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
Big dreams not just the hat talking
Phillip Coorey Last Wednesday, as the government and the opposition were busy tearing out each other's throats over events 20 years ago, Bob Katter provided the relief.
Faulkner's reform calls unlikely to go anywhere fast
Phillip Coorey Until now, Faulkner had been railing against the corrosive effects of factionalism on the ALP's structure and membership.
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
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.
Pressure piles on Slipper - and Gillard
Phillip Coorey Until now, the question of whether Peter Slipper would return to the Speaker's chair in the House of Representatives rested on the findings of two parallel legal processes.
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
Charged with acting wisely for the nation, 226 people fell back on megaphone rhetoric
Phillip Coorey Lying in his hospital bed in Adelaide listening to the debate in Canberra, the independent senator Nick Xenophon, was not the only person growing grouchy at the asylum seeker policy paralysis...
Loss of life convinces some members to change their course
Phillip Coorey THE asylum seeker debate yesterday was punctuated by people once opposed to offshore processing explaining why a steady stream of deaths at sea had led them to change their minds.
Phillip Coorey
Still no checkmate in minority government chess game
Phillip Coorey It was only last week that Andrew Wilkie, trying to deal himself back into relevance, warned the government it may need him yet.
Charges or not, the Thomson nightmare continues for Labor
Phillip Coorey From a political perspective, all that matters in the Craig Thomson saga is whether the MP is eligible to remain in Parliament.
Phillip Coorey
Nasty smell lingers in Skype affair
Phillip Coorey While the military establishment and the opposition are busy jumping ugly on the Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, a few points have been overlooked.
Phillip Coorey
Messy mining tax deal sealed in the early hours
Phillip Coorey Unsurprisingly, the government was able to find $100 million last night to soothe the concerns of the Greens and usher the mining tax through the House of Representatives at 2.42am.
Phillip Coorey
Labor needs another messy battle like a hole in the head
Phillip Coorey AT FIRST blush, it is difficult to think of a powerful interest group not at war with this government.
Phillip Coorey
Plenty of signs, none of them good for ALP
Phillip Coorey THE backlash against the Brumby government in Victoria has surprised federal Labor, jeopardised its health reforms and paved the way for a thrashing of NSW Labor on March 26.
Phillip Coorey
Abbott the cyborg assassin will not give up on his hell-bent mission
Phillip Coorey Just after Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor decided to back Labor, a relieved minister observed that, throughout the election campaign, Tony Abbott had reminded him of the Terminator, the...
Phillip Coorey
Fearlessly committed to building committees
Phillip Coorey So far, population and climate change have emerged as the key policy challenges of this election campaign and Labor's response to both has been the same: form a committee.
Phillip Coorey
Rudd needs his dunny-cleaning mates - and that's the bottom line
Phillip Coorey As an academic and bureaucrat, Kevin Rudd was never a creature of the union movement.
Phillip Coorey
How the West was lost: a lack of faith in civilisation
Phillip Coorey There is a growing belief among Australia's most formidable conservative thinkers that the foundations of Western civilisation in this country are being eroded.
