Opinion
A poddy calf summons memories of a free-range childhood
Needing to get away from Canberra and the artful dodgings of its politicians, I stumbled into a bygone world, with all its ups and downs.
- by Tony Wright
Latest
Analysis
After judge sends him down, Pell's longest day ends in solitary cell
Cardinal George Pell began the day with a "perp walk" to the County Court of Victoria. He ended it in a jail cell.
- by Tony Wright
Updated
Stooped, frail and grey, church's big man makes shuffling 'perp walk'
The courtroom was silent. It seemed unimaginable. It was not. A cardinal was to be remanded.
- by Tony Wright
Unimaginable says the Cardinal who violated children after Mass
How George Pell went from being one of the most powerful Catholics in the world to a convicted paedophile.
- by Melissa Cunningham, Adam Cooper and Tony Wright
Analysis
George Pell: How the mighty have fallen
He was a Prince of the Church, handpicked in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, as a cardinal; a prelate, set above others, entitled to be called His Eminence.
- by Tony Wright
Opinion
Ministerial responsibility in Canberra appears to have all but decayed to no responsibility
You can detect an odour infecting Parliament: desperation and denial mixed with things decomposing in the shade.
- by Tony Wright
Opinion
Mathias Cormann solves the parable of loaves, fishes and a credit card
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has attempted to explain the mystery of his free flights and an apparently magical credit card.
- by Tony Wright
Sketch
Why would a 'sophisticated' foreign hacker bother with the very unsophisticated Australian politics?
Whoever is behind it proved sophisticated enough at least to figure there was no point in hacking Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
- by Tony Wright
Analysis
This first parliamentary week of the year was a miserable metaphor for the state of federal politics
This week was a miserable metaphor for the state of federal politics in this jittery start to a long, fear-fuelled election campaign.
- by Tony Wright
Is politics really this lonely?
Politics may be lonely, but suddenly, the Parliament seems full to bursting with bizarre interactions, alleged or actual.
- by Tony Wright
Analysis
How the first day of the political year threatened to end the Morrison government
When Speaker Tony Smith finished reading the legal advice he had received, MPs held their collective breath.
- by Tony Wright