Shaun Carney

Shaun Carney is associate editor of The Age. He is the author of books on industrial relations and the life of Peter Costello, and has been commended by the Walkley Award judges for his political columns.

Pox on both houses

Shaun Carney The government's intentions are becoming clear: a double dissolution election will be held within six months.

At a loss over Abbott

Shaun Carney In his first party-room pep talk of 2010 a few weeks ago, Tony Abbott told his MPs that the Liberal-National Coalition could win this year's election.

PM's mea culpa: fact or fiction?

Shaun Carney Politics doesn't have to stink, but all too often it does. A few days ago, Victorian Planning Minister Justin Madden rated high on the funk-ometer when he tried to play down a leaked memo that...

The right remedy?

Shaun Carney Australia's public hospitals certainly need help. But Kevin Rudd may not yet have the medicine required.

Bungled roll-out tests Australians' faith in big government

Shaun Carney All liberal democracies display ambivalence, even hypocrisy, towards government. There's a natural suspicion, often bordering on mistrust, about ordinary citizens who want to put themselves forward...

School's in for ALP

Shaun Carney The Rudd government got a good sense of its political mortality this month. In politics, no matter how well you're travelling, it is always going to be a temporary proposition, and the home...

Back to the future

Shaun Carney Lightning doesn't strike twice. In mid-December 2006, a Howard government minister assured me in a private conversation that Kevin Rudd, then newly installed as Labor leader, would not be able to...

Avoiding collapse

Shaun Carney Old-fashioned politics will probably save Peter Garrett, but his long-term parliamentary life will be problematic.

Is an emissions trading scheme going the way of the republic?

Shaun Carney Is the emissions trading scheme the republic issue revisited: a policy the public supports in theory but not in practice? The ETS, like the republic in the late 1990s, almost became a reality but...

Walking the line

Shaun Carney On Thursday afternoon, Kevin Rudd was telling Parliament that the Coalition's new climate action scheme would, by 2020, cost each household $1000, when Liberal leader Tony Abbott and frontbenchers...

Slow learners

Shaun Carney The education union's misguided opposition to the My School website will not help improve public schools.

Slow down Kevin, it's policy time

Shaun Carney The mid-term slump is as much a feature of Australian politics as the premiership hangover in football or the difficult second album in pop music.

Another day of national celebration, but forget about a republic or new flag

Shaun Carney Australia should become a republic. But it won't for a very long time, if ever. There's a better than even chance that the change won't come during the lifetime of any Australian alive today.

Heartbeat faint for climate change patient

Shaun Carney If this is as good as it gets, then Copenhagen is still likely to be a bust. Climate change is ultimately a domestic question and many countries, especially the US, do not seem to have political...

Bearing no fruit

Shaun Carney Philosophically adrift and relying on sound-bite blows as its tactical armoury, the Liberals are in serious disarray.

Here we go again

Shaun Carney There is more than one way to approach the speculation and destabilisation surrounding Malcolm Turnbull's leadership of the Liberal Party.

Party on the ropes

Shaun Carney Malcolm Turnbull was right to challenge climate change rebels, but they seem determined to condemn the Coalition to electoral oblivion.

Morality and politics don't mix

Shaun Carney The current political argument over asylum seekers is one occasion when, superficially at least, our parliamentary system works: all sides get an airing, reflecting the breadth of views across the...