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.
Alex's recent articles
'Mr Sin' aka Abe Saffron had a little mate at ASIO headquarters
Abe Saffron, the king of Sydneys vice rackets, had a long friendship with Dudley Doherty, a top spy with the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
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.
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.
Sea of scandal ready to engulf NSW Premier
His language may be mangled but its essential truth isnt. As Labor MP Kerry Hickey, now 60 and a former milkman, said: It just keeps coming. Things get worser and worser.
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.
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.
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 Premier.
Bye bye Premier Gladys its 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.
Rorting of school funding
When State Aid was introduced 50 years ago it was intended to helppoor Catholic schools in the poorest socio-economic areas: no one thought it would ever become a rort.
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.
NSW Treasurer being white-anted
Two weeks ago Dominic Perrottet was set to take an elevator ride to the Premiership. Now hes assailed on all sides by the icare workers compensation scandal.
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 isnt it working?
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.
Remembering Margaret Thatcher
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg invoked the name of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to support his plan to rescue Australias economy in the era of pandemic. My first reaction was furious anger. On reflection, Frydenburg has done us a great service.
Gough Whitlams 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 Yorks Village Voice that he was a CIA agent, and that Americas spy agency was involved in Whitlams sacking. Nonsense of course, Kerr wrote.
Morrison has joined the US led war party against China.
Tony Abbott hailed Chinas President Xi Jinping as a true friend and welcomed Australias 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.
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.
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?
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.
Premier Berejiklians 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.
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 dont stack up.
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.
ALEX MITCHELL. NRL power play in NSW
Who governs NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian or NRL boss Peter Vlandys? One is elected, the other isnt. One is a blue-stockinged Tory from Sydneys North Shore, the other is a Labor supporter from working-class Wollongong. Who will prevail?
ALEX MITCHELL. Don Harwin becomes cactus
In the halcyon days of the NSW Liberal Partys ascendancy, Don Harwin was a fast-rising star. Then he hit a wall and fell from being one of States most powerful Liberal Ministers to the lowly status of an unloved backbencher. How and why?
ALEX MITCHELL. Top cops 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.
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?
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?
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 Partys right-wing faction is now calling the shots.
ALEX MITCHELL: NSW prisoner release in chaos
Premier Gladys Berejiklians 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?
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?
NSW Labor should be streets ahead of the Libs
Premier Gladys Berejiklians Coalition government is regarded by voters as being among the worst in living memory. So why isnt Jodi McKays Parliamentary Labor Party in front by miles?
ALEX MITCHELL: Mark Latham goes all nuclear again!
Mark Latham, former Federal Labor leader who now sits in the State Legislative Council as head of Pauline Hansons One Nation in NSW, is running a one-man campaign to end the ban on uranium mining which came into force in 1986. Is he flogging a dead horse?
ALEX MITCHELL: Defending TAFE is a winner for NSW Labor
Created by the Whitlam Government, TAFE tuition was free, offered trade and technical training to a generation of young men and women and upgraded education and career opportunity to all those who wanted it.
ALEX MITCHELL: NSW Parliament is a politicians tuck shop
All Liberal and National MPs in the NSW Parliament get a prize. Their basic salary is topped up by appointing them as junior ministers, assistant ministers, parliamentary secretaries or committee chairpersons.
ALEX MITCHELL: Move to expel Richo from NSW Labor
Graham Richardson, aka Richo or Cardinal Richlieu, has infuriated his comrades in Sussex Street with anti-Labor broadsides prompting moves to expel him. Is this a good idea?
ALEX MITCHELL: Ex-NSW Premier Barry OFarrell quits for India
When Barry OFarrell became NSW Liberal Party leader in 2017 his mission was to turn the Liberals into the natural party of government.
ALEX MITCHELL: How NSW is becoming a corporate autocracy
Since winning the State Election almost one year ago, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has remodelled herself as the listening premier who wants to reconnect her Coalition Government with voters. Is it working?
ALEX MITCHELL. NSW Liberals torn apart by factional Game of Thrones
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her Coalition partners are fond of declaring thatthey are free of factions. But factionalism is alive and well.
ALEX MITCHELL. Unrepresentative Tory swill choosing the next British Prime Minister
All registered members of the British Conservative Party arecurrently voting to elect a new leader to replace Prime Minister TheresaMay. Hailed as an exercise in party democracy, its more like a chook raffle.
ALEX MITCHELL. Does this ring a Bell? (Justinian 21 March 2019)
The backstory of Justice Andrew (Taco) Bell's role in helping Schmo Morrison grab the seat of Cook ... Wheels within wheels ... Memories of the Cook preselection rort ... The PM's Muslim baiting goes back to the beginnings of time ... Career paths on the up-and-up ... Alex Mitchell comments
ALEX MITCHELL. Gladys clings on in NSW
Liberals and Nationals will vote in all kinds of weather and in all circumstances. They will show up in coaches, hire cars and even wheelchairs. Some dress up in their Sunday best as if they are going to the races.
ALEX MITCHELL. A deeply divided NSW is heading for a deadlocked State Election
With NSW voters facing a State Election on Saturday, March 23, politicians are nervously asking each other, How are we going? Meanwhile, journalists on the campaign trail are equally nervous, asking colleagues: Who do you think will win?
ALEX MITCHELL. Before ScoMo, Scott Morrison was our No 1 pin-up bogeyman
In 2014 I was asked to write a profile of the Lefts pin-up boy and its chief bogeyman.
ALEX MITCHELL. The Great Drought: Panic or Policy?
Desperate farmers in rural communities across Australia are being led into a cruel dystopia where reality is being smothered by false hopes.
Alex Mitchell, reporting from Hobart. The Tasmanian Chainsaw Massacre.
On the eve of any election it is the practice of tabloid editors to reach into battered folders containing tried and trusted headlines capable of exciting readers on polling day PHOTO FINISH or TOO CLOSE TO CALL or sometimes ITS A CLIFFHANGER. With Tasmanians going to the polls this Saturday none of the above are suitable. Thats because the result is a foregone conclusion: a landslide for Will Hodgmans Liberal Party. Perhaps well see WILLSLIDE or TASSIE GOES BLUE. As well as a Liberal victory in Tasmania, South Australia is likely to fall to the Liberals as...