The monster
Andrew Hastie: ‘Pauline Hanson’s problem is that she is MAGA first.’
Liberal Leader Angus Taylor barely has his toes in the sand and already there are articles pondering if he might…
The sacrifice of the lambs
The easiest and fastest way to fix a political screw-up is to replace the leader. New leader. New era. It…
Does the Liberal Party have a woman problem?
The Liberal Party has been mulling over its ‘woman’ problem. Disparity might be a better way to describe the situation. In…
Barnaby Joyce did the right thing
I watched Barnaby Joyce’s recent Sky News Australia interview with Andrew Bolt in dismay. Not because of its widely (dare we…
Parents turning to One Nation to fight the Woke curriculum
While there are multiple reasons why millions of Australians are turning to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, ranging from financial hardship,…
The diversity we no longer celebrate
Friedrich Hayek once observed that civilisation rests on the fact that people are very different in their gifts and interests.…
Australia: major exporters of internet censorship
Australia has always been a nation that backs the underdog, questions authority, and tells the government where to go. So…
The shocking truth about Australian crime rates
Australia faces a serious crime problem. Many Australians believe our crime rate is low compared with countries like the United…
Penny Wong and the ABC
If actions speak louder than words, then Penny Wong’s actions have been delivering a consistent message for nearly two years.…
Thinking … and other dangerous activities
I’ve been thinking. Three words that have, throughout history, inspired hope, fear, or eye rolls when spoken. When I utter…
When did Albanese change his position?
‘We’ve changed our position’ is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s much ridiculed attempt to hide from accusations that he misled voters…
Ten reasons why the murder of Henry Novak was an example of Wokeness
One of the most heartbreaking videos I have ever seen was the speech made by Henry Novak’s father, Mark Novak,…
The real lesson of Socrates
More than 2,400 years after his death, Socrates remains one of the most misunderstood figures in history. Every few months,…
The Great Political Transition
Politics is undergoing a transition. In the recent Newspoll, ‘Almost 70 per cent of voters agreed that “the people who…
The truth is out there, Donald
With no clear end in view for the Iran War, critics are probably (partly) right in claiming US President Donald…
The logical fallacy of Artificial Intelligence
If you have been online in the last couple of years, you have probably been bombarded with advertisements, articles, over-enthusiastic…
God, King, and Country
God, King, and Country is an interesting concept. As a political scientist, my method tends to be what is known…
From settlers to bludgers
My forebears came to this wide brown land from Scotland and Ireland around 150 years ago. They were tillers of…
Is Musk’s SpaceX set to blow up on the launch pad?
The upcoming listing of Elon Musk’s SpaceX is shaping up as this year’s blockbuster event for financial markets. SpaceX plans…
Labor in a State
South Australia was the first place on Earth, ahead of New Zealand, to give women a complete political life –…
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner loses again – A victory for free speech | Celine Baumgarten S3 Ep 18
Celine Baumgarten (Celine Against the Machine) has celebrated her SECOND victory against the eSafety Commissioner. This wasn’t only a personal…
Did Donald Trump conquer the world with witty insults? | Joel Gilbert S3 Ep 17
Did Donald Trump conquer the world with witty insults? I’m joined by Joel Gilbert to discuss the genius of humour…
Digital tyranny or ‘child safety’? 😵 & the bitcoin revolution | Efrat Fenigson S3 Ep 16
When Australia’s Under 16 social media ban started locking adult political writers out of #Substack – it was just the…
Toilet nullius
I read recently about new Australian Research Council-funded research that proposes to ‘reimagine’ the Australian public toilet. The academics leading…
Hacker’s heresy
In a classic episode of Yes, Minister, Jim Hacker stumbles onto a heresy. His local football club is sliding into…
The problem with big personalities
Last week I wrote that Robert Menzies would never have built One Nation. That was not a criticism of Pauline…
What could have been
I was tempted this week to write about the incredible jobs numbers in the US. The May jobs numbers there…
Any deal with Tehran is a deadly farce
The world has never been in such a state. While a benign, admittedly imperfect alliance for good has existed since…
Cold peace or cold war?
No less a commentator than Niall Ferguson insists the world has left behind the post-Cold War period and has now…
And it’s Pauline, by a nose
I am intrigued by the rapid rise in the popularity of One Nation as a political force and wonder whether…
Housing by scapegoat
When Barnaby Joyce decided to join One Nation, one assumes that it was not because of its housing policy. How…
Britain’s high quarterly growth is an anomaly
Is the economy not just resilient but flourishing in the wake of the Iran war? GDP in the three months…
The rise of Palantir Derangement Syndrome
A late spring outbreak of righteous indignation is affecting Britain. It’s yet another variant of Palantir Derangement Syndrome. Virologists tracked this…
The World Cup’s critics need to give it a chance
There has been so much controversy in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup that it is sometimes easy to…
What Tommy Robinson really sees in Russia
Everyone who is everyone – within a certain political and social fragment – has been in Russia this past week.…
Will the Hinkley C nuclear power station ever open?
It was 20 years ago last month that the then Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that nuclear power was “back…
Starmer loses another defence minister
To lose one defence minister might be regarded as misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. Al Carns has followed…
Are hostilities in Iran really about to cease?
Donald Trump is trying to wriggle out of his self imposed Strait-jacket. After a renewed round of bombing Iran and…
How Reform is preparing for a snap election
As the Labour government continues to tear itself apart, Thursday 18 June has assumed a much greater significance than any…
Will Labour suspend the National Association of Muslim Police?
The leaders of Britain’s Jews have raised ‘serious questions concerning police impartiality’ and asked that the National Association of Muslim…
Revealed: Green party proposes circumcision ban
The Green party is considering a new policy to ban circumcision, The Spectator can reveal. The party’s Health Policy Working…
The Waspi women are grifters
One of the things wrong with Britain is our inability to say no to campaign groups once they win a…
Will John Healey’s resignation make Starmer listen on defence?
After a week of government paralysis, it appears something has finally broken the deadlock: John Healey has resigned as Defence…
The row over English becoming an official language of New Zealand
Parliamentarians in New Zealand have been limbering up for an oddly unedifying debate over what ought to be the most…
What they don’t tell you about Christmas in New Zealand
‘I still think New Zealand the most beautiful country I have ever seen,’ Agatha Christie marvelled in 1922. Evidently she’s…
What will Jacinda Ardern do next?
When I first met Jacinda Ardern in the early 2010s, the notion that the young MP with the toothy smile…
The de-Wokification of New Zealand’s education system
The conservative coalition government of New Zealand came to office promising to wind back an enormous, government-run system of ‘Woke’…
The Pope’s merciless war against the Old Rite
A man of music
The other day saw the opening of the Peter Corrigan Collection at RMIT which comprises his personal collection of architectural…
Such stuff as dreams are made on
When Ken Branagh took the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford for the first time in thirty years…
Elegance and intrigue
Anyone who knows the Sixties can easily be reminded of the beauty and the authority of Sidney Poitier. The MTC…
Sex symbol or respected actor?
You don’t have to be any specific age to thrill to the Opera Australia production of La Traviata. It is…
Nothing works: The End of Everything, by John M. Harrison, reviewed
For more than half a century, M. John Harrison has been writing about decay and dispossession in a style that…
Tuscan escapades: Villa Coco, by Andrew Sean Greer, reviewed
The comic novelist Andrew Sean Greer won the Pulitzer Prize for Less, a chronicle of the longings and humiliations of…
Symbol of wisdom or harbinger of death – the owl preserves its mystery
As the author of this engaging book makes plain, it is with good reason that owls are such cherished birds.…
The agonies of an abandoned wife: Mrs Dickens, by Emily Howes, reviewed
For every smog-spitting chimney in Victorian London there was a woman tasked with keeping the hearth clean, both physically and…
The disgrace of Juan Carlos of Spain, a modern-day Don Juan
The life of Juan Carlos I, Spain’s 88-year-old former king, who reigned from 1975 until his abdication in 2014, falls…
The botched coup that presaged the end of the Soviet Union
The best thing about the Soviet Union – arguably the only good thing – was the manner of its going.…
In the dazzling company of Alexander Pope and friends
In the summer of 1726, the writers Jonathan Swift and John Gay spent several weeks at the home of their…
The banality of Hélène von Bismarck’s view of Britain is astounding
Hélène von Bismarck twice quotes (in an officiously corrected version) Robert Burns’s lines: ‘O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie…