Helen Coonan
Helen Coonan is a Liberal Party Senator and Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation. She represents the Shadow Treasurer in the Senate.
She commenced her political career following a diverse legal career that spanned establishing her own legal firm, partnership in a large commercial law firm, practise as a commercial barrister in Australia and as a registered New York Attorney.
Senator Coonan was first elected as Liberal Senator for New South Wales in 1996, re-elected in 2001 and again in 2007. Under the Howard Government, she served firstly as Assistant Treasurer and went on to become the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.
Senator Coonan loves art, the theatre, live music and her iPhone and lives in Sydney with her family and two dogs, Archie and Grace.
Articles by Helen Coonan
We need a masterplan to deal with worsening disasters
Sometimes it takes a disaster to shake the complacency out of us. To rethink the attitude of ‘she’ll be right’…... Read more
Gillard’s bad diplomacy is enough to drive you Xananas
Something appears to have gone awry with our new Prime Minister Julia Gillard. By all accounts, those who know the…... Read more
Kevin Rudd, gymnast
How does a PM with seemingly no intestinal fortitude execute so many superb backflips? A sticky narrative is weaving itself…... Read more
Hey Wayne, show me the money problem with our ETS
In conventional Wayne Swan fashion, he was triumphant as he unveiled Treasury’s stern rebuttal of Frontier Economics research report into…... Read more
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RT @RajWakeling: we crucify Lana Del Rey for manufacturing her identity and using autotune, and we worship lady gaga for the same? get some perspective
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The humourless hysteria of the holier-than-thou
In I Spit On Your Grave, a young woman is gang raped in a remote woodland. She is beaten and tortured…
Cash mobs aren’t so flash
For a moment in the mid-naughties, they were the coolest of all cool social media-fuelled meme-thingos.…
If we wanted reality, we’d turn off the television
“Some day, far into the future, this here machine will become a powerful medium with the potential…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: Punch on: Open thread 09/02/2012
marley says:
I'm one of the older ones, so I've certainly seen a few changes in my time. When I started school I learned to write with a nib pen, dipped in an inkwell (no, I'm not kidding). My mother became a dab hand at getting inkstains out of my clothes. Flicking ink at one another in the classroom was an essential… [read more]From: I’d rather have a piece of toast than listen to crap lyrics
Erick says:
Led Zeppelin are responsible for my all-time favourite mixed metaphor: "There you sit, sit and stare, like a book on a shelf rusting." (Misty Mountain Hop) I laugh every time I hear it. Hmmm, I believe I've decided what to play on the way to work today. [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
No wuckin forries. These nuckin futs are tuckin fops
Well, puck me with a fitchfork. The F-word is apparently an acceptable part of Australian speech. That’s… Read more
