Phillip Coorey
Phillip Coorey joined the Sydney Morning Herald in 2005 and is the paper's Chief Political Correspondent, based in Canberra. Previously he was the Political Editor for Adelaide's The Advertiser. He has been in the Canberrra Press Gallery since 1998, except for 2003 and 2004 when he was the New York correspondent for News Ltd.
Phillip Coorey
Gillard has Howard's view on juggling US and China
Phillip Coorey Blessed with the thickest of political hides, John Howard has never been one to react to every criticism made of him.
Phillip Coorey
As the Coalition knows, there is a long history of costing opposition policies
Phillip Coorey The opposition and some sections of the media are in high dudgeon because information has been released. However, it's not the first time a government has costed opposition policies.
Phillip Coorey
Rushing back to the polls fraught with danger for Abbott
Phillip Coorey Ask the Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, whether he would like another election any time soon and the answer would have to be ''no''.
Phillip Coorey
Soaring rates bill will be on Canberrans' minds when they go to the polls
Phillip Coorey To those outside the national capital, the ACT election held every four years is about as compelling as boils.
A plague on both sides of the House
Phillip Coorey In his lecture delivered last night, Malcolm Turnbull does not single out Tony Abbott for criticism.
Phillip Coorey
States give Abbott a nasty headache
Phillip Coorey In one week, the NSW and Queensland governments effectively neutered two of Tony Abbott's attack lines against the Gillard government - school funding and the mining tax.
Phillip Coorey
Abrasive Newman gives Labor a lift
Phillip Coorey Fancy an elected leader likening people's jobs to dog poo. Boil it down and that's what the Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, did last Thursday during a rowdy debate over his plans to take the axe...
Phillip Coorey
Back into the fray, armed with an agenda to turn tables
Phillip Coorey EDUCATION, industrial relations, disability services and power prices - all Labor issues, and all have the potential to create conflict with the states and the federal opposition.
Phillip Coorey
Charged with acting wisely for the nation, 226 people fell back on megaphone rhetoric
Phillip Coorey Lying in his hospital bed in Adelaide listening to the debate in Canberra, the independent senator Nick Xenophon, was not the only person growing grouchy at the asylum seeker policy paralysis...
Phillip Coorey
Gillard still queen of the jungle
Phillip Coorey Two weeks ago, leaked internal polling showed Labor on track to lose the state seat of Melbourne to the Greens in the byelection held on Saturday.
Phillip Coorey
Bruised Gillard reassembles despondent troops
Phillip Coorey WHEN Labor MPs return to Canberra on Sunday for Julia Gillard's pre-parliamentary ideas session and knees-up at the Lodge, they will have ringing in their ears the views of their electorates where...
Phillip Coorey
PM ends her week as she began - with a win
Phillip Coorey JULIA Gillard has turned disaster into a stunning victory and, in doing so, has reasserted the authority the party only renewed in her on Monday.
Phillip Coorey
Liberals can walk policy tightrope while Labor circus is in town
Phillip Coorey As a follower of Irish politics, the Liberal Party's federal director, Brian Loughnane, is a fan of the acronym GUBU.
Phillip Coorey
Carr to go after the one that got away
Phillip Coorey A week ago, Bob Carr called on his new federal Labor colleagues to put aside the ill-feeling caused by the leadership dispute and to ''dwell a bit more on the horror of an Abbott-led government''.
Phillip Coorey
After Bligh, the deluge: Gillard's own day of reckoning awaits her
Phillip Coorey If Julia Gillard were a coal miner, her canaries would not just be dead - they would be dead, buried and cremated.
Phillip Coorey
Labor hegemony may be dead but it's not all bad for Gillard
Phillip Coorey This Friday, the Labor government will find itself outnumbered for the first time in 4½ years in office.
Phillip Coorey
There was little love between PM from Queensland and president from Texas
Phillip Coorey Kevin Rudd, as prime minister, never had a great relationship with George Bush. Rudd came to power as Bush was in the presidential exit lounge and things started to deteriorate almost from the first...
Phillip Coorey
CBA and its cronies can bank on the wails
Phillip Coorey Not so long ago, the government was singing the praises of the Commonwealth Bank and its boss, Ralph Norris. It was April last year and the nation was in the grip of the global financial crisis.
Phillip Coorey
Gillard is not for turning on IR
Phillip Coorey Tony Abbott has a new line that maintains his theme that Labor is a puppet of the Greens. ''Labor is in government but the Greens are in power,'' the Opposition Leader said on the eve of today's...
Phillip Coorey
Sales talk begins as election moves into focus
Phillip Coorey With Julia Gillard expected to call the election today, Tony Abbott has tried to define the contest as being about the need to get rid of a bad government full of flawed characters.
