Michael Gordon
Michael Gordon is the political editor of The Age.
COMMENT
The week Abbott gave shape to his vision for Australia
Michael Gordon Six months before reporters from this newspaper and the ABC worked together to expose the extent of corruption in the construction industry, a team of four federal Coalition MPs conducted their own...
As we remember old battles, Advance Australia where?
Michael Gordon For a leader who railed against what he called a perpetual seminar on the national identity, John Howard devoted an awful lot of time and energy to the subject.
Refugees collateral damage as secret war on water escalates
Michael Gordon My first attempt to visit the tiny island of Nauru was an unmitigated disaster. Several months after John Howard imposed his Pacific Solution late in 2001, Commonwealth leaders had gathered on the...
Car wreck rounds off a political annus horribilis
Michael Gordon It was a bad look. With Tony Abbott out of the country at Nelson Mandela's memorial service, Warren Truss was acting prime minister when Holden decided to stop making cars in Australia.
Abbott must do more than 'clean up the Labor mess'
Michael Gordon It isn't often that prime ministers become props in question time, but it happened this week when Scott Morrison assailed Labor and the Greens for thwarting the restoration of temporary protection...
Analysis
Betrayal of our Jakarta ally requires an urgent remedy
Michael Gordon More, much more, than Abbott's promise to 'stop the boats' hangs in the balance.
What price are we willing to pay to stop the boats?
Michael Gordon Australia could be in danger of finding itself in breach of its obligations under international law.
Out of office and out of love, Labor opens its arms
Michael Gordon Twelve days out from last weekend's election, Henry Gallagher, a year 12 student at Tony Abbott's alma mater, Sydney's St Ignatius' College, Riverview, received a message from the principal's office...
The slow and steady rise of the 'accidental leader'
Michael Gordon Assuming Abbott prevails, can he transition from being leader of the tribe to captain of the country.
Whatever happened to the famous Kevin 07 mojo?
Michael Gordon Rudd has floated a series of unrelated, unfunded and potentially contradictory longer-term ideas.
Analysis
The beauty contest is over, now it's a character test
Michael Gordon When Lily Fontana decided to rip into Kevin Rudd on her Facebook page after applying make-up to him and Tony Abbott before Wednesday's leaders' debate in Brisbane, she broke the unwritten rule for...
Analysis
Rudd's running out of time and needs to do a Keating
Michael Gordon The message to Rudd from Keating, based on his experience in 1993, is that it's not too late. But this invites another question: is Rudd as good as Keating?
Enough shadow boxing, it's time for the real deal
Michael Gordon Traumatic and brutal as it was, the change of leadership has saved the Labor Party.
How the great boats battle helps the people smugglers
Michael Gordon As the boats kept coming this week, Australia's asylum seeker debate entered strange new territory, where both sides of politics are absorbed in a conflicted and destructive form of bipartisan...
Analysis
No advantage in allowing Carr to fan asylum flames
Michael Gordon Tony Burke, the new immigration minister, would seem up for the task.
Comment
Will Rudd really be any better this time around?
Michael Gordon The very first glimpse of the resurrected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was slightly unnerving.
Labor's agony will go on, no one knows for how long
Michael Gordon Julia Gillard's stylish and witty performance at this week's press gallery midwinter ball invited two conclusions as Labor's leadership drama edged towards its third, and surely its final, climax.
Analysis
The caucus cry of despair: 'Something has to give'
Michael Gordon Just when it seemed that Australian national politics couldn't get any nastier, grubbier or more worthy of contempt, along came Howard Sattler.
Opposition is all smirks at Labor winter of discontent
Michael Gordon The smirks gave the game away, betraying the real agenda of an opposition that can already taste victory
How the secret deal on funds became a wipeout
Michael Gordon ''You corrupt bastard!'' So began an email from a constituent to a government MP on Wednesday.
