Tony Wright
Tony Wright is the National Affairs Editor of The Age. He has been based in the Canberra Press Gallery for 20 years, working for The Canberra Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Bulletin before joining The Age in 2007. He has written two plays and two best-selling books, was named Magazine Feature Writer of the Year twice, has won several UN Media Peace Prizes and has been a Walkley Awards finalist five times.
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.
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''.
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...
Something has been broken at the heart of politics
Tony Wright Late last month, a woman stood alone on the forecourt of Canberra's Parliament House, inhaling gulps of cigarette smoke. ''All very nice,'' she said. ''Too late. Tomorrow it'll be wrapping chips.''
Fantasy choo-choo another test of Australian travellers' patience
Tony Wright It may be a little early to book reservations aboard Australia's Very Fast Train, and even if you could get one - say for the 50th birthday of your just-born grandchild - you'd be best not to put...
Siding with realism confounds fantasy choo-choo
Tony Wright It may be a little early to book reservations aboard Australia's Very Fast Train, and even if you could get one, say for the 50th birthday of your newborn grandchild, you would be best not to put...
Western Sydney, where pollies would have you think crime control is at sea
Tony Wright Crime in western Sydney is, apparently, out of control. Worse, the inhabitants' borders aren't being protected.
Political thriller be damned, Bowen's going to save Labor instead
Tony Wright Chris Bowen's publishers, you'd imagine, are hoping he can write better than he can count. Finding himself with unexpected time on his hands over the past weeks, Bowen has been busily scribbling a...
Crean and punishment: from minister to sacrificial goat
Tony Wright Simon Crean believed the Labor Party needed something approaching a bomb to blow a hole in its thin facade as a competitive political outfit.
Forced adoptions apology was PM at her finest
David Wroe, Tony Wright Julia Gillard's speech apologising from the nation to the broken-hearted women whose babies were taken from them at birth, the children who were adopted out before there was the chance of a bond...
Mark Kenny and Tony Wright
How it all went so horribly wrong for Labor
Mark Kenny and Tony Wright How did the government leave Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in a seemingly unassailable position to waltz into the Lodge in September?
Fitting political pygmies into giants' shoes
Tony Wright The choice of a new ministry from a shrinking political gene pool is the most daunting task facing Prime Minister Julia Gillard as she tries to shuffle her government out of the chaos that enveloped...
Abbott's paper armour
Tony Wright Opposition Leader Tony Abbott carries a shield with him as he darts from greengrocer to drycleaner to manufacturer warning of the evils of the carbon tax and how Julia Gillard's government is...
Refugees tarred with brush of prejudice
Tony Wright Refugees, barely more than boys, worked on our family farm when I was a child. Not one of them spoke anything approaching ''all the English language skills that you might normally expect''.
Today Roxon, Evans. Tomorrow...?
Tony Wright Farewells, like concession speeches, are regularly more dignified affairs than the caterwauling that passes for daily political discourse.
Tony Wright
Another day, another drama - and we've only just begun
Tony Wright Farewells, like concession speeches, are regularly more dignified affairs than the caterwauling that passes for daily political discourse.
Prepare ye the way to a northern promised land
Tony Wright The Abbott Liberal Party's draft plan to settle and develop Australia north of the Tropic of Capricorn is a very long way from being the most remarkable scheme for a northern promised land.
Children trapped on the ground, longing to fly
Tony Wright Many years ago I was acquainted with a young teacher at a primary school that drew many of its pupils from the flats in one of those soulless high-rise public housing towers tossed up in Melbourne's...
Tony Wright
Watch as we make a continent disappear
Tony Wright If you are to excise a country from its own migration zone, a visa-less soul can't apply for one anywhere.
What exposes await as Abbott tosses up challenge?
Tony Wright The revelation by Tony Abbott's inner circle of women that his personal inner goddess is alive and well tosses up dreadful challenges for the Australian political class.
