Tony Wright
Tony Wright is the National Affairs Editor of The Age. He has been based in the Canberra Press Gallery for 20 years, working for The Canberra Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Bulletin before joining The Age in 2007. He has written two plays and two best-selling books, was named Magazine Feature Writer of the Year twice, has won several UN Media Peace Prizes and has been a Walkley Awards finalist five times.
Not just any leadership crisis
Tony Wright As Prime Minister Julia Gillard maintained a wintry silence and Kevin Rudd confined himself to chattering with his 2.
Fickle fate: Labor keeping an eye out for goddess Fortuna
Tony Wright Labor MPs must follow Gillard over a waterfall or gamble their destiny on the hope that Rudd might save them.
Shorten stuck between a rock and a hard place
Tony Wright It is a measure of the Labor Party's current desperation that a single minister, Bill Shorten, has emerged as an emblematic figure supposedly invested with almost super powers.
Labor MP goes rogue on Gillard, down to the letter
Tony Wright Paul Keating in the 1980s became fond of a theory called the J-curve, sold to him by the Treasury, suggesting an initial fall in the fortunes of the dollar would create a lovely and satisfying...
Something has been broken at the heart of politics
Tony Wright Late last month, a woman stood alone on the forecourt of Canberra's Parliament House, inhaling gulps of cigarette smoke. ''All very nice,'' she said. ''Too late. Tomorrow it'll be wrapping chips.''
Abbott's paper armour
Tony Wright Opposition Leader Tony Abbott carries a shield with him as he darts from greengrocer to drycleaner to manufacturer warning of the evils of the carbon tax and how Julia Gillard's government is...
Tony Wright
Swan songs and the quest for boomer cred in the heart of the Boss' fan belt
Tony Wright What did Bruce Springsteen ever do to deserve this? Even Paul Keating had the decency to choose a composer already dead, Gustav Mahler, with whom to parade his cultural pretensions.
Psychology pops up as Brown decries PM critics as sexist
Tony Wright Bob Brown is apparently hyper-sensitive to the 'subconscious' sexism aimed at the PM.
Tony Wright
Smart bomb crosses continents for a direct hit
Tony Wright It was the most audacious stealth attack in modern Australian political history.
Tony Wright
When the Concert Party ruled politics
Tony Wright It is difficult to imagine it now when there seems such little music in the hearts of Australia's politicians, but not so long ago song and mirth spread a bit of magic across the national political...
Tony Wright
Raising a glass while they can
Tony Wright Our leaders are holding traditional end-of-year drinks for the press gallery, but only a fool would predict who might be throwing the parties next year.
Tony Wright
The distinction of extinction
Tony Wright Julia Gillard would be advised to go to the people as soon as possible. She cannot afford to appear to be standing still in the age of obsolescence.
Tony Wright
Scandals not created equal
Tony Wright A minister visits a gay sauna in a taxpayer-funded car. Tony Abbott confesses to sometimes saying the wrong thing. What's to get outraged about?
Goanna Tracks
Time to lock up your reporters
Tony Wright The day the federal budget papers are released brings incarceration for many of the nation's newshounds - and it's their own fault.
The Wright Words
Abbott gets a dressing down
Tony Wright The Opposition Leader may need to go easy on the budgie-smugglers and bicycle shorts if he is to win over voters who want their leaders to look as if they are in charge.
The Wright Words
The benefits of a predecessor's fury
Tony Wright If leaders build voter support as much upon who they are not as who they are, then Paul Keating's savaging of Tony Abbott this week did the Opposition Leader a favour.
And in this instalment, two heroes save the day
Tony Wright When George Bush snr was in the White House, his wife, Barbara, hit on the idea of trying to humanise the family through the voice of its pet dog, Millie.
Goanna Tracks
More than a mere mad monk
Tony Wright Tony Abbott is a one-dimensional conservative to his detractors, which is a pity, for he is, like a lot of leaders, a splendid tangle of contradictions.
