World Affairs
A magnificent PM - when she drops her guard
Mike Carlton Julia Gillard is so much better when not trying. Stuck behind a lectern, droning away at some boilerplate speech cranked out by her office gnomes, she is cold and remote, more than a bit prissy.
Abbott's baby bonus in disguise
Anne Summers If Tony Abbott is serious about wanting to boost women's workforce participation, there are more effective and less expensive ways to accomplish this than via his paid parental leave scheme, which...
Following the path of Mulga Fred, wanderer
Tony Wright In the past few decades we have been joined by ever-growing numbers of long-distant wanderers.
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.
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.
Mothers, take note of this pair
Jacqueline Maley Mothers of Australia, switch off Super Nanny. Put down your parenting manuals and bin the baby books.
Opposition pays the penalty for baby gaffe
Judith Ireland With the baby bonus to be scrapped from next March, there are plenty of Australians wondering what it means for them.
The day the steel melted
Tony Wright Julia Gillard once spoke of having been a shy, reserved child who had grown a shell hardened by the rigours of politics and who had learnt the arts of ''holding a fair bit back, and hanging tough''.
Judith Ireland
It's that Sound of Music time of year
Judith Ireland Budget time always reminds one of The Sound of Music.
The battle won, woman of steel sheds armour
Tony Wright Julia Gillard once spoke of having been a shy, reserved schoolchild who had grown a shell hardened by the rigours of politics and who had learnt the arts of ''holding a fair bit back, and hanging...
State playing politics on trains
Josh Gordon Former Liberal premier Dick Hamer simultaneously had three big infrastructure projects on the go: the West Gate Bridge, completed in 1978; City Loop, completed in 1981; and the first two stages of...
Good times rolled and a spending government spent
Amanda Vanstone Gillard will find the people unforgiving at the ballot box.
Comment
Preparing for B-Day and hoping that the other bastard dies
Tony Wright The embattled Gillard government's battalions of media advisors, facing a tough budget and an even more difficult election campaign, are being put on a war footing worthy of the D-Day landings ...
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
Seven deadly signs of naivety expose Defence
Hugh White The first assumption is that America and China are going to get along fine.
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.
Paul Howes v the wilderness
Andrew Darby Old timers have seen it before. A rising union star climbs a step up Labor's ladder onto the national stage from an unlikely platform in Tasmania.
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.
