The ‘Lest’ slogan
Gina Rinehart’s act of kindness toward veterans
Broke Labor, the delusional Greens, and their cultivated maze of semi-socialist converts have been beating their ‘eat the rich’ drum…
Jess Wilson seeks to protect war memorials and colonial statues
Jess Wilson and the Victorian Liberals had to do something to win back disaffected conservatives after their preselection disaster, and this is…
EU threatens Australia’s tea tree oil industry
Tea tree oil is a proud Australian export worth around $40 million per year to the essential oils and cosmetics…
Who needs the Department of Climate Change anyway?
One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce sent the collective Left into fits of hysteria by repeating Senator Hanson’s desire to make the…
From the coronation to a modern civilisation
Reza Shah is considered one of the most influential figures in modern Iranian history. In 1925, by establishing the Pahlavi…
Media God bothering
Donald Trump got the whole media God Bothering-thing started with his now deleted post of him dressed in white Jesus-robes…
This Anzac Day, I Remember John Elmhurst Price
There is a small newspaper clipping in my mother’s possession, fragile and yellowed with the passing of nearly a century.…
The Digger’s Code: Anzac Day and the Vernacular of Belonging
As we pause this Anzac Day to remember the fallen and their mates, spare a thought for our native language…
Could a former Prime Minister help reform the Liberal Party?
Factional wars and external pressure from the Teals and One Nation have created the perfect storm for Liberal Party reformers.…
Australia’s shameful silence on youth gender medicine
Another major peer-reviewed study on so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has been published, and predictably, Australia’s political class has responded with the…
The wolf in inclusion’s clothing
As a former anglophile, I liked their earlier stuff better, and I often check in to see just how close…
The professor versus the politician
Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Productivity, is one of the Albanese government’s staunchest defenders of immigration. And he is…
Why the Middle East cannot be understood – or repaired – through corrupted language
I. When Words Fail, Policy Follows Clear words produce clear thoughts. Clear thoughts produce coherent policy. When language decays, so…
Is the rule of law still fit for purpose?
The rule of law is one of the foundational pillars of liberal democracy. At its core, it rests on the…
Angus Taylor’s immigration policy
Designing an immigration policy in Australia in 2026 is undoubtedly a politically hazardous task. Huge numbers of immigrants have been…
The review settles the review
A little over a year ago, Creative Australia announced Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Six…
I hope Farrer pick One Nation candidate David Farley
Since the South Australian state election last month, myself and the other six new One Nation Parliamentarians have been busy…
Multiculturalism and the language of ‘values’
The return of multiculturalism as a live political question in Australia has been swift – and faintly familiar. The Coalition’s…
The keys to the kingdom
Australia has been here before. Time and again, the country has stumbled upon extraordinary good fortune – gold in the…
Australia’s energy problem isn’t resources – it’s strategy
Australia is one of the most energy-rich countries in the world, yet remains exposed in the very systems those resources…
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…
The wrong clubs
After nearly three decades practising as a garden-variety civil lawyer, steering well clear of international law and anything to do…
Business/Robbery, etc
It’s energy, stupid. And that means all forms – oil, gas, coal, nuclear and the broad range of renewables. Energy…
Angus takes a stand
The fact that Tony Burke, Paul Keating and Andrew Leigh felt the need to formally respond to the recent speech…
Hungary’s messy new direction
The many who don’t follow news from Hungary closely must have thought the landslide defeat of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán…
Command and control Australia
Author Donald Horne explained how Australia was ‘the Lucky Country’ since it became successful despite the fact it was run…
Living with a lie
At this year’s World Economic Forum, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned about ‘a rupture in the world order, the…
Decapitating Poppies
In the lead-up to Anzac Day, the Australian National University has released an interesting poll. The headline finding is that…
Body of evidence
As Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping walked to a platform to review a Beijing military parade last September, their words…
Britain must learn from its energy crises
During my career in the energy industry, I have been through seven major supply disruptions. Each time nations vow to…
Iran shouldn’t be at the World Cup
I love football. I’m a Manchester United season ticket holder who has watched Iran and England at three World Cups:…
What the St George’s flag really stands for
Every year it’s the same old story, and it’s always inaugurated by the usual collection of technocratic mediocrities and simple-minded…
Don’t whitewash Michael Jackson
We’re not used to famous paedophiles having a great talent; perhaps because all of their drive goes into their secret…
Why flats are better than houses
Flats have been getting a bad rap recently. There is the promised leasehold reform being stuck in the legislative and…
Russell Brand is everything that is wrong with the world
There are few stranger public careers than that of Russell Brand, the former “comedian” turned MAGA cheerleader-in-chief. He has given…
The tawdry shenanigans of the Southern Poverty Law Center
In the financial world, most frauds are short-lived. Ponzi schemes such as Bernie Madoff’s eventually run out of new suckers…
Single men shouldn’t be able to have a surrogate baby
Should single men be allowed to buy a baby? Obviously not, you might think. But since 2019 British men have…
Rumen Radev won’t be the next Viktor Orban
Rumen Radev won a majority in Bulgaria’s parliamentary election this week, giving him the ability to form a single-party government.…
Is Zack Polanski seriously questioning Jewish safety?
Hey, Jews – have you ever considered the possibility that you’re making a fuss over nothing? That a few petrol…
Rachel Reeves is crushing the economy
Chancellor Rachel Reeves took office on a pro-growth platform, promising to make Britain the leading economy in the G7. She…
The Green party candidate who wants to ‘burn Zionism to the ground’
A Green candidate who is also a GP has repeatedly attacked ‘Zios’ and called on people to ‘burn Zionism to…
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’…
Organised crime is targeting artisanal food
Scrupulous fidelity
Isn’t it fascinating how much we adapt works of literature? 150 years ago someone would have had a fair chance…
Like him or loathe him
It’s cheering to hear very promising reports of Barrie Kosky’s production of Siegfried at Covent Garden suggesting that the Melbourne-born…
Cruelties of popular culture
Ethan Hawke is an extraordinary figure. He has made straightforward Hollywood classics like Training Day but he also comes out…
Deaths in the mind
It’s strange the way certain deaths stay in the mind perhaps because of the fascination and interconnection of the lives…
Haunting images: The Shadow of the Object, by Chloe Aridjis, reviewed
What marks out Chloe Aridjis as a novelist is her ability to create atmospheres and ambiences. These often have hints…
A portrait of the fin de siècle in all its morbid decadence
Everyone I have met who has read Belchamber, Howard Sturgis’s novel of 1904, would endorse Edith Wharton’s judgment that this…
The potentially catastrophic consequences of reading Kafka
Rainer Maria Rilke’s claim that fame is the ‘sum of all misunderstandings’ is certainly true of Franz Kafka, whose life,…
The nightmare of filming A Hard Day’s Night
It would be easy to dismiss A Hard Day’s Night, the Beatles film made in 1964, as a throwaway period…
Why it’s permissible to betray family secrets
Blake Morrison is the quintessential man of letters. More exactly, he’s a man of genres – poet, novelist, playwright, essayist,…
Alone on a vast fjord, surrounded by whales, beneath the midnight sun
As an angler in pursuit of fish across some 45 countries, I have travelled in a variety of precarious watercraft,…
Antony Gormley’s lonely figures transfer to paper
If there’s any consolation to be had in the prospect of AI filling the world with humanoids, it will be…
Farewell to the Calloways: See You on the Other Side, by Jay McInerney, reviewed
Many of Jay McInerney’s characters had their glory days in the 1980s and 1990s of his vivid early novels, with…