State
PM's dog and pony show a lost cause
Jack Waterford Julia Gillard has concluded a week's electioneering without any obvious signs of triumph.
Without hated red tape, we'd be in a bigger tangle
Lenore Taylor It's time to call out the incredible hypocrisy of politicians banging on about tape. And also the way politics is trumping policy on an almost daily basis.
Hating Kevin, loving the saviour
Peter Hartcher If you haven't already seen the Liberal Party's new anti-Rudd attack ad on YouTube, you need to know that it is a staccato collation of soundgrabs of the Gillard government's damnations of Kevin.
Andrew West
Labor must get to the heart of the rot, and it's not all about Obeid
Andrew West Many in the political class - politicians, aides, consultants, even many journalists - have decided the crisis facing the Labor Party in NSW can be explained away in one man, or at least one family:...
No coup against Baillieu, says Abbott
Katharine Murphy There has been no shadowy coup against former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu - simply an ''orderly transition to a new premier'', Tony Abbott says.
Mike Carlton
Kevin postpones his walk on the water
Mike Carlton Kevin Rudd has abandoned a celebrity tour of Sydney's western suburbs to avoid an embarrassing clash with the Prime Minister's election campaign visit there next week.
Time to lose cliches: the western suburbs are serious business
Ross Cameron With Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Sydney's west the past week, it seems timely to update some of the tired old cliches about this area.
Paul Strangio
It's getting tougher at the top in a judgmental electorate
Paul Strangio Before the unfortunate Ted Baillieu, the last Victorian premier to fall on his sword was John Cain in August 1990.
Take a leaf from Clover's book, acting Premier
Sean Nicholls It's a fairly safe bet Andrew Stoner hasn't been spending much time contemplating ways to spend his new pay rise.
Michael Gordon
Worlds apart, but the pain's the same when the axe falls
Michael Gordon Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott agree on something. There are no parallels between the political assassination of Kevin Rudd in 2010 and Ted Baillieu's decision to fall on his sword this week.
The cruellest cut
Bruce Guthrie Ted Baillieu was an accidental leader whose luck ended when former allies turned on him.
Analysis
No time for Napthine to smell roses
Josh Gordon Denis Napthine might take a measure of comfort knowing that voters have - more or less - backed his party's decision to make him leader.
Analysis
Get the message?
Peter Hartcher Would it help if a skywriter blazed the message in huge letters across the Canberra skies?
The 'first rule' that eludes leaders
Peter Hartcher I t's often claimed that the Hippocratic oath for new doctors commands: "First, do no harm." That's not quite right. This phrase does not appear in the oath.
Clear message from the west is that Rudd is the only hope
Peter Hartcher Would it help if a skywriter blazed the message in huge white letters across the Canberra skies?
Odds shorten on PM's little mate
Paul Sheehan The media's obsession with Kevin Rudd may be missing the point. Shorten may be the better bet.
Tim Soutphommasane
Panic is tightening its grip on our politicians
Tim Soutphommasane We sometimes forget just how hard politics can be as a vocation, how it brutally exposes those in office to unforgiving scrutiny. We forget because of the remarkable resilience of modern politicians.
Mary Delahunty
Will Napthine now face Gillard's legitimacy test?
Mary Delahunty Last Tuesday I sat next to Daniel Andrews at the state funeral for Australia's first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, Joan Child.
The government cypher
Jack Waterford Bob Hawke thinks political parties should restrict the subjects over which they caucus and hold supporters to a combined view.
The left is misguided when it uses a bill of rights to distribute wealth
Chris Berg In Australia, bills of rights haven't had much support by liberals and conservatives. The reason is simple.
