Laura Tingle

Canberra

Global Affairs Editor at ABC News (Australia)

Is this thing working? What? Yes of course they are my own opinions, or others that might be interesting or diverting @quarterly_essay:The High Road

Articles

After 45 years watching politics, here's my last wish for this government and its big mandate

4 weeks ago | abc.net.au | Laura Tingle

"Dear government, don't be terrible." There was no greater sin in journalism, back in the day, than using the personal pronoun in your copy. It has proved a good rule to follow over the past 45 years. Not just in a style sense but in terms of the state of mind in which you write: it's not about you, it's about your readers, or viewers even. When this column resumes in July, it will be contemplating more global matters, instead of Australian politics.
Laura Tingle on when politics is at its best

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Patricia Karvelas |Fran Kelly |Laura Tingle

Laura Tingle joins Fran and PK for one last party — and more importantly, one last strawberry daiquiri -- before she wraps up her 40-years in the press gallery. And the Coalition is officially back together, and leader Sussan Ley has announced the make-up of her shadow cabinet. But while plenty of fresh faces have been elevated, some key names have been overlooked. So, will Sussan Ley and David Littleproud be able to maintain party unity?
Our political ruts have shaken loose. Will Parliament adapt to the new normal?

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Laura Tingle

It's all too easy to get stuck in ways of thinking about how the world works, often without even realising the presumptions that frame our assessments of the world. Sometimes it takes a series of shifts in the underlying fabric to jolt us out of the ruts, sometimes just one seismic shift. There are plenty of these familiar ruts in the way we think about Australian politics, and about how it is reported. And the same is often true for economics.
Selling super tax changes will require a steadfast advocacy from decades past

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Laura Tingle

One of the unfortunate aspects of a period of less than edifying politics is that politicians don't feel compelled to explain themselves too much, or feel that the media environment is so hostile they avoid it all costs.
Labor, Greens and the Coalition are carving up the spoils in a Bonfire of the Vanities

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Laura Tingle

First there is the savage contest during the election campaign. Then there is the elation and despair at the outcome, and the assertion of what voters were telling us about our country in the result. Finally, there is the just plain venal, as political parties turn inward to carve up the spoils, which turn the elation into a Bonfire of the Vanities.
Beyond Dutton's loss, this is a chance for a new type of politics in Australia

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Laura Tingle

The story of the 2025 election was about a shambolic Coalition campaign. And, on election night the shock, and story, was focused on the collapse of the Coalition vote and of the demise of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and so many of his lieutenants. But the extraordinary poll result — on par with the worst result for any major party since 1949 — was won by a campaign that was overwhelmingly positive and framed around the future.
Australia needs to rewire its politics at a time of global crisis

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Laura Tingle

It was an almost philosophical musing, on the podcast for a largely satirical website, by one of the most politically careful politicians in Canberra.
Increasing Australia's defence budget requires answering tough questions

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Laura Tingle

We have a sometimes mystifying relationship with ideas about honouring those who serve our country, and with ideas about how we defend it. Past governments have been happy to spend half a billion dollars renovating the Australian War Memorial while so underfunding the Veterans Affairs Department that it couldn't properly look after veterans in a timely way, as documented by a royal commission.
Whoever wins the federal election on May 3 will face a fork in the road for Australia's future

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Laura Tingle

There's been a lot of commentary in the past few weeks about the way Donald Trump and foreign policy have intervened in, or loomed over, the Australian election campaign. We aren't really used to it, and it shows. The "debate" veers between a schoolyard discussion about who can be besties with the loudmouth bully, and a slightly uneasy, and not quite addressed noting of the fact that, er, the world trade system and geopolitics are in a state of complete upheaval.
We've all talked about potential economic consequences for Australia of Trump's policies. Now they're happening

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Laura Tingle

As the internet came alive with memes of outraged Heard Island penguins protesting at being hit with 10 per cent tariffs by the US on Thursday, others online were speculating about just how the Trump administration had come up with its tariffs formula, which not only hit the scenic penguin colony but the US military base on Diego Garcia. There was some speculation that the White House might have asked ChatGPT for some suggestions the night before.