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Mark Riley

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Promise of a free lunch won’t save Labor in Queensland

Labor Premier Steven Miles has run the better campaign. It probably won’t matter. The groundswell for change has been building for two years.When Queensland swings, it swings hard.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Albo’s Kokoda Track trek a reminder of nations’ sacred bond

MARK RILEY: A fallen tree trunk halfway up a vertiginous mountain in the crippling humidity of the PNG jungle turns out to be the perfect place to engage in a bit of a deep and meaningful with two PMs.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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opinion
Mark RileyCommentsPremium
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Both parties throwing everything they have at Dunkley poll

The Parliament is acting like a giant funnel this week in a manner that has left many observers scratching their heads.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Mark RileyCommentsPremium
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Parties tread over old battlegrounds as by-election looms

In just eight days, the voters of Dunkley will go to a by-election that will act as a litmus test for the Albanese Government.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Mark RileyCommentsPremium
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PM wins first round of tax battle, but war is far from over

Former Labor cabinet minister Joel Fitzgibbon was renowned for his straight talking. It frequently got him into trouble. Often with his own side.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Mark RileyCommentsPremium
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Ball is in Dutton’s court as Libs weigh up tax cuts response

A new measure has appeared in the preponderance of polling that takes the temperature of the Australian electorate.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Mark RileyCommentsPremium
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No pretty picture: Referendum defeat shatters Labor’s belief

Government strategists often talk of establishing ‘political frames’. It is an important part of what they do.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Mark RileyCommentsPremium
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Calls for ministerial scalps could backfire on the Coalition

To paraphrase the late, great astrophysicist Carl Sagan ‘there is no such thing as a stupid question’. There are only bad answers.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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With perceptions shifting, PM must reconnect with voters

Things are beginning to turn for the Albanese Government. The impression it has built of controlled authority is looking shaky.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Mark RileyCommentsPremium
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Battlelines redrawn as debate turns ugly

The nature of the political contest changed on Wednesday. Irrevocably. The clash of leaders has become nasty, ugly, visceral.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Australia’s resilience forced China to use a different tack

Anthony Albanese’s visit to Beijing’s famous Temple of Heaven this week was a moment rich in metaphor and symbolism. But not everyone was thrilled.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Does Albanese have the courage to be a true friend to China?

Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations wasn’t just the best speech he delivered in office, it was one of the best by any prime minister since federation.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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PM Albanese’s best speech yet

Somewhere along the line, someone realised that having two world leaders doing the Rock Lobster on the White House lawns while bombs rained down on Gaza might not be a good look. 

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Albo hits turbulence: Pressing issues making travel tough

Labor backbenchers tell me even their rusted-on supporters are getting uncomfortable with the amount of time the Prime Minister is spending abroad.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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When hostilities run deep, there is no prospect for peace

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, seemed nothing like the imposing figure I’d imagined as his bodyguards wheeled him into a room in northern Gaza, in October, 2000.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Howard and Albanese have more in common than you’d think

The comparisons at first sounded too wild to deserve serious consideration. “Albo and John Howard are very similar people,” the senior Labor figure told me. I scoffed. Naturally.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Victoria has a new premier, but battle over GST will rage on

Like Andrews, Jacinta Allan is a member of the Socialist Left faction, though is regarded as more moderate, more of a pragmatic centrist. And she, like Andrews, is an utterly political animal.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Show trial into nation’s COVID response would serve no one

Australians deserve answers on what worked, what didn’t work and how we can be better prepared when the next pandemic comes along. And the way that is done shouldn’t be overtly political.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Would-be Yes voters turned off by combative approach

The campaign to ingrain the principles of the Uluru Statement into the Constitution has shifted from the heart to the gut. And that is turning voters away.

Mark Riley

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There’s more than one way to break the Qatar Airlines logjam

Reading between the lines of Catherine King’s answers yesterday, Qatar might do better to apply for a smaller increase than the effective doubling of its slots.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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People really don’t know what this referendum is all about

She wasn’t talking about the coming vote. She was talking about Seven’s top-rating singing competition of the same name.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Mark RileyCommentsPremium
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Answers to our age-old problem are obvious ... in theory

At present, one in every five dollars in super is left unspent when a person dies. That is about $20 billion a year being handed down to younger generations in bequests.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Mark RileyCommentsPremium
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Politics of the possible sees Albo bypass hostile Parliament

The sight of a couple of thousand left wing unionists massing on the streets outside Labor’s national conference in Brisbane yesterday said much about the way Australia’s ruling party has changed.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley

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Yes camp’s final push: It’s time to focus on ‘soft’ voters

One of the great benefits of working at Parliament House is the opportunity it provides to meet people from all around our wide and diverse country. 

Mark Riley

Mark Riley