We can protect ourselves from sharks and still protect our seas
The Margaret River Pro — a surfing equivalent of the Australia Open — gets underway today in the magnificent waters…
What Kevin Rudd gets wrong about church and state
Scott Morrison has been recently pilloried for outlining how his Christian faith positively influences his role as Australia’s Prime Minister.…
Spectator Australia TV: Are we heading towards war with China?
A big show this week, featuring Senator James Paterson, John Ruddick, Professor Ian Plimer, the Institute of Public Affairs’ Bella…
Our Aussie contenders for the 2022 Oscars in full
It’s Academy Award time and the votes are in for best female black actor in a male Latino role. Meanwhile…
Vaccine passports create a two-tier society
Let us be blunt and upfront. The idea of implementing vaccine passports in Australia would surely be anathema to most Australians. A…
What ever happened to good old fashioned innuendo?
Where did innuendo go? That is the question that has been bugging me recently. I listen to a lot of…
If you want peace, prepare for war
This past weekend, Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton suggested that a conflict with China over Taiwan could not be discounted. However,…
China’s wolf warriors now sound like Q&A panellists – and that’s a real worry
China’s wolf warriors have spent the week snarling away at Australia, but one attack has really stood out. It came…
The strange truth about Japan’s climate change target
Japan has just raised its target for reducing carbon emissions from 26 percent to 46 percent (by 2030 from 2013…
Zac Goldsmith, No. 10's rapid rebuttal service
It’s a tough gig defending this government. So tough in fact that the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson Allegra Stratton left…
What Arlene Foster’s ousting means for Northern Ireland – and the Union
The brutal defenestration of Arlene Foster as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party could have severe implications for an already…
How Tory MPs plan to clip Cummings' wings
On 26 May, Dominic Cummings will give evidence to MPs grouped on the health and science super committee, chaired by…
Inside the velvet glove
It was a strange spectacle, the recent televised presentation of Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne with Nanaia Mahuta, whose portfolios…
Unpacking racism
Across the democratic world these days the ultimate weapon in silencing views you don’t like – a weapon far more…
Is that a Cartier watch I hear ticking for Morrison?
The chief vice of capitalism, Churchill remarked, is the unequal sharing of blessings. To compensate, he added, socialism ensures an…
Business/Robbery, etc.
Andrew Peacock copped a lot of flak in his 28 years in politics: ‘All feathers and no meat’, said the…
Bad, bad business groups
Just how bad are the business groups that litter Australia’s corporate landscape? Think here the Business Council of Australia, the…
Beyond the Yellow Brick Belt & Road
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews had nothing to say from his sick-bed when Prime Minister Morrison cancelled his Yellow Brick Belt…
Roll over Beethoven, Bach and Mozart
No other occasion in Australia best exemplifies the hyper-politicisation of the arts than the annual Australia Council for the Arts…
Lockdown lunacy
How long will Australians tolerate politicians abusing their powers, while under-performing in so many areas under their responsibility, such as…
Killing Comrade Hampton
Fred Hampton, the young chairman of the Illinois Black Panthers, makes a brief appearance in The Trial of the Chicago…
Kate Winslet
It’s been a strange week in the world of arts and entertainment as we slouched to the weirdest plague-governed Oscars…
Science Gallery Melbourne
Sydney is still thrashing around with the historic Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, known as the Powerhouse Museum, while…
Helen McCrory
At a time when people like Prince Philip looked as though they would live forever and the world was a…
Why should art have ever been considered a male preserve?
‘I’m a lady,’ insists the improbable damozel in David Walliams’s Little Britain sketch. I’m a lady, I kept thinking, reading…
A meditation on everyday life: Early Morning Riser, by Katherine Heiny, reviewed
There were many moments in Early Morning Riser that made me laugh out loud in recognition. An episode where the…
Stephen Hawking: the myth and the reality
I could never muster much enthusiasm for the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. His work, on the early universe and the…
Stalin as puppet master: how Uncle Joe manipulated the West
Of the two dictators who began the second world war as allied partners in crime but ended it in combat…
Not just a trolley dolly: the demanding life of an air hostess
Come Fly the World is not the book I thought I was getting. The slightly (surely deliberately) pulpy cover —…
Ice and snow and sea and sky: Lean Fall Stand, by Jon McGregor, reviewed
Jon McGregor has an extraordinary ability to articulate the unspoken through ethereal prose that observes ordinary lives from above without…
Sun, sex and acid: Thom Gunn in California
San Francisco is a fantastic place… it’s terribly sunny… I am having a splendid hedonistic time here… I find myself…
Puzzle Pieces: Cowboy Graves, by Roberto Bolaño, reviewed
This might seem an odd confession, but the work of Roberto Bolaño gives me very good bad dreams. When I…
