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
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
Will Bligh be the next domino to fall?
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh called it ``the New South Wales disease’’ where the leadership of the ALP, even in office,…... Read more
Abbott ain’t the only one turning the dialogue ugly
George Orwell’s 1949 novel, Nineteen Eighty Four, foretold of a futuristic world where technology was used by an oppressive state…... Read more
Gillard’s half-baked carbon tax stink bomb
It is well known that in politics you don’t interrupt your enemy when he is busy making a mistake. Yet…... Read more
Groundhog Day in Australian politics
Australian politics took on a Groundhog Day feel today as an old debate returned over human-induced climate change, nuclear power,…... Read more
Gillard is still struggling to clip Rudd’s wings
One step forward, one step back. Elation, tempered by frustration. These are the yin and yang senses in the Gillard…... Read more
Spoke brilliantly, looked great, channelled Howard
Julia Gillard has teared up while heaping praise on America as the beacon of hope for humanity and the nation…... Read more
Obama delivers Gillard a handball in the Oval Office
A pair of sixty-oners they may be but two things Julia Gillard and US President, Barack Obama definitely do not…... Read more
The Turnbull longshot that could stop the nasty rhetoric
Tony Abbott is playing hard in his bid for power, but Malcolm Turnbull might offer his colleagues a more elegant…... Read more
Everyone wants Keneally to go down…
When voters hit the polling booths in NSW on March 26, many will have no memory of a time before…... Read more
Last man standing will be winner on carbon tax
Julia Gillard has staked the future of her Government on a costly, complex, and probably unpopular climate change policy. And…... Read more
Keep voters close, and your political allies even closer
Political leaders, be they premiers or prime ministers, need protection - especially during the tough times when the polls look…... Read more
Hospital reform: Your questions answered
The Federal Government has branded it “historic” and “a major achievement”, but big questions hang over Julia Gillard’s multi-billion dollar…... Read more
When the weather can change the political climate
``Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you,’’ goes the much loved Crowded House song. But if you’re in…... Read more
Abbott’s s**t-gate may yet hit a target
Senior Liberals rallied around embattled Opposition Leader Tony Abbott yesterday in the wake of the ``shit-gate’’ controversy, ensuring his position…... Read more
Abbott’s clever shift from Dr No to Mr Yes
Amid the furore of Cyclone Yasi, it largely escaped comment that Tony Abbott had begun a slow crab-walk away from…... Read more
The Government’s goodwill bank is in deficit
Julia Gillard can’t be too happy with the way her flood reconstruction package has been received. But then, who welcomes…... Read more
Labor’s moral and political failure on boats
Julia Gillard certainly got it right by returning from holidays to take charge, but things tailed away after that. First,…... Read more
There’s not really a lot Wayne Swan can do about banks
Wayne Swan is aggrieved. The hard-working treasurer is disappointed at the way his long-heralded bank reform package has gone over.…... Read more
Julia’s Year of Living Rigorously
The sudden resignation of Murray-Darling Basin Authority chair, Mike Taylor, was a reminder that with complex national reforms, there’s many…... Read more
The big headaches are just starting for Julia
The shock defeat of the Brumby state government last weekend has unleashed the usual muttering within the ALP about how…... Read more
Gillard’s long-term bid to overcome a damaged brand
Julia Gillard says she for one was not surprised by the closeness of the August federal election result, maintaining with…... Read more
Siddle’s hat-trick signalled the end of the political year
Like a distant fog-horn through the acrid smoke of political battle, an early English wicket in the first Ashes Test…... Read more
Gillard’s got a lot riding on Saturday’s Victorian election
Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be among the more nervous onlookers at Saturday night’s Victorian election count. While not in…... Read more
For Gillard it will all be about the tough decisions
With Parliament set to wind up in the coming week and the ructions of an explosive year beginning to fade,…... Read more
Did someone say Canberra is full of blow-hards?
Leaf-blowers are often thought of as the bane of the suburbs but harried voters can take some comfort from the…... Read more
Time is running out for Julia to find her mojo
Julia Gillard may be running out of time to stamp her authority on the government as the first murmurings of…... Read more
Obama copped it for too much, Gillard for too little
It is tempting to see parallels between federal Labor’s flat-lining election result and the drubbing Barack Obama’s Democratic Party received…... Read more
Sometimes only a hard decision will do
Labor hard man Graham Richardson noted yesterday that courage was a defining quality in a leader. He was speaking about…... Read more
The odd couple: PM Julia meets Ambassador Brendan
They both attended universities in Adelaide, were members of the ALP, and both wanted desperately to become prime minister of…... Read more
Saddling up for the smiley new politics
As suspenseful as a Hitchcock movie, the twists and turns along the path to the nation’s 43rd Parliament remain a…... Read more
Tony Abbott might look safe but for how long?
Labor was in the box seat as it prepared for the 1983 election but leader Bill Hayden was extra nervous.…... Read more
The old switcheroo: Tony and Mal’s cunning plan
Tony Abbott wants to pressure the independents into making him prime minister in coming months without recourse to the people…... Read more
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Abbott’s crass logic: trash the Parliament in order save it
An email was sent to almost every politician in Australia this week saying that someone should cut off…
Our special forces don’t always need special treatment
We admire them, but we’re not entirely sure why. We allow them to operate in the shadows; we rarely…
A good holiday is about unrest, not rest
Like a fat full-stop, it lay in my hand. A small orange – not exactly fresh, but purchased anyway…
Gentle jabs to the ribs
They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments
A private school girl’s family is sueing her elite, extremely expensive private school for not… Read more
