October
- Opinion
- Scott Morrison
Coalition shapes up for carbon copy of 2019 but Labor’s not spooked
A shopworn Morrison government is limbering up for a re-run of the last federal election campaign, trying to define Labor before the ALP defines itself.
- Phillip Coorey
Scott Morrison wants to manage climate change off the table
Just as with gay marriage, the conservatives are getting their say – and then bowing to the inevitable.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Scott Morrison
PM won’t entertain a ‘big Australia’ on cusp of net zero
Scott Morrison is not about to inflame the anti-immigration right while wrangling the Nationals to achieve the meaningful climate policy no Liberal leader has.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Opinion
Morrison’s climate war will be in Queensland, not Glasgow
A very tight election just five months away leaves the Prime Minister with little time or energy for global environment conferencing.
- Phillip Coorey
September
- Opinion
- Opinion
Queensland – perfect one day, on a knife-edge the next
COVID-19 has shown that once delta strikes, the only number that matters is the vaccination rate. No wonder Annastacia Palaszczuk is keen to avoid a lockdown.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Scott Morrison
Coalition deal on net zero coming down the track
Barnaby Joyce’s linking of climate change and inland rail is a sign the Nationals are finally stepping aboard Australia’s carbon abatement challenge.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Scott Morrison
No one’s talking snub now as grand alliance surfaces
Boris Johnson’s ‘gatecrashing’ of Scott Morrison’s and Joe Biden’s G7 meeting was probably the most important trilateral gathering for Australia in 70 years.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Scott Morrison
Vaccine passports the latest casualty of our hopeless infighting
As government bicker about passports, the great irony is that we have an app that could have done the job nationally - the much-maligned COVIDSafe app.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Scott Morrison
Populist premiers will reopen only when they are good and ready
The only constant of coronavirus is that at some stage, it has made, or will make, all our political leaders look stupid.
- Phillip Coorey
August
- Opinion
- Opinion
Morrison’s grasp on power hangs on offering hope
As the mood shifts behind the national reopening plan, the PM’s strategy is to portray flat-footed Labor as the party of lockdowns before the next election.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Tony Abbott
No nation-building in Afghanistan without a forever war
Without the distraction of Iraq, a shorter, sharper war after 9/11 might have achieved the original objective to degrade al-Qaeda, topple the Taliban and leave.
- Phillip Coorey
Nationals tail wags the Coalition dog on net zero
Barnaby Joyce says Labor has to speak to two different constituencies on climate. But his party’s stubbornness is creating the same problem for the government.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Opinion
‘Cash for jabs’ risks reigniting concern about Labor waste
Since the 2019 election, the party has done well to address the perception it’s the weaker economic manager, so its $6 billion proposal is a little strange.
- Phillip Coorey
July
Politics is now just a show about the virus
Both big parties are vying to be a smaller target than the other, reducing the next election to a referendum on the pandemic and the road out.
- Phillip Coorey
Morrison’s salvation is also the nation’s
All the government can do is get the vaccines out in the coming months - and avoid fights with premiers that can never be won.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Opinion
Worm keeps turning on best laid reopening plans
Will the vaccine rollout provide the permanent road out of the pandemic all are searching for? Or will it be just another plan that will fail to work as hoped?
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Opinion
Berejiklian’s lockdown stance leaves no one happy
Once lauded as the gold standard for staying open, NSW now finds itself trapped in lockdown limbo.
- Andrew Tillett
- Opinion
- Scott Morrison
Freed from quarantine, PM enters the zombie apocalypse
Amid Barnaby Joyce’s rising from the grave and the state premiers’ takeover of the country, Scott Morrison’s return is like one of those movies in which the coma victim awakes.
- Phillip Coorey
June
- Opinion
- Opinion
This government, or the next, will have to fix the NDIS
The cost forecasts in Monday’s IGR will be used as a springboard to return the disability support scheme closer to its original purpose
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Opinion
Morrison is hedging on asylum politics. So is Labor
The government is hedging on the politics and still believes the hardline view – that most voters are hostile to boat people – is the dominant one. So is Labor.
- Phillip Coorey
