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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.

'We aren't going to be bullied by CEOs or anyone else': Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.

'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.

It would be a marvel if Scott Morrison and the other ministers of the Turnbull government could prove Ken Henry's dark ...

The government is missing the opportunity to solve the housing crisis

The governor of the Reserve Bank, Phil Lowe, has sometimes found himself sitting next to Scott Morrison at lunch and dinner functions over the past couple of years.  The head of the central bank has used the opportunity to try to persuade Australia's treasurer of the need to take big, bold action. 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has had an epiphany over energy.

We already have Trump 2.0, thanks to Turnbull

So what on earth was the point of all that? Over the past four days, Donald Trump has meekly abandoned two of his grandest and most earth-shattering threats to reshape the world order.