Industrial lite on the hill

Michael Gordon Tony Abbott has produced a minimalist industrial relations policy with a bold objective - to eliminate what he considers the biggest threat to a Coalition victory in September.

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Michael Gordon

The remaking of Tony Abbott: a seven-month Liberal project

Michael Gordon Tony Abbott gave voters a glimpse of a very different prime ministership when he stepped up to the podium at the National Press Club.

Michael Gordon

Time for a new script after a year of tears and smears

Michael Gordon As morality tales go, they don't get much better, or shabbier, than the saga of how Peter Slipper came to, and was removed from, the most prestigious office in the national Parliament.

Michael Gordon

Team Legal goes in to bat for desperate Sri Lankans

Michael Gordon Here's a poser to start a dinner table conversation: Name one Australian institution that has emerged from a year of dismal politics, dashed expectations and revelations of systemic failure with its...

Michael Gordon

The real lesson to be learnt from Labor's history wars

Michael Gordon Maxine McKew's blistering critique of Julia Gillard in her new book, Tales from the Political Trenches, invites three questions: Why did she feel compelled to write it? Is it accurate? And, most...

Michael Gordon

The trouble with Labor's new-look Nauru solution

Michael Gordon If the comparison is with the early days of John Howard's Pacific Solution, the transfer of the first plane-load of asylum seekers to Nauru yesterday was a qualified success.

Michael Gordon

Time to stop finger-pointing and start being constructive

Michael Gordon It's time Tony Abbott made it possible for Julia Gillard to implement policies to prevent asylum-seeker tragedies.

Michael Gordon

Washer's pain in the pursuit of a solution

Michael Gordon Mal Washer's emotional torment is the backstory to a paralysed Parliament.

Michael Gordon

Like it or not, Indonesia seems part of a solution

Michael Gordon Many poor Indonesian fisherman are serving mandatory five-year jail terms in Australia, while most of the smuggler kingpins get off the boats before they're intercepted.

Michael Gordon

Abbott rejects no-lose deal

Michael Gordon A new political year has begun, but the landscape is unchanged.

Michael Gordon

A change of tide, but boats squabbling hits a low ebb

Michael Gordon You may not have noticed it, but there has been a tactical shift in the long-running asylum seeker blame game between Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard.