My questions for the Royal Commission into Covid...
A billion dollar barrier against the UN
At a time when Australian businesses and families are Covid-broke, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has casually dropped a billion dollars…
My questions for the Royal Commission into Covid...
Senator Pauline Hanson has been pushing for a Royal Commission into the government’s handling of Covid, and demand for one…
Women’s fashion – I mean – football…?
Every sensitive new age man knows that when working with women you may comment on their professional performance, but never…
Campbell Newman is asking tougher questions than the corporate media
The last two years have seen unprecedented use of the word ‘unprecedented’ by Australian journalists. Conflating the limits of their…
Victoria's pandemic of political failure
The government’s handling of the Covid pandemic in Victoria has been deplorable. But while the temptation is to blame Daniel…
Feminism’s embarrassing fall from ‘Grace’
If the past couple of years has taught us anything, it is that the current wave of feminism has become…
Summer's worst political commentators...
So how is your summer going? Trousers off, melting ice cream on the car seat, screaming children in the back,…
Serbia’s revenge: Rio Tinto pays for Morrison’s hubris
There may be no ‘official’ connection, but it’s impossible not to side-eye the sudden decision by the Serbian government to…
Why Neil Young’s Spotify boycott is a mistake
When Neil Young issued his threat to Spotify – get rid of Joe Rogan’s podcast or remove my music from…
5,000 helmets and Germany’s dark history in Ukraine
If anyone produces a ‘history in 100 objects’ for the first half of the 21st century, one of those objects…
Eric Zemmour isn’t to blame for France’s anti-Semitism crisis
Emmanuel Macron sees anti-Semitism everywhere except where it really lurks. Earlier this month his government accused protesters opposed to the…
Could this kitty swing the midterms for the Demo-cats?
President Biden must not be feline optimistic about his paltry poll numbers, particularly after his landmark Build Back Better Act…
In Fortress New Zealand, faith in Saint Jacinda is starting to fade
Wellington Jacinda Ardern recently told an American television host that she finds it ‘slightly offensive’ when outsiders assume…
Dear New Zealand, it’s time to end Covid discrimination
Dear New Zealand, It’s a shame that we as a country have decided to follow a policy of discrimination. Supporting…
Heading towards dystopia – what happened to New Zealand?
In the clash between authoritarianism and democracy, we know what is winning hands down. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, far-left on…
Let’s not copy New Zealand’s mistake with ciggies
New Zealand this week banned smoking for the next generation. Those under 14 will never be allowed to legally smoke…
Uncivil war
Thanks to the Biden Administration’s unofficial open-borders policy, some two million unauthorised migrants crossed into the United States last year,…
Chinese whispers
This week, WeChat, the most popular messaging app, and social media platform in China removed the account of the Australian…
Farewell to wokedemia
Jordan Peterson, who needs no introductions, last week resigned from his fully tenured professorship at Canada’s leading university, the University…
Come back, Bill
I miss Bill Shorten. There – I’ve said it. It’s not because of the absence of those daggy shots of…
Switch off the fear porn
A vigorous and investigative media is critical to the wellbeing of any free, liberal democracy like Australia. For a democracy…
Aloha carbon emissions
We have been warned repeatedly that rising sea levels will wipe small Pacific Island nations from the map of the…
China’s Pacific projection
Geoffrey Blainey’s famous reference to ‘the tyranny of distance’ — the title of his 1966 history — may resonate less…
Darwin under attack
The 80th anniversary of the first air raid on Australia occurs this year on 19 February. The numbers associated with…
Don’t Look Up
How strange it is to be in a supposedly opened-up world, even as the Omicron variety of the virus shuts…
Jeremy Irons in House of Gucci
Any attempt to fictionalise the Gucci story runs into the same difficulties as Ridley Scott’s handsome and absorbing film, House…
West Side Story
How strange to revisit the Nova in Lygon Street, Carlton, where a lifetime of films have been experienced, after an…
The Cardinal’s books
There are a thousand overtly artistic things to talk about at this summer moment including the new Sidney Nolan exhibition…
French Kiss-Off
For decades the purpose of British settlement in New South Wales seemed too obvious to question. The American War of…
Pre-crime has arrived in China
The idea of ‘pre-crime’ was popularised by Philip K. Dick’s story ‘The Minority Report’ and the 2002 Steven Spielberg film…
Scaling the heights: a woman’s experience of mountain climbing
In her memoir Time on Rock, Anna Fleming charts her progress from ‘terrified novice’ to ‘competent leader’ as she scales…
Smugglers’ gold: Winchelsea, by Alex Preston, reviewed
The atmospheric medieval town of Rye on the south coast still celebrates being a former haunt of smugglers, and on…
A guide to the apothecary’s garden
On 23 May 1804, two months before his daughter’s wedding, John Coakley Lettsom threw open his estate in Camberwell. Some…
The BBC is trapped in its own smug bubble
An incalculable number of trees have been hewn down recently in order to provide paper for people writing lengthy, largely…
Adapt or die: what the natural world can teach us about climate change
Climate change may be the central challenge of our century, but almost all attention has focused on its consequences for…
What did the Russians make of Francis Bacon?
The KGB might not have known much about modern art, but they knew what they liked. For instance, at what…
