Sheehan The following text message was allegedly sent by Peter Slipper on February 1 to one of his staffers, James Ashby: ''But you're [sic] call and no hard feelings in that you only want businesslike...

Paul Sheehan

Ruckus puts referendum out of reach

Paul Sheehan At least the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra has finally achieved one constructive thing in its 40 years as a moral eyesore: it helped kill off the proposed amendment to enshrine racial...

Paul Sheehan

Far from an outsider or innocent

Paul Sheehan There were six people in the room. Morris Iemma was there with his top advisers to meet Rob Oakeshott and his key staffer. It was 2007; Iemma was premier of NSW, Oakeshott was an independent state MP.

Paul Sheehan

One small word, one giant leap for NSW

Paul Sheehan I voted for Clover Moore. I marked Clover ''1'' on my ballot paper even though in many ways my local member stands for the micro-managing, grimly earnest, nanny-state, tax-guzzling policies that I...

Paul Sheehan

A diminished Gillard caught in a storm of her own making

Paul Sheehan The most surprising aspect of Julia Gillard's first day of facing parliamentary questioning as the newly elected Prime Minister was her demeanour.

Paul Sheehan

Get your fracking facts right

Paul Sheehan Frack is not a pleasant word. Nor a popular one. It has obvious negative connotations. Even the spelling is contested. The industry that invented and uses the term prefers the spelling ''fracc''.