The Xenophon-Cormann horse-trade that took 20 conversations
Nick Xenophon and Mathias Cormann demonstrated this week that compromise in a democracy can produce results.
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Peter Hartcher
Peter Hartcher is the political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a Gold Walkley award winner, a former foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Washington, and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. His latest book is The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made its Own Luck and Could Now Throw it All Away. His 2005 book, Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing Seven Trillion Dollars, foresaw the collapse of the US housing market and the economic slump that followed.
How China built its dominance on our factories
China has played hard and dirty in its breakneck catch-up with the West.
Imagine if politicians stopped their faux fury and worked together
While the major parties concentrate on their parlour games, winter is coming.
Trump's gift to China is good news for us, for now
Australia was told to bend over and brace for a kicking from China last week. But, in the event, there was no kicking. Quite the contrary.
Australia won't see the worst of Trump until we need him the most
Contrary to expectations, Donald Trump seems to be taking time to assess, rather than rushing to irradiate.
When Turnbull needed a plan fast, satire paved the way
In a scene in the ABC TV political satire Utopia, the prime minister's press secretary is explaining to the head of the fictitious Nation Building Authority why he has to ignore feasibility studies.
The king with an entourage of 1500 buying Indonesia's schools
A parallel universe exists just 200 kilometres from Australia's shores. It's otherwise known as Indonesia. A remarkable event that you haven't heard about has just taken place there.
A new danger lies in Hanson’s hero worship
Pauline Hanson said two remarkable things this week. No, not the customary Muslim-hating. That's entirely routine. It's written into the One Nation policy platform.
'A solution looking for a problem': the downside to following America
Australia's record in preventing terrorist attacks is one of the best in the world, so why would you want to restructure the system responsible for it? This is the threshold question for the push to create a new mega-department along the lines of the US Department of Homeland Security.
How Turnbull can hold the centre from the hate-mongers
It seems to be heyday for the hatemongers. Pauline Hanson's One Nation calls for a ban on Muslim immigrants. Katter's Australia Party wants the same thing by a different name. Jacqui Lambie is antagonistic to Muslims. Cory Bernardi and the Nationals' George Christensen blow the dog-whistle of anti-Islam.
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