Minister

Acting a bit more prime ministerial

Chris Johnson There are plenty of people in the current Parliament who, when they deliver an address, look more prime ministerial than Tony Abbott: the actual Prime Minister, for one.

Crean and punishment: from minister to sacrificial goat

Tony Wright Simon Crean believed the Labor Party needed something approaching a bomb to blow a hole in its thin facade as a competitive political outfit.

Plot for the top job thickens, but then minister gets written out

Judith Ireland Once upon a time, a very senior minister held a press conference.

Visa grants outstrip jobs, says minister

New figures showed a surge in 457 visa applications that justified the federal government's planned crackdown on rorts, Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor said.

Can NT's first indigenous chief minister turn back the tide?

Jeff McMullen As the new boss, the onus is on Adam Giles to bring about much-needed change.

Peter Hartcher

A minister worth watching

Peter Hartcher Many Australians would have noticed Jason Clare for the first time this week - the federal Justice Minister who looks like a boy but has a voice like a sentencing judge - when he delivered the dire...

Mark Baker

The missing pieces that shadow a Prime Minister

Mark Baker If Julia Gillard is indeed innocent of any wrong-doing during her three-year professional and personal association with union ratbags Bruce Wilson and Ralph Blewitt in the early 1990s - and there is...

Stephen Rowley

Minister's zone chaos made manifest

Stephen Rowley Planning Minister Matthew Guy's approach has worked to thwart informed analysis and debate.

Face it, Prime Minister: Slipper is not fit for high office

Michelle Grattan Gillard and her colleagues, women and men, should just say it. That Slipper is not a fit and proper person to hold this high office.

Michelle Grattan

The Prime Minister's man problem

Michelle Grattan Julia Gillard doesn't have enough men in her life.

Steve Bracks

A prime minister who embodies the best of Labor

Steve Bracks Anyone who believes federal Labor is not a reformist government is deluding themselves. Just think for a moment about the policy reform agenda under Prime Minister Julia Gillard during this term of...

Ben Doherty

Why the Indian Prime Minister won't visit Australia

Ben Doherty Our nation is not the most pressing concern to the subcontinent.

Michelle Grattan

How very courageous Minister

Michelle Grattan The Labor camp should be having a rethink. When those performing stunts incur the ridicule that was aimed at the object of them, there’s a problem.

Mark Metherell

Hot issues will test the mettle of Labor's new health minister

Mark Metherell Tanya Plibersek speaks softly but with a sharp tongue. This week she enters her first parliamentary week as Health Minister facing a clutch of tough-talking assignments.

Tony Wright

She'll be apples, Foreign Minister

Tony Wright What is it about Mae West, Australian political leaders and CHOGM?

Michelle Grattan

Time we had a separate minister for indigenous affairs

Michelle Grattan THE Gillard government is anxious to distinguish its approach to improving life for Northern Territory Aborigines by launching consultations to discuss where to go when the legislation for the...