http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/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. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/wrap-of-the-week-its-the-economy-stupid/ There is a touch of Lleyton Hewitt about Julia Gillard. It is not merely that both are redheads or that they hail from South Australia. It is that both have a curious tendency to produce their best only when staring at defeat. Hewitt fans are used to their man dropping a set or two before pulling out his A-game. Ms Gillard too seems best when her back is against the wall. This was clear in the last election campaign following Cabinet leaks aimed at destroying her - she held a doorstop press conference and impressed with a purposeful denial stripped of all the lame scripting and woodiness of her usual approach. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/wrap-of-the-week-its-the-economy-stupid/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/wrap-of-the-week-its-the-economy-stupid/#item7726 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:50:12 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kevin-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 lip-quivering concession on election night, 1983. It was June 24, 2010. Before a huge media throng, a teary Kevin Rudd, his composure failing, his bewildered family staring awkwardly forward, detailed his achievements one by one. Long silences exacerbated the tension. It was excruciating. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kevin-could-be-better-or-it-could-be-even-kruddier/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kevin-could-be-better-or-it-could-be-even-kruddier/#item7685 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:55:32 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/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 various insiders anonymously cited as backing this option or that. It is a process which can leave voters suspicious of motives if only because change, division, and conflict, make great news copy. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julia-gillard-is-on-the-highway-to-the-danger-zone/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julia-gillard-is-on-the-highway-to-the-danger-zone/#item7681 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:30:50 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/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 to channel an American president without acknowledging it. Worse, it wasn’t even an actual president but a fictional one. On the same day, a few hundred metres up the hill, the 2012 Australian of the year is unveiled as an A-list Hollywood actor, Geoffrey Rush. Rush, a gifted pretender with an expressive face, promptly weighs in to some of the more divisive political debates in this country hinting at the moral failure of both sides of politics to recognise the human courage of asylum seekers, the failure to progress gay marriage equality, and to deliver enough on climate change. Later he defends his A-list compatriot Cate Blanchett who had been lambasted for taking part in an advertising campaign on carbon driven global warming. OK as movie plots go this is bit lame but it certainly seems fanciful enough. Besides, it has the advantage of being “based on a true story” and all that. It even has some real actors in it. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-saying-goes-politics-is-showbusiness-for-ugly-people/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-saying-goes-politics-is-showbusiness-for-ugly-people/#item7617 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:50:33 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/2012-julia-gillards-year-of-living-precariously/ It was a common question over the break: “What’s going to happen in Canberra this coming year - will there be an election?’‘ Politics has always been a rough game but in recent times it’s become a virtual blood-sport with a constant sense that there’s another big event around every corner. It matters less whether it’s an early election or perhaps a leadership contest on one or both sides. This “what’s-gonna-happen” fascination goes not merely to whether Tony Abbott can maintain the pressure on Julia Gillard he so relentlessly applied in 2011, but also to whether her own colleagues will hold fast or do the unthinkable. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/2012-julia-gillards-year-of-living-precariously/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/2012-julia-gillards-year-of-living-precariously/#item7566 Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:50:32 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/someones-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 first calendar year of minority government. With everyone on a steep learning curve, the most obvious lesson is that there is a parallel between minority parliament and the concept of dog years: twelve months of this ages a government like the full three years of a normal term. The other lesson is that while Julia Gillard has shown she is as tough as nails, simply refusing to blink, Tony Abbott has also adapted to the situation better than he’s been given credit for. So, to some ratings. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/someones-getting-grounded-our-pollies-2011-report-card/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/someones-getting-grounded-our-pollies-2011-report-card/#item7436 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:55:46 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/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 reported that she had been stared down by her own ministers. Just weeks after the triumph of securing an extra number in parliament via Peter Slipper’s appointment as Speaker, her limited authority in the party, evident at National Conference, had been graphically laid bare. Two ministers, the popular but factionally unaligned Peter Garrett, and the ultra-cautious Attorney General Robert McClelland, had simply refused to fall on their swords. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/anyone-but-gillard-vs-anyone-but-rudd/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/anyone-but-gillard-vs-anyone-but-rudd/#item7390 Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:00:10 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/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 it’s Julia who’s going to be known for saying no, and sometimes for things she later praises like emissions trading and probably gay marriage.” This damning critique came not from an Opposition MP or conservative commentator, but a moderate member of the ALP’s Left. It speaks to a growing frustration that was all too evident in Sydney last weekend when the PM had to be rescued from the membership following the embarrassing “we are us” opening address to National Conference. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/She-robs-Rudd-of-office-then-rubs-him-from-history/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/She-robs-Rudd-of-office-then-rubs-him-from-history/#item7337 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:50:02 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/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 the turbulence of a troubled world, its real unspoken mission is positioning Labor for the 2013 election. At its core is Julia Gillard’s fear that carrying even a small deficit into the election that year, which most economists say would be perfectly justified and even prudent, would allow Tony Abbott to say Labor had never delivered a surplus and never would. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-mini-budget-with-an-eye-to-a-major-electoral-payoff/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-mini-budget-with-an-eye-to-a-major-electoral-payoff/#item7267 Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:55:16 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/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 in deference to the chair? Welcome to just another day on the plush red carpet of the nation’s more civilised Upper House. But then, the final sitting Thursday was never just any old day was it? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Kenny) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arsegate-and-other-upper-house-shenanigans/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arsegate-and-other-upper-house-shenanigans/#item7247 Fri, 25 Nov 2011 19:00:01 +0000 Mark Kenny | Author bios | The Punch