Laurie Oakes
Laurie Oakes, one of Australia’s foremost political commentators, has had a distinguished career in journalism that spans more than 30 years.
Oakes is renowned for his probing interviews and Canberra-shaking scoops, including the travel rorts saga, the Evans and Kernot affair and breaking stories on the Kevin Rudd-Julia Gillard leadership fight that changed the course of the 2010 election campaign.
By the age of 25, he was The Melbourne Sun-Pictorial’s Canberra bureau chief. While reporting for this paper, Oakes also provided political commentaries for the Seven Network’s Willesee At Seven program.
In 1978 he started his own political journal, The Laurie Oakes Report. The following year he joined Channel 10, where he stayed for five years before moving to the Nine Network.
For several years Oakes wrote about politics in The Age in Melbourne and The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney as well as the Bulletin magazine.
Oakes is Channel Nine’s Political Editor at the Canberra Press Gallery and News Limited columnist.
In 2010 he won the Gold Walkley Award for stories he broke during the 2010 election.
Articles by Laurie Oakes
Abbott’s jokes are no laughing matter
He’s a card, that Tony Abbott. If he’s not widely known for his sense of humour, he should be. He…... Read more
Time for Labor to plan what to do when they lose
The federal election might still be seven months away, but things are so grim for the Labor Party that minds…... Read more
The election campaign is still about these two men
As Tony Abbott pressed the flesh at a community morning tea in suburban Melbourne on Wednesday, there was a moment…... Read more
There will be an apocalypse under the government I lead
There’s precious little fun in politics these days. When our elected representatives are not slagging off at each other, they’re…... Read more
This parliament put the Christmas grinch out of work
When parliament adjourned on Thursday night and MPs left Canberra for the long Christmas break, any sane person would have…... Read more
Oh my god, Gillard and Abbott agree on something
We are about to embark on the final parliamentary sitting week of the year, and it promises to be ugly.…... Read more
Whirling dervish Tony needs to keep fighting smarter
In a radio interview during the week, Tony Abbott gave a vivid description of his style in the ring when…... Read more
Pinocchio: The future of Australian politics
Back in March, when the US presidential election campaign was in its early stages, the Washington Post newspaper awarded Barack…... Read more
Standing on the edge of a fiscal cliff - in a stiff breeze
Wayne Swan will be Johnny-on-the-spot on Tuesday, holding talks in Washington on the day Americans vote to decide who will…... Read more
Joe Hockey sticks up for economic opportunism
The policy bigwigs who heard Joe Hockey’s provocative speech to the Institute of Economic Affairs in London back in April…... Read more
The US leading us down an exciting but expensive path
The way the American media reported it, the second debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney during the week was…... Read more
An enraged sisterhood will protect Julia Gillard
On Wednesday night, the Prime Minister’s communications director, John McTernan, was with a group of Labor staffers in a Canberra…... Read more
Margie: A rare American-style spousal intervention
Margie Abbott is not the first political leader’s wife to rush to the defence of a husband under pressure. The…... Read more
A debate about Labor that’s actually worth having
Bob Carr is a keen diarist. He kept a lively and detailed diary during his time in NSW politics, including…... Read more
Labor’s got a crazy plan that just might work
Last Monday’s Newspoll created excitement on both sides of politics. It had Labor and the Coalition running neck and neck,…... Read more
Abbott invited this scrutiny of his student politics days
Tony Abbott is hardly in a position to complain that his behaviour at university 35 years ago is being scrutinised…... Read more
Barnaby. Our next deputy prime minister?
The possibility that Barnaby Joyce could become deputy prime minister in a coalition government suddenly has Liberals - quite a…... Read more
If we flee Afghanistan now, we leave it to the terrorists
When Australia joined the United States and other allies in sending forces to Afghanistan in 2001, the aim was crystal…... Read more
Have you heard the one about the politician who lies?
Let’s not beat about the bush. Tony Abbott tells lies. So what? Is there anything surprising about that? After all,…... Read more
Anyone but a politician for our next GG
Godwin Grech, the former senior bureaucrat at the centre of the so-called Utegate scandal three years ago, struck a chord…... Read more
How our pollies can get us to “medal” again
Julia Gillard must be very glad she resisted the urging of Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates to attend the…... Read more
An unusual team; but Swan, Springsteen win gold
With the Olympics dominating the media, most Ministers and MPs opted to take things quietly this last week. They assumed…... Read more
Giving new meaning to the term Rats in the Ranks
When Tony Abbott visited the RSPCA in Canberra on Tuesday, one of the staff introduced him to a pet rat.…... Read more
Enough with the politics. Too many people have died
The sinking of another asylum-seeker boat on its way to Australia, and the loss of life involved, should focus the…... Read more
Smith will need balls to tackle the top brass
There is great resistance at senior levels of the military to the idea of a Royal Commission into decades of…... Read more
We should be applauding, not donning a hair shirt
Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens put it eloquently yesterday when he complained that economic discussion in this country has “reached…... Read more
We’ll all be rooned, except the Coalition at the election
Back in 2001, on the Nine Network’s now defunct Sunday program, Tony Abbott invented a new word. Roonism. The then…... Read more
Mining money talks the loudest in Australian politics
When North Queensland Liberal MP George Christensen got the idea of launching a new political organisation to counter what he…... Read more
Spoof sagas consume an “honourable” profession
Breakfast television viewers must have fallen out of their chairs in shock at Joe Hockey’s words last Sunday. “It is…... Read more
Saints and sinners, whores and lost souls
When Wayne Swan is at his desk he likes to work to music. He told journalists during the week that…... Read more
Everyone is wrong: Gillard will lead Labor to the election
Here’s a novel thought. Julia Gillard might be right when she says she’ll lead Labor to the next election. It’s…... Read more
Gillard’s hypocrisy on the presumption of innocence
Journalists who report on politics for a living see plenty of hypocrisy. We’re seeing plenty now from Julia Gillard. She…... Read more
Gillard rallies her troops for the final round
Every time Julia Gillard’s desperate Government looks at some policy or event as a potential circuit-breaker, things seem to get…... Read more
Love him or loathe him, a rare man of conviction
With Bob Brown’s resignation as leader of the Greens, Australia has lost its most important left-wing politician. There was a…... Read more
Wanted: Local champions for Queensland Labor
The photographs and the TV images should have brought home to those running the Labor Party the seriousness of the…... Read more
The Labor brand is damaged - and so is the product
“When the tide goes out in Queensland,” a senior Labor figure said yesterday, “it goes out more quickly and more…... Read more
Abbott listens to Costello only when it suits him
Nick Minchin is spot on. Making Peter Costello chairman of the Future Fund would have been a very bad decision.…... Read more
There’s no need for Stephen Smith to apologise
The gallant defenders of Fort Fumble, AKA Defence HQ in Canberra, have heard the bugle call and trained their guns…... Read more
Brand new Carr adds razzle dazzle to Gillard front bench
That’s one for the books. Julia Gillard unbotches something. Turns failure into success instead of the other way around. Bob…... Read more
The World According to Rudd: an insider’s guide
Early last year, a former Rudd Government insider sat down to write about the experience. The resulting document - he…... Read more
This parliament’s found the art of trouble in spades
Wayne Swan has a lot of fun in parliament comparing the opposition’s economic team to The Three Stooges. He casts…... Read more
Hockey is pucking around with dollars and sense
Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has been whacked around the head this week for denying he ever admitted a Coalition government…... Read more
Gillard’s mapping a route but will probably still be routed
Julia Gillard and her advisers believe they can see a narrow path to victory for Labor at the next federal…... Read more
We need smarter security, not beefed up security
Let’s not make any excuses for the morons associated with the Aboriginal tent embassy who sparked Thursday’s ugly events in…... Read more
Political pygmies could learn from giants of the past
Most Australians couldn’t give two hoots who runs the Australia Network. It is of no importance to them whether the…... Read more
Is the party over for Labor?
When Gough Whitlam set out to reform the Labor Party and its structure in the 1960s, he was prepared to…... Read more
Exterminate! Exterminate! Slipper has target on his back
The ghost of Mal Colston is wandering the corridors of Federal Parliament, and some Labor people with long memories fear…... Read more
When Barack ‘Rockstar’ Obama came to town
When Barack Obama met the Australian Cabinet on Thursday morning, Julia Gillard introduced Peter Garrett as “a former rock star”.…... Read more
Obama will help Gillard look positively prime ministerial
Mixing with the great and powerful on the international stage does not always give Australian prime ministers a boost in…... Read more
Who’s feral now, Tony?
It was an extraordinary complaint from Tony Abbott. “It’s very difficult to have a sensible debate,” he said, “when you…... Read more
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