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
Boats policy comes full circle
Phillip Coorey There is now barely a difference between Labor and Coalition policy on asylum seekers.
Phillip Coorey
Gillard has Howard's view on juggling US and China
Phillip Coorey Blessed with the thickest of political hides, John Howard has never been one to react to every criticism made of him.
Phillip Coorey
Absent Hockey will be front and centre if Abbott falters
Phillip Coorey There was a brief period of unrest in the Coalition last week when MPs were wondering why the shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, was not among the speakers at an economic summit in Melbourne.
Phillip Coorey
As the Coalition knows, there is a long history of costing opposition policies
Phillip Coorey The opposition and some sections of the media are in high dudgeon because information has been released. However, it's not the first time a government has costed opposition policies.
Phillip Coorey
Rudd deserves the most credit for UN win
Phillip Coorey IF there is any scope for magnanimity to exist between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, then Australia's successful bid for a seat in the United Nations Security Council should provide it.
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.
A plague on both sides of the House
Phillip Coorey In his lecture delivered last night, Malcolm Turnbull does not single out Tony Abbott for criticism.
Phillip Coorey
Team players get top jobs but mavericks make a difference
Phillip Coorey About three years ago, Barnaby Joyce had a half-hearted crack at replacing Warren Truss as the leader of the Nationals.
Phillip Coorey
States give Abbott a nasty headache
Phillip Coorey In one week, the NSW and Queensland governments effectively neutered two of Tony Abbott's attack lines against the Gillard government - school funding and the mining tax.
Phillip Coorey
Both sides respect Beazley, even if he's telling home truths
Phillip Coorey Tony Abbott was not kind to Kim Beazley when they were both in Parliament. ''Sanctimonious windbag'' and ''great big bellowing cow'' were two of the more memorable insults that Abbott, then a Howard...
Phillip Coorey
Gillard comes out fighting and begins to see blue sky ahead
Phillip Coorey It may feel like ages but tomorrow week marks just two years since the federal election which left Australia with a hung parliament.
Phillip Coorey
Eleven years on from Tampa and little has changed
Phillip Coorey Eight days shy of the 11th anniversary of the standoff aboard the MV Tampa, the Parliament is on the cusp of reintroducing the Pacific Solution and a new row has erupted about what to do with a group...
Phillip Coorey
Why the Coalition is on a winner - it's all about individual pain
Phillip Coorey W hen John Howard told Parliament on March 26, 2007, ''working families in Australia have never been better off'', he was entitled to boast.
Pretend to care, blame each other, do nothing - grow up
Phillip Coorey IT WAS pathetic yesterday as the major parties and the Greens pretended they gave a damn and urged that politics take a back seat while bodies were being pulled from the sea - again.
The ghost of issues past still haunts Gillard, two years on
Phillip Coorey When Julia Gillard knocked off Kevin Rudd two years ago yesterday, Labor was floundering principally because of three intractable policy issues - the mining tax, carbon pricing and asylum seekers.
Phillip Coorey
Jakarta on Abbott's to-do list but no one has told the Indonesians
Phillip Coorey Should Tony Abbott win the next election, his first week in office, by any measure, is going to be a busy one.
Phillip Coorey
Green dilemma has Labor in a spin
Phillip Coorey The whole political establishment will be watching this Saturday's byelection for the state seat of Melbourne.
Phillip Coorey
Voters switch off as leadership soap opera jumps the shark
Phillip Coorey When Kevin Rudd quit as foreign minister he described Labor's leadership crisis as a soap opera and a saga.
Phillip Coorey
Labor hegemony may be dead but it's not all bad for Gillard
Phillip Coorey This Friday, the Labor government will find itself outnumbered for the first time in 4½ years in office.
Phillip Coorey
Labor's fear is that Milne's Greens will lack Brown's pragmatism
Phillip Coorey The Gillard government's immediate reaction to the departure of the Greens leader Bob Brown and to his replacement by Christine Milne was one of concern.
