Mark Davis
Abbott is better off following the beaten track
Mark Davis Tony Abbott went missing in more than one sense this week.
Politics drowning in spin as media audiences fragment
Mark Davis Death is about as real as it gets.
Barnaby lite on Q&A
Mark Davis Ever since Barnaby Joyce arrived in Canberra five years ago he has been assiduously pursuing a political strategy of ''product differentiation'' from the Liberal Party for his beloved Nationals.
ALP the favourite as Rudd and Abbott enter the home straight
Mark Davis In terms of the horse racing analogy so beloved of political commentators, Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott have just rounded the final bend of this year's election contest.
How to get a $450,000 job: no ads required - just a nice word from the minister
Mark Davis The latest instance of the government’s erosion of the normal processes of policy-making and public administration is the appointment of Mike Kaiser as a senior executive with NBN Co.
Abbott's magic pudding is appetising but unworkable
Mark Davis Tony Abbott's gamble on climate change is that the politics of his message overshadows the lack of substance of the new policy he unveiled this week.
More budget burdens for our children's children
Mark Davis Treasury’s intergenerational reports are all about casting a long searchlight into the nation’s economic, demographic and fiscal future.
A real chance for a world free of nuclear weapons
Mark Davis While political leaders, environmentalists, business executives and ordinary folk concerned about the fate of the earth have been preoccupied with climate change, the world has been sleepwalking its...
Brendan Nelson should make a clean break from politics
Mark Davis To the best of our knowledge there was no night of the long prawns involved in Brendan Nelson's appointment as Australia's next ambassador to the European Union.
Rock star ratings and political own goals
Mark Davis As Kevin Rudd approaches his second anniversary as Prime Minister, public approval of his performance in the job is at stellar levels by both Australian and international political standards.
The real reasons for asylum seeker arrivals
Mark Davis The Prime Minister of the day may subscribe to "evidence-based policy" and the Opposition leader may be a former investment banker familiar with every financial metric from EBITDA to the yield curve.
Abbott wins by standing for something
Mark Davis The Liberal Party room has decided it wants a leader who stands for something rather than a cuddly teddy bear who can’t take a position.
Turnbull hangs on to leadership, but for how long?
Mark Davis Malcolm Turnbull has hung onto the Liberal leadership. Yet today’s Liberal Party room vote has exposed the fact 40 per cent of his colleagues would prefer anyone, literally anyone, but Turnbull to...
Turnbull adopts crash or crash through strategy
Mark Davis Turnbull is adopting the Whitlamite strategy of "crash or crash through" in this confrontation with his own party. That worked out fairly well for the former Labor leader.
Turnbull's role: dead man talking
Mark Davis At 8.56 last night Malcolm Turnbull strode into the Opposition party room for a press conference as if nothing at all untoward had transpired.
Sniping makes new leader's job harder
Mark Davis The conventional approach to leadership challenges in political parties is that once the deed is done both vanquished and vanquishers fall into line.
