Mark Kenny
Mark Kenny has been Political Editor of The Advertiser since 2006 after several years at the ABC having worked in both radio and television. He is a director of the National Press Club, a member of the Federal Press Gallery committee, and a member of the House Howlers - the satirical press gallery choir. He regularly appears as a political commentator on Sky’s Agenda program, Ten’s Meet the Press, Insiders, and numerous radio programs around the country.
Articles by Mark Kenny
Kevin 2.0 could be better. Or it could be even KRuddier.
As key moments go, it ranked with Gough Whitlam’s dramatic dismissal speech branding Malcolm Fraser “Kerr’s cur’’ or the latter’s…... Read more
Julia Gillard is on the highway to the danger zone
Typically, leadership contests have that nagging chicken-or-egg feel about them. They usually involve a period of intense public speculation with…... Read more
The saying goes, politics is showbusiness for ugly people
AND, action! A senior cabinet minister generally regarded as among the more effective, uses a major speech on Australia Day-eve…... Read more
2012: Julia Gillard’s year of living precariously
It was a common question over the break: “What’s going to happen in Canberra this coming year - will there…... Read more
Someone’s getting grounded: our pollies’ 2011 report card
Let’s get one thing straight up front. Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott probably deserve points merely for surviving this arduous…... Read more
Anyone but Gillard vs. anyone but Rudd
When Julia Gillard walked into a press conference on Monday to announce a new ministerial line-up, it was already being…... Read more
She robs Rudd of office, then rubs him from history
“She gave us nothing really, no inspiration and no feeling for the party’s mood. She calls Abbott ‘Dr No’ but…... Read more
A mini budget with an eye to a major electoral payoff
Yesterday’s mini-budget tells an economic story but it is primarily a political document. Outwardly designed to position the nation against…... Read more
Arsegate and other Upper House shenanigans
Australian senators accused of leering at each other’s posteriors? Of failing to show respect? Of not “bowing and scraping” sufficiently…... Read more
Who’d a thunk it? A political year with no spilled blood
It is called the killing season in Canberra for a reason - a curiously fractious time of year when weakened…... Read more
Churlish Abbott not ready to play with the big kids
Power, Chairman Mao once observed, grows from the barrel of a gun. For incumbent PM, Julia Gillard, it arrived this…... Read more
The carbon baby is cooing, but wait till the terrible twos
With Julia Gillard’s carbon price finally locked in, several questions in national politics can be pared back to one suggesting…... Read more
Gillard’s carbon victory more toxic than sweet
Two years after Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme crashed in Parliament, Julia Gillard is poised to achieve what he…... Read more
Qantas turbulence reveals IR policy vacuum
Contempt ran deep for the old IR club with its protected unions and compulsory arbitration, spawning the short-lived “new right”,…... Read more
Labor points behind but finally kicking with the wind
They are reluctant to discuss it but Labor insiders see reasons for hope - however slight. One reason, surprisingly enough,…... Read more
Take-no-prisoners approach could bite Abbott on the…
The conservative radio personality Alan Jones is regarded as the most powerful broadcaster in the country. So his appearance at…... Read more
The carbon comic farce and Gillard’s pound of flesh
You know things have sunk pretty low when forcing an electorally toxic broken promise through Parliament prompts high-fives and kisses…... Read more
Just like Medicare, except Australians don’t want it
Given the bitterness of political exchange, Julia Gillard may be excused for crowing, for basking in the warm light of…... Read more
Malaysia: The worst possible solution
Winston Churchill once noted that democracy was the worst form of government, except for all the rest. It may also…... Read more
Labor’s karma not dogma their own worst enema
Exquisite for some, bitter for others, the irony or perhaps karma of Labor’s current dilemma cannot have escaped members of…... Read more
Abbott may need to revive dead, buried IR policy
“Dead, buried, cremated,” Tony Abbott decreed theatrically of WorkChoices amid a shaky start to his 2010 election campaign. It turned…... Read more
Malaysia ruling sweet music for some, dirge for others
The taut grimace on Chris Bowen’s babyish countenance said it all. This was as tough a task as the widely…... Read more
Craig Thomson, carbon tax and a risky road to nowhere
A “CT’” scan of the Gillard Government shows up the problems clearly enough. Two of them actually: the Carbon Tax…... Read more
An island of calm amid global economic meltdown
Twenty years ago today, Muscovites awoke to tanks in their streets in a ill-fated coup against the modernising leader, Mikhail…... Read more
Swipe your way to a parliamentary career
If Macquarie Bank was capitalism’s “Millionaires Factory,’’ the Labor equivalent, at least in SA, is the powerful Shop Distributive and…... Read more
South Australia in limbo, governed by an also-Rann
South Australia has not so much two premiers now but none. The outgoing Mike Rann has played his assassins off…... Read more
It’s well worth debating the state of public debate
It has become fashionable to engage in a debate about the state of public debate of late. This introspection comes…... Read more
Retreat and withdraw: Gillard’s new strategy
APRIL 8,1974. My darling Heather, I write to you at a time when I think I’ve never felt worse about…... Read more
Britain can teach us how to keep our House in order
From the parliamentary precinct across Lake Burley Griffin to this correspondent’s home takes six or seven minutes by car -…... Read more
Labor’s dilemma: Plan B is to stick to Plan A
Tony Abbott has undermined his own multi-billion dollar climate change policy declaring the bipartisan target of 5 per cent emissions…... Read more
In Abbott we trust, sort of
When John Howard finally called an election in 2004, he had a cunning plan. The ageing PM had trailed for…... Read more
No one’s tuning in to Gillard FM
Labor strategists believe that in normal circumstances, their Prime Minister has both sufficient time and enough fibre to turn things…... Read more
Spoonful of sugar helps carbon medicine go down
Julia Gillard has attempted the political equivalent of cold fusion - making a big new tax popular. Having backflipped on…... Read more
Carbon tax: A lock up or a stitch up?
If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, for Canberra reporters this weekend the price of vigilance will mean surrendering…... Read more
Taxation 101: Not everyone can get a tax cut
When 150 business and union leaders, academics, accountants, bureaucrats and politicians gather this October for the long-awaited tax summit, few…... Read more
Doom! Gloom! Gillard celebrates one year
It loomed like an end of year exam. Threatening. Dreary. Ominous. And completely necessary in order to proceed into the…... Read more
Will the NBN help Gillard connect with voters?
Julia Gillard is hoping a breakthrough broadband announcement made on the eve of her first anniversary as Prime Minister will…... Read more
Abbott’s carbon outrage is all part of his cunning plan…
Tony Abbott’s proposed people’s vote on the carbon tax is either a shallow stunt, a cunning manoeuvre, or both. The…... Read more
Obama and Gillard defy the theory of voternomics
Just as it sinks in here that an election is two full years away, the political circus that is American…... Read more
Climate Committee is arguing for argument’s sake
A spat this morning over the release of Treasury modelling which showed the marginal economic impact of a carbon price…... Read more
A political war of words, and woofs, and meows…
Tony Abbott once said that his written words carried more weight than his off-the-cuff utterances. This week, words of both…... Read more
Each death in Afghanistan is another test of faith
The deaths of another two Australian diggers in Afghanistan will not weaken the Government’s resolve to stay the course, Prime…... Read more
The next federal election is Abbott’s to lose
On Tuesday, Tony Abbott implored his troops not to blow it. But some in the Coalition worry that it’s not…... Read more
Turnbull: A ray of light or imploding star?
When Julia Gillard survived the near-death election last year, one proven campaigner offered the rookie PM a piece of advice.…... Read more
Budget 2011: We’re all liberals now
Irony of ironies. In a time of unprecedented communications control where political statements are workshopped to death, both sides of…... Read more
Budget 2011: It’s all about the jobs, jobs, jobs
There’s a certain irony that a Government proud of an unemployment rate with a “four in front of it’’ is…... Read more
Labor’s shifting deckchairs while Abbott fiddles
In a face-off between a simple argument and a complex one, the former usually wins hands down. Over the last…... Read more
The worst-kept secret: This Government’s just no good
Hurrying along a Parliament House corridor this week, I was pulled aside by a Canberra insider with strong links to…... Read more
Rogue Rudd has Gillard over a barrel
It was another poor week for the Government, and one in which the Opposition didn’t have to lift a finger.…... Read more
Green slip shows they’re no compulsory third party
In May this year, the venerable old man of the left, Bob Brown will address the National Press Club. He…... Read more
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New speaker’s slack clobber, old speaker clobbers slackers
Peter Slipper, draped in black in a manner most young voters will not see outside Hogwarts, has dramatically…
Snappy 60th birthday to our most fun newspaper
Life is far from dull in the Northern Territory. Or if it is, we’ll never know. And that’s…
There’s no evidence sex-for-cab-fares is a trend
Fifteen years ago when one of your girlfriends had a few too many Illusion shots standard practice was…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: City vs country: What would you change your life for?
Dieter Moeckel says:
We made the tree change from Darwin to Wonbah more than 15 years ago. After fencing, a road, and couple of dams our money was gone. Super is enough to live comfortably. We have geese growing old and stringy the only one that made it to the pot committed Kamakazi by flying into a tree; the chooks are… [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
