Phillip Coorey
Phillip Coorey joined the Sydney Morning Herald in 2005 and is the paper's Chief Political Correspondent, based in Canberra. Previously he was the Political Editor for Adelaide's The Advertiser. He has been in the Canberrra Press Gallery since 1998, except for 2003 and 2004 when he was the New York correspondent for News Ltd.
Phillip Coorey
Holed by carbon tax, good ship Gillard limps towards poll iceberg
Phillip Coorey THE Gillard government resembles a dinghy being dragged along the bottom of the sea. It bounces up and down as it is being pulled along, but ultimately, it is sunk.
Phillip Coorey
Gillard has faith in poll resurrection
Phillip Coorey Julia Gillard is not one to bemoan her lot publicly, nor is she prone to reacting to the potshots her detractors take at her personal life.
Phillip Coorey
Rushing back to the polls fraught with danger for Abbott
Phillip Coorey Ask the Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, whether he would like another election any time soon and the answer would have to be ''no''.
Phillip Coorey
Abbott campaign takes spousal support to a new level
Phillip Coorey The perception that Tony Abbott has a problem with women has continued to grow, leading to today's nuclear option.
Phillip Coorey
Gillard on the front foot, lurches to right, but team Rudd not beaten
Phillip Coorey Kevin Rudd's dying words as prime minister were that he would never lurch to the right on asylum seekers, as was demanded of him as a condition of keeping his job.
Phillip Coorey
Abrasive Newman gives Labor a lift
Phillip Coorey Fancy an elected leader likening people's jobs to dog poo. Boil it down and that's what the Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, did last Thursday during a rowdy debate over his plans to take the axe...
Phillip Coorey
Gillard's power play
Phillip Coorey Julia Gillard is entering a critical phase for both her leadership and her government. Clearly she has decided to go on the front foot.
Phillip Coorey
PM fixes stalemate but funding battle will be Abbott's
Phillip Coorey Julia Gillard is taking a week off and, in the process, doing her bit for Queensland's struggling tourism sector.
Phillip Coorey
Gillard still queen of the jungle
Phillip Coorey Two weeks ago, leaked internal polling showed Labor on track to lose the state seat of Melbourne to the Greens in the byelection held on Saturday.
Phillip Coorey
Bets off for Abbott after a Rudd change
Phillip Coorey As opposition leader between 1998 and 2001, Kim Beazley was the last person to lead federal Labor for a full term.
Phillip Coorey
If Rudd is not the messiah, then it's just a very desperate ploy
Phillip Coorey The Labor MP Darren Cheeseman was downcast on Thursday as he walked the corridor to his Parliament House office.
Phillip Coorey
After Bligh, the deluge: Gillard's own day of reckoning awaits her
Phillip Coorey If Julia Gillard were a coal miner, her canaries would not just be dead - they would be dead, buried and cremated.
Phillip Coorey
Gillard's grace under pressure may not be enough
Phillip Coorey Gillard's strength and toughness has got her this far and those who once thought she would be the kind to tap the mat should she realise she could not lead Labor to victory, are rethinking.
Phillip Coorey
Labor on a steady path to same-sex weddings
Phillip Coorey At the hideously-confected affair that masqueraded as the 2009 ALP national conference, one rare area of real contention was gay marriage.
Phillip Coorey
Round and round with parade of leaders
Phillip Coorey Should Labor lose this election, Tony Abbott would be Australia's third prime minister in two months and its fourth in three years.
Phillip Coorey
Cold war begins in depths of winter
Phillip Coorey There has only been one other August federal election since federation and, like this poll, it was held on August 21. It was 1943.
Phillip Coorey
Turnbull adds spice as leaders languish
Phillip Coorey One of the daftest statements this column has made came one year ago, with the call not even Tony Abbott was ''crazy enough'' to believe he would ever lead the Liberal Party.
Phillip Coorey
Rudd may be the blip in selling mining tax
Phillip Coorey The government's penchant for acronyms has reached the stage where even the opposition is struggling to keep up.
Phillip Coorey
A precious commodity called unity goes West
Phillip Coorey The refusal by the West Australian Premier, Colin Barnett, to cede a third of his GST revenue to Kevin Rudd to pay for health reform contained an element of parochialism.
