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
Boats policy comes full circle
Phillip Coorey There is now barely a difference between Labor and Coalition policy on asylum seekers.
Phillip Coorey
Gillard on the front foot, lurches to right, but team Rudd not beaten
Phillip Coorey Kevin Rudd's dying words as prime minister were that he would never lurch to the right on asylum seekers, as was demanded of him as a condition of keeping his job.
Phillip Coorey
Audacious spending plans aimed at drawing out opposition
Phillip Coorey A signature difference between government and opposition is that the former must account publicly for its promised spending every six months.
Phillip Coorey
Eleven years on from Tampa and little has changed
Phillip Coorey Eight days shy of the 11th anniversary of the standoff aboard the MV Tampa, the Parliament is on the cusp of reintroducing the Pacific Solution and a new row has erupted about what to do with a group...
Pretend to care, blame each other, do nothing - grow up
Phillip Coorey IT WAS pathetic yesterday as the major parties and the Greens pretended they gave a damn and urged that politics take a back seat while bodies were being pulled from the sea - again.
The ghost of issues past still haunts Gillard, two years on
Phillip Coorey When Julia Gillard knocked off Kevin Rudd two years ago yesterday, Labor was floundering principally because of three intractable policy issues - the mining tax, carbon pricing and asylum seekers.
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...
Loss of life convinces some members to change their course
Phillip Coorey THE asylum seeker debate yesterday was punctuated by people once opposed to offshore processing explaining why a steady stream of deaths at sea had led them to change their minds.
Phillip Coorey
Jakarta on Abbott's to-do list but no one has told the Indonesians
Phillip Coorey Should Tony Abbott win the next election, his first week in office, by any measure, is going to be a busy one.
Phillip Coorey
Gillard will feel the blow the most
Phillip Coorey THE High Court decision that put the Malaysia plan to the sword is especially damaging for Julia Gillard because she began the push for a regional solution to the people smuggling problem.
Phillip Coorey
If Rudd is not the messiah, then it's just a very desperate ploy
Phillip Coorey The Labor MP Darren Cheeseman was downcast on Thursday as he walked the corridor to his Parliament House office.
Phillip Coorey
Surveillance plane not cleared for take-off
Phillip Coorey THE Coalition has shelved one of its border protection promises just two days before the federal election.
