Katharine Murphy on Canberra - National Times

Katharine Murphy

Katharine Murphy is national affairs correspondent at The Age. She has been reporting on federal politics for more than a decade, starting at The Australian Financial Review, where she was Canberra chief of staff from 2001 to 2004, and moving to The Australian as a specialist writer from 2004 to 2006. She joined The Age in 2006. In 2008, she won the Paul Lyneham Award for Excellence in Press Gallery Journalism.

The media must embrace reform to survive

Katharine Murphy Should we be surprised when it comes to media reform that most of the protagonists are working an angle?

No coup against Baillieu, says Abbott

Katharine Murphy There has been no shadowy coup against former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu - simply an ''orderly transition to a new premier'', Tony Abbott says.

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Beware the distorting influence of the live news cycle

Katharine Murphy Media 'gatekeepers' can often help you weigh the significance of the news.

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2010 rewind as pollies still play voters for mugs

Katharine Murphy Perhaps it's just a slightly unhinged week. Those who are still paying off the bills from the therapy sessions following the 2010 election campaign – the most diminishing, grinding, pointless...

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Facebook and Twitter afford politicians more control

Katharine Murphy For a backroom boy, John McTernan attracts a lot of column centimetres. There's a negative perception inside the government that the Prime Minister's senior communications adviser courts publicity.

Katharine Murphy

The librarian's strategy

Katharine Murphy The tango between pollies and the media is changing. But will voters benefit?

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Is Gillard hitting her stride?

Katharine Murphy Things seem to be getting harder for Tony Abbott - but it's still too soon to be betting on an early election.

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Life moments in the kitchen of great House

Katharine Murphy Politics has entered the on-demand era. The audience is king. Practically, it was ever thus in this sense: politicians must face the voters every cycle, and live or die by the judgment of the people.

Katharine Murphy

The Greens' war within

Katharine Murphy Christine Milne's challenge is stark: develop mainstream policies or risk irrelevance.

Katharine Murphy

The trouble with Barnaby and the LNP

Katharine Murphy Journalist David Marr, in the new Quarterly Essay hitting shops today, recalls the minister in the Howard government who liked to improvise on his feet and think off-script.

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Swords come at Gillard from all sides

Katharine Murphy 'FRIENDS, the fight is on, it's the fight of our lives, let's get out there and win it,'' Prime Minister Julia Gillard declared in Queensland yesterday, back at work after the death of her father.

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Let's not wait to find who we really are

Katharine Murphy Cobbling together quick solutions is one thing. Long-term is harder.

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Katharine Murphy

Will Joyce have Abbott dancing to the bush populist's tune?

Katharine Murphy The foreign investment decision revealed a delicate juggling act.

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Dear pollies, rise above the cheap slogans

Katharine Murphy It's bitterly cold in Canberra; one of those winters so bleak you worry spring will never come.

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Rip off those headphones and let the pollies hear some truths

Katharine Murphy I've been away a couple of weeks, taking the air, reminding myself how easy it is to just tune out politics. Dangerously simple. Just hit mute.

Storm over reef not out of blue

Katharine Murphy A BIT out of the blue, this fight between Canberra and Queensland over approval for a $6.4 billion coal project owned by Gina Rinehart and the Indian conglomerate GVK? Possibly, it looks that way.