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Paul Daley

Paul writes about Indigenous history, Australian culture and national identity for Guardian Australia. He has won a number of journalism prizes including two Walkley awards, the Paul Lyneham award for political journalism and two Kennedy awards. He is a novelist and playwright whose books have been shortlisted in major literary prizes and is the author of the political novel Challenge

January 2024

  • Indigenous flag in front of Parliament House in Canberra

    Australia Day is on the nose – it’s becoming harder to defend celebrating the date of an apocalypse

    Paul Daley
    No matter how indignantly the woke-as-a-pejorative crowd screech on their op-ed pages and airwaves, the cultural tide on 26 January is ebbing fast

December 2023

  • A twisted wreck of a car on a footpath with police taking photographs

    The ‘road toll’ is a benign term that sanitises the senseless waste of human life in Australia

    Paul Daley
  • Woman jogging beneath night sky

    Christmas joy feels more elusive than ever. Look for quiet contemplation instead

    Paul Daley
  • Composite of book covers for the best of 2023: Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life by Anna Funder, Anam by Andre Dao, Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright, Question 7 by Richard Flanagan, The In-Between by Christos Tsiolkas, I'd Rather Not by Robert Skinner, Gunflower by Laura Jean McKay and Unfinished Woman by Robyn Davidson

    Australia year in review 2023
    The 25 best Australian books of 2023: Richard Flanagan, Alexis Wright, Robyn Davidson and others

  • Painting of Bennelong

    Misunderstood and mis-remembered: what is the real story of Bennelong and the colonial Captain Phillip?

  • My youth has all but faded. But my three-quarter-life crisis is filled with fascinating revelations and boundless joys

    Paul Daley

  • ‘It’s all about entitlement. Simple’: the rampant acts of tree vandalism on Australia’s foreshores

    Paul Daley

November 2023

  • Kelli Cole and Hetti Perkins in front of the batiks

    Emily Kam Kngwarray: stunning retrospective brings perspective – and agency – to an Australian great

    The National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition contextualises the artist away from the western market, bringing us ‘the old lady’ through the prism of her country, her culture and her community
  • lady holding ice coffee and mobile phone in car

    Driving while distracted is a truly dumb way to die. Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson

    Paul Daley
    From applying makeup in the rear-view mirror to watching cat videos on the phone, the morning commute is a parade of appalling driver behaviour

    • In a distressing world, moments of beauty seem elusive. I found one in a Sydney theatre

      Paul Daley

    • On Remembrance Day, Australia’s leaders are failing to learn from history

      Paul Daley

    • ‘This saved my life’: the emotional alchemy bonding traumatised veterans and damaged racehorses

October 2023

  • Tony Birch at the Merri Creek trail.

    Walk with ...
    Tony Birch: ‘I got into a lot of fights. I was a very good street boxer’

    Life could have turned out very differently for Birch, who was twice expelled from school as a boy. The celebrated author reflects on masculinity, AFL and surviving domestic violence

September 2023

  • Collingwood Trades premiers, 1905 for Paul Daley opinion piece

    Loving Collingwood is about the heart and not the head – and my grandfather’s story helped forge my emotional connection

    Paul Daley
    My grandfather ‘played for Collingwood’ but my family is yet to fully untangle his tragic history
  • Man on phone under blanket

    I quit Facebook and Twitter cold turkey – and I barely know myself

    Paul Daley
    All of that humblebragging and oversharing – and my obsessive checking of it – was driving me insane. Why did I stay so long?

    • Her Sunburnt Country by Deborah FitzGerald review – illuminating biography of Dorothea Mackellar

    • Using Neville Bonner’s politics to guess his stance on the voice seems an indolent misuse of history

      Paul Daley

    • ‘We had to walk about all night to keep ourselves alive’: an Aboriginal soldier writes home from the Boer war

August 2023

  • Alf Stafford, a Gamilaroi and Darug man, who was a driver for 11 Australian prime ministers stands in front of one of the prime ministerial vehicles

    The little-known political confidant who ‘helped steer’ Australia’s leaders is finally remembered

    Paul Daley
  • Man on sofa reading book.

    In praise of short books: to start and finish in one sitting is a rare, unbridled joy

    Paul Daley
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