Michelle Grattan on Tax - National Times

Michelle Grattan

Michelle Grattan is the political editor of The Age. In 2008, she shared the Melbourne Press Club Lifetime Achievement Award with Laurie Oakes. She edited the books 'Reconciliation' and 'Australian Prime Ministers' (2000), and wrote 'Back on the Wool Track' (2004).

The carbon tax has likely peaked as an issue but Labor will wear the cost of its political damage.

Carbon tax could still cause damage

Michelle Grattan First three months an anti-climax but Labor will continue to struggle with its political damage.

Swan slips up on tax guarantee

Michelle Grattan Wayne Swan appeared to give a guarantee that small business would get its company tax cut regardless of what happened to the cut for larger businesses - but later his office said he had been talking...

Michelle Grattan

Rudd's tax plan mired in the mud

Michelle Grattan The PM is making tactical blunders in prosecuting his fight with the powerful mining sector ahead of the election.

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Michelle Grattan

Political science: altering Abbott's polarity from negative to positive

Michelle Grattan Expect some rebranding as the Coalition campaign begins.

Michelle Grattan

Surplus swansong leaves Labor in stormy waters

Michelle Grattan Wayne Swan's ditching of the promise the government made in 2010 - is a difficult and humiliating backflip. It is a broken promise of the first order.

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Michelle Grattan

But seriously, get ready for Mr Positive

Michelle Grattan Tony Abbott is likely to be residing in the prime minister's office later this year.

It's time now to track the money

Michelle Grattan AT THE time of year when we look back and gaze forward, let's just cast an eye over one success and one failure (so far) of this remarkable Parliament, which still has time to do a few more things.

Michelle Grattan

Thinking outside the box: apply the same rules to all

Michelle Grattan A decade ago Father Frank Brennan, a high-profile Jesuit priest who is now professor of law at the Australian Catholic University, had a woman confess to him that she was a murderess.

Michelle Grattan

Figures frenzy turns spotlight on Canberra's bureaucracy

Michelle Grattan IT WAS a government sting, and then an opposition counter-sting, which left the public servants in the federal Treasury feeling the pain.

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Swan avoids risking too much with juggling act

Michelle Grattan The government has done what it had to do. It has kept its budget numbers in the black, in a fiscal exercise driven by the imperative of preserving its political credibility rather than by economic...

Michelle Grattan

Political necessity minimises the pain

Michelle Grattan The government has done what it had to do. It has kept its budget numbers in the black.

Michelle Grattan

Gillard stonewalls opponents

Michelle Grattan It looks like being a happier Christmas for the Prime Minister than either Rudd or Abbott might have expected.

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Michelle Grattan

Asian future isn't just about mining

Michelle Grattan If Australians need a prod to think more broadly about the opportunities Asia presents, a sharp one has come with the claim that the new tax on mining super profits yielded no revenue in its initial...

Michelle Grattan

Road map to Asia

Michelle Grattan The government's white paper on the Asian century is released today. We ignore it at our peril.

Michelle Grattan

Positive poll results give Gillard breathing space

Michelle Grattan Politics looked sweet to Julia Gillard when she woke up today to face the penultimate week of the full Parliament.

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Michelle Grattan

Labor still struggling with the fallout

Michelle Grattan THE carbon tax probably peaked as an issue before the price started - indeed, its first three months have been an anti-climax.

Michelle Grattan

Headaches for Abbott as tactics falter

Michelle Grattan Stressing the need for unity during his address to his troops on Tuesday, Tony Abbott told the MPs that if they ever needed to get a message to him, they should just call direct - he would always...

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Michelle Grattan

Gillard's man problem

Michelle Grattan Julia Gillard doesn't have enough men in her life. Male voters, that is. We've heard a lot about Tony Abbott's problem with women voters - the polls document it and MPs report it from their...