Writer
Alex Mitchell
Alex Mitchell is a former State Political Editor of Sydney’s Sun-Herald and a regular Friday contributor to John Menadue’s Pearls & Irritations. His latest book is Murder in Melbourne – The Untold Story of Palestinian exchange student Aiia Maasarwe.
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‘Mr Sin’ aka Abe Saffron had a little mate at ASIO headquarters
Abe Saffron, the king of Sydney’s vice rackets, had a long friendship with Dudley Doherty, a top spy with the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). Continue reading »
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Liberal Party MPs line up to succeed Premier Gladys
Eight Cabinet Ministers are in the field of wannabees to become the 49th Premier of NSW. Continue reading »
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Gladys Berejiklian continues to stumble
Watching life ebb from the premiership of Gladys Berejiklian requires a strong stomach because it is a most terrible experience, rather like seeing someone running out of breath. Continue reading »
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Sea of scandal ready to engulf NSW Premier
His language may be mangled but its essential truth isn’t. As Labor MP Kerry Hickey, now 60 and a former milkman, said: “It just keeps coming. Things get worser and worser.” Continue reading »
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Premier of ‘Sydney’ launches farewell tour to regain dignity
Gladys Berejiklian is telling voters on the South Coast one thing: Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is regaling the CBD with quite another. They are on two different missions: she wants out; he wants in. Continue reading »
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Scandal spoils Gladys farewell party
Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay slugged it out in Parliament House this week as if their political futures depended on it. Continue reading »
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Unruly scenes as removalists arrive for Premier Gladys
Recent actions from NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet would suggest an imminent reshuffle aimed squarely at the Premier’s office. Despite asserting she is not leaving in March, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been elbowed out of the way by her current Treasurer, who is behaving as if he has been sworn in as the State’s 46th Continue reading »
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Bye bye Premier Gladys – it’s time to go
Premier Gladys Berejiklian needs to call time on her premiership by next month in the hope that her political legacy is in reasonable nick despite her personal reputation being in tatters. As to where it all began? Read on. Continue reading »
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Rorting of school funding
When State Aid was introduced 50 years ago it was intended to help poor Catholic schools in the poorest socio-economic areas: no one thought it would ever become a rort. Continue reading »
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Premier Berejiklian on the ropes
When the Premier cannot rely on the unanimous support of her Cabinet to oppose lifting the ban on uranium mining, or she accepts a rotten compromise to save her skin, such a government has run out of steam and its end is nigh. Continue reading »
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NSW Treasurer being white-anted
Two weeks ago Dominic Perrottet was set to take an elevator ride to the Premiership. Now he’s assailed on all sides by the icare workers’ compensation scandal. Continue reading »
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The art of grabbing headlines
NSW Police Minister and former CEO of the Australian Hotels Association (NSW), David Elliott, is a master at getting his name in the media. Today he is attempting to use the same formula to support his ambition to become Premier. Why isn’t it working? Continue reading »
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Historic houses in NSW up for sale
NSW has a priceless collection of historic houses. They go largely unnoticed, unappreciated and unfunded. Conservative politicians and their wealthy supporters stole the timeless landscape of indigenous Australia and gave it to white settlers. Now they want to profit from colonial history as well. Continue reading »
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Remembering Margaret Thatcher
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg invoked the name of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to support his plan to rescue Australia’s economy in the era of pandemic. My first reaction was furious anger. On reflection, Frydenburg has done us a great service. Continue reading »
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Gough Whitlam’s dismissal and the CIA
Buried in the Palace Papers was a letter from Governor-General Sir John Kerr to Sir Martin Charteris. Kerr scorned an article in New York’s Village Voice that he was a CIA agent, and that America’s spy agency was involved in Whitlam’s sacking. “Nonsense of course”, Kerr wrote. Continue reading »
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Morrison has joined the US led war party against China.
Tony Abbott hailed China’s President Xi Jinping as a true friend and welcomed Australia’s trade boom with China. Should he be expelled? When NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane publicly supported China, Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian destroyed his political career. Continue reading »
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Moslem MP branded a terrorist. Is there a fair go?
Armed police and a media lynch-mob terrorised Labor Upper House MLC Shaoquett Moselmane, his family, neighbours and friends. His parliamentary rights, civil liberties, privacy and reputation have been trashed. Continue reading »
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Sydney as a global city down the drain?
The concept of turning Sydney into a Global City was hatched during the Olympic Games in 2000. The Liberals revived it in 2011 when they swept to power. Property developers loved it. But is the concept still viable? Continue reading »
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Dyson Heydon bites the dust
Former High Court of Australia judge, Dyson Heydon, was chosen by ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott to run a royal commission to put “the boot into the unions”, Bill Shorten and Julia Gillard. The whole exercise was a disaster. Continue reading »
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Premier Berejiklian’s last hurrah
Her planning was immaculate. She would vacate the Premiership, leave a strong economy, and install her Deputy Leader, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, as the next Premier. Then everything fell apart. Continue reading »
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The white elephants of NSW
Recent economic policy in NSW requires the nimbleness of musical chairs. One day everyone is in favour of neoliberalism and austerity, then they charge the minds and everyone adopts Keynesian big spending. As a result, billions of dollars have been wasted on projects that don’t stack up. Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL. We are not “All in this together”!
Since COVID-19 was officially recognised as a killer pandemic in March 2020, NSW people, and Australians generally, accepted the view that it does not distinguish between classes, colour, religion, gender or age. Then politicians, urged by bankers and the super-rich, began to use the coronavirus crisis for their own personal gain. Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL. NRL power play in NSW
Who governs NSW – Premier Gladys Berejiklian or NRL boss Peter V’landys? One is elected, the other isn’t. One is a blue-stockinged Tory from Sydney’s North Shore, the other is a Labor supporter from working-class Wollongong. Who will prevail? Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL. Don Harwin becomes cactus
In the halcyon days of the NSW Liberal Party’s ascendancy, Don Harwin was a fast-rising star. Then he hit a wall and fell from being one of State’s most powerful Liberal Ministers to the lowly status of an unloved backbencher. How and why? Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL. Top cop’s pay rise
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has been given a pay rise of $87,000 while nurses, teachers, firefighters and most public servants have been handed a pay freeze. A major row was inevitable. Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL. Constance dream turns to nightmare
At the start of this week, NSW Cabinet Minister Andrew Constance was Liberal Party front-runner to take the Federal seat of Eden Monaro. Now his long-held career ambitions to shift from Sydney to Canberra are in ruins. What went wrong? Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL: How Sydney survived the 1900 bubonic plague
Sydney was struck by bubonic plague in 1900 creating panic throughout the ramshackle town on Sydney Cove. The city fell under a state of siege and a shutdown. Why did it work? Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL: Changing of the guard in NSW
Damien Tudehope, ultra-conservative Minister for Finance and Small Business, is the new Leader of the Government in the NSW Upper House. He replaces former Arts Minister Don Harwin who quit in disgrace. The Liberal Party’s right-wing faction is now calling the shots. Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL: NSW prisoner release in chaos
Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s Government has begun releasing minimum security prisoners as a health measure to ease overcrowding as the COVID-19 pandemic presents an alarming threat. But is prisoner release driven by health concerns or budget blow-outs? Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL: The Ruby Princess scandal and Liberal Party links
The Ruby Princess scandal is not going away anytime soon. Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her key ministers may have perfectly plausible explanations for their role in the spread of the killer virus, COVID-19, from the luxury liner after it berthed in Sydney Harbour. Does anyone believe them? Continue reading »
