Tony Wright

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.

Forced adoptions apology was PM at her finest

Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered the National Apology or Forced Adoption in the Great Hall at Parliament House in Canberra.
in Canberra on Thursday 21 March 2013. Photo: Andrew Meares

David Wroe, Tony Wright Julia Gillard's speech apologising from the nation to the broken-hearted women whose babies were taken from them at birth, the children who were adopted out before there was the chance of a bond...

Mark Kenny and Tony Wright

How it all went so horribly wrong for Labor

Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

Mark Kenny and Tony Wright How did the government leave Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in a seemingly unassailable position to waltz into the Lodge in September?

Children trapped on the ground, longing to fly

Drawing  from child  held in the Manus Island immigration detention centre in PNG.

Tony Wright Many years ago I was acquainted with a young teacher at a primary school that drew many of its pupils from the flats in one of those soulless high-rise public housing towers tossed up in Melbourne's...

Tony Wright

Slipper moment of clarity closes ghastly spectacle

Tony Wright

Tony Wright AND so, a chap who refers to women's private bits as ''shell-less mussels'' was to be allowed to remain Speaker of the House of Representatives, the most powerful job in the chamber, even if he...

Is this the eve of destruction or just living in the '70s?

The phrase 'stop the boats' became one of Mr Abbott's favourites in last year's federal election.

Tony Wright Imagine the horror that swept through Tony Abbott's office when his staff learnt he was off to a gymnastics centre.

Tony Wright

Houston delivers 'hard-headed' and 'realistic' counsel

Angus Houston

Tony Wright A storm at sea, the Taliban and Peter Reith? Mere aggravations compared with stepping into the asylum stand-off apparently.

Tony Wright

Question time has become rather questionable itself

wright-sketch

Tony Wright Perched on a hill in Canberra is a building called Parliament House. It cost Australians $1 billion in 1980s dollars. It costs several hundreds of millions a year to run.

Psychology pops up as Brown decries PM critics as sexist

bob

Tony Wright Bob Brown is apparently hyper-sensitive to the 'subconscious' sexism aimed at the PM.

Tony Wright

Double, double, toil and trouble: a recipe with a hint of hysteria

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott with his deputy, Julie Bishop, and immigration spokesman Scott Morrison in Parliament

Tony Wright Take one pinch of asylum seeker, add a spoonful of smuggled handgun, stir with a good ladling of drive-by shootings and a cupful of border protection, and what have you got?

Surprise reflections in a nation's mirror

Tony-Wright

Tony Wright IN A week when a small grab bag of historians attempted to puncture some of the mythology surrounding what happened in the hills above Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula 97 years ago, an estimated...

Tony Wright

Federal poll's sullen mood haunts Gillard

Tony Wright Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and his colleagues have taken to taunting Prime Minister Julia Gillard by reminding her that she said Kevin Rudd's administration had lost its way.

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Tony Wright

On the lawn of persuasion

Tony Wright The new and unexpectedly powerful voices being heard from Parliament tend to emanate not from its hallowed halls but a small, once insignificant patch of grass.

Tony Wright

Raising a glass while they can

wine

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

Chill wind of war leaves debate cold

Tony Wright Something approaching a chill settled over the chamber as Julia Gillard declared that Australia would remain engaged in Afghanistan 'through this decade at least'.

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Tony Wright

Time for a bit of selective recall

Tony Wright It ought to take no more than a morning and lunch for Labor's review committee to work out what went wrong in the election campaign, but memories can play tricks.

Goanna Tracks

Season for concealment

Tony Wright It was a blow for Christmas Islanders when the government knocked back applications for new phosphate-mining leases. Didn't hear about it? You're not alone.

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

All gloss and guff, no glory

Tony Wright An apocryphal tale of K-Rudd's genealogy reflects a Zeitgeist of spin where a disenchanted public is so over polly-speak it is opting for the Don Key vote.

Tony Wright

Hardest task is put on ice

Tony Wright As a science show exposes the fragility of the frozen continent's ecosystem, the Prime Minister's own policy fragility is laid bare.