Wayne Swan
Taxing matters as GST takes centre stage again
Mark Kenny Hypersensitivity over the GST dates back to Howard and Costello.
Analysis
GST may be the answer to balancing the books
Mark Kenny Politician after politician has squibbed it, making florid gestures but avoiding serious discussion of the goods and services tax.
Clive Palmer
Wayne Swan knows nothing about me, or our democracy
Clive Palmer The Treasurer attacks business leaders, but ignores his own failings.
When surprises lie in wait, no excuses please
Tim Colebatch Save the budget or save the economy? That may be the conundrum that tests the Coalition's mettle.
Seeing sense as end nears
Peter Hartcher Labor's budget this week is like the pyramid of an Egyptian pharaoh, says one of the party's federal MPs: "Gillard is building the monuments for her legacy, and she's sacrificing us slaves in the...
Joe goes into bat and is hit with a Jones bouncer
Jacqueline Maley Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey thought he was having a good week. And he was, right up until the moment he called 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones on Wednesday morning.
When the numbers don't add up, Swan is surplus to requirements
Chris Berg They say every political career ends in failure. But some more than others. All the evidence suggests Wayne Swan's sixth budget, released last Tuesday, will be his last.
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.
Kenneth Davidson
Swan has prepared the way for Austerity Abbott
Kenneth Davidson A clever budget? More likely it gives the Coalition room to wind back the welfare state.
Analysis
Tory politics: pact to the rafters in contradiction
Waleed Aly Tea Party in the US, the UKIP in Britain - Abbott better beware the rising attraction of conservative splitters.
Good times rolled and a spending government spent
Amanda Vanstone Gillard will find the people unforgiving at the ballot box.
Bounce in the polls too much to expect
Michael Gordon Comeback the one thing Wayne Swan will not be expecting from his sixth budget.
Real deficit is the will to get tough
Peter Hartcher Australia is in a state of national political schizophrenia.
Swan song is his own doing
Nicholas Stuart The moniker of world’s greatest treasurer will be cold comfort as he delivers what’s sure to be his last budget.
Comment
Politics of transport delivers only gridlock
Tim Colebatch Only a diverse, timely and merit-based set of transport solutions can meet the needs of fast-growing cities.
Coalition must be smarter when it issues preferences
Gerard Henderson Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan and Greg Combet appear to believe Labor will win the election.
Seeds of Labor's destruction sown six years ago
Lindy Edwards The government is reaping the consequences of a train wreck set in motion six years ago.
Abbott's new election effort is by the book
Jacqueline Maley All writers know that books are like children. So it was no surprise that when Opposition Leader and author Tony Abbott faced the media on Monday, he clutched his latest literary creation to his...
Treasurer's faith in theory is touching
Tim Colebatch Why can't we believe the budget forecasts? Why were they so wrong over the past decade? Does Wayne Swan decide the forecasts, as the Liberals imply, or does Treasury?
