Phillip Coorey

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

Labor's state losses are Gillard's gains

Phillip Coorey

Phillip Coorey The Victorian government may have been a bit long in the tooth but it was still doing a decent job.

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Phillip Coorey

Big dreams not just the hat talking

Illustration

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

John Faulkner

Phillip Coorey Until now, Faulkner had been railing against the corrosive effects of factionalism on the ALP's structure and membership.

Phillip Coorey

Softly, softly, a slide into the red comes into view

Wayne Swan

Phillip Coorey Revelations today that not a single cent of mining tax was paid in the first three months of this financial year indicate the $1.1 billion surplus forecast on Monday may be gone already.

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Phillip Coorey

Rudd camp stirs the surplus soup

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Phillip Coorey Some weeks ago, Kevin Rudd accepted an invitation to join Bob Hawke and Bob Carr at Darling Harbour yesterday to celebrate 40 years of diplomatic ties between China and Australia.

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A plague on both sides of the House

Malcolm Turnbull says he won't be crossing the floor on the issue.

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

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Phillip Coorey About three years ago, Barnaby Joyce had a half-hearted crack at replacing Warren Truss as the leader of the Nationals.

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Phillip Coorey

States give Abbott a nasty headache

coorey

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

Abrasive Newman gives Labor a lift

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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...

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Phillip Coorey

Gillard's power play

Julia Gillard

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.

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Phillip Coorey

Back into the fray, armed with an agenda to turn tables

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Phillip Coorey EDUCATION, industrial relations, disability services and power prices - all Labor issues, and all have the potential to create conflict with the states and the federal opposition.

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.

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Phillip Coorey

PM returns to disorder in the House and trouble over Rinehart deal

Phillip Coorey When Julia Gillard arrived home from Chicago on Wednesday morning and saw Anthony Albanese, she made an immediate observation: ''You look tired.''

Phillip Coorey

PM to bask in overseas glow as the knives sharpen at home

Phillip Coorey Sunday week, June 24, will mark the second anniversary of Julia Gillard's leadership coup over Kevin Rudd.

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.

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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

Gillard still queen of the jungle

Phillip Coorey

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

Bruised Gillard reassembles despondent troops

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Phillip Coorey WHEN Labor MPs return to Canberra on Sunday for Julia Gillard's pre-parliamentary ideas session and knees-up at the Lodge, they will have ringing in their ears the views of their electorates where...

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

Liberals can walk policy tightrope while Labor circus is in town

Phillip Coorey As a follower of Irish politics, the Liberal Party's federal director, Brian Loughnane, is a fan of the acronym GUBU.

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