Paul Sheehan
Paul Sheehan is a columnist and editorial writer for The Sydney Morning Herald, where he has has been Day Editor and Washington correspondent. He is the author of two number-one best-sellers, 'Girls Like You' and 'Among The Barbarians' and been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times and numerous anthologies.
Media call just a piddling distraction
Paul Sheehan What follows is a quote from a column I wrote about Stephen Conroy, which enraged him.
Paul Sheehan
Overkill in the name of Islam threat
Paul Sheehan On Monday, in Dhaka, I received a friendly rebuke from the Bangladeshi Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism, Faruk Khan. I had described Bangladesh as a moderate Muslim nation.
Paul Sheehan
Fear doesn't need a visa, and it's on tour already
Paul Sheehan Two of the films nominated for best picture in the coming Academy Awards, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, contain warnings, with plenty of creative licence but also plenty of historical accuracy, about...
Paul Sheehan
Free speech dogged by politics of difference
Paul Sheehan The obvious question is, what are they afraid of? Is it fear of violence, or vandalism, or simply fear of association?
Paul Sheehan
Rich vitriol shrouds budget extravagance
Paul Sheehan I preferred Robotic Julia. Now we have Furious Julia. Is there no middle course for the Prime Minister? Are we now seeing the cumulative strain of the cost of attaining power and maintaining a...
Paul Sheehan
The anti-Muslim MP not allowed to visit Australia
Paul Sheehan My hands are tied. This, in essence, is the response that Chris Bowen, the Minister for Immigration, has given to questions in Parliament this week about why he granted a visa to an Islamic...
Paul Sheehan
Visa insult a betrayal of liberalism
Paul Sheehan The Australian embassy in The Hague, at Carnegielaan 4, is a model of the functional blandness that dominates the Dutch city.
Paul Sheehan
Bowen's gob-smacking gall on Wilders visa
Paul Sheehan On Monday afternoon, local time, the Dutch politician Geert Wilders used Twitter to announce he had cancelled his trip to Australia. He wrote (translated from Dutch): "Still no Australian visa.
Paul Sheehan
The truth on refugees is worse than fiction
Paul Sheehan The viral email about Australia's generosity to refugees may be wrong in its details, but the truth is a story of government gullibility without end.
Paul Sheehan
Boats keep coming and the real cost keeps rising
Paul Sheehan The numbers are extraordinary. The failure is breathtaking - a failure in every possible way, of policy, morality, practicality, security, sovereignty, fairness and budgeting.
Paul Sheehan
Green light for boats is the worst of both worlds
Paul Sheehan A m I naive to be waiting for a minister in the federal government, a government which now has so much blood on its hands, to take responsibility for the policy failure and resign?
Paul Sheehan
Loose lips on sunken ships expose cultural disharmony
Paul Sheehan When most of the 108 members of the federal Coalition gather tomorrow morning for a joint party meeting in Parliament House, they might ask themselves whether they want to be a collective of...
Paul Sheehan
Border security shemozzle proves Gillard unfit to govern
Paul Sheehan After Federal Parliament returns next Monday, there are sufficient grounds for the opposition to move the first no-confidence motion in the Gillard government.
Paul Sheehan
As the left sides with Muslims, Christians search for support
Paul Sheehan Martin Place is the symbolic centre, the point zero, of Australia's existence as a sophisticated economy. Last Wednesday it looked medieval.
Paul Sheehan
A diminished Gillard caught in a storm of her own making
Paul Sheehan The most surprising aspect of Julia Gillard's first day of facing parliamentary questioning as the newly elected Prime Minister was her demeanour.
Paul Sheehan
Green by name, flaky by nature
Paul Sheehan Adam Bandt's first major policy initiative as the only member of the Greens in the House of Representatives was always going to be loaded with symbolism.
Paul Sheehan
Obama deserves his insecurity and the disaster that follows
Paul Sheehan It is called ''La Inseguridad'': The Insecurity. It is the term the Mexicans use to describe the virtual civil war in parts of their country, especially near the United States border, that has cost...
Paul Sheehan
The Yarra monster is killing us
Paul Sheehan A great sucking force can be felt around Australia, siphoning resources southwards, down the hungry throat of Melbourne. Australia makes, Melbourne takes.
Paul Sheehan
Gillard's pork pies hard to resist
Paul Sheehan Our Prime Minister is a liar. A serial liar. Brazen. We shall detail some of the more preposterous lies presently but I don't think this will deter the electorate from returning Julia Gillard's...
Paul Sheehan
Less can be more, for people, pensions and government
Paul Sheehan Australia emerged from the global financial crisis as the second wealthiest large economy in the world.
