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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.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton is looking for new ways to encourage migrants out of capital cities.

'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.

Turnbull has been a strong voice of national cohesion, as any Australian leader should be.

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.