Bitcoin will be the death of Chalmers
By framing the Budget around intergenerational fairness, or whatever weak excuse the Treasurer gave for raiding private equity, it seems…
Pure, bloody-minded politics
One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson slammed the Albanese government on X this afternoon over a long-running dispute about staff cuts.…
We need to talk about Stafford
On the surface, the Queensland by-election of Stafford may seem unremarkable. A Labor safe seat was held by Labor after…
Time to stash cash under the bed?
‘I wonder how many of you have savings locked away in the banking system where you think it’s safe? Well,…
Why more than 18,000 Australians want Labor gone
Anthony Albanese and Labor are rapidly burning through the one thing every government desperately needs to survive: public trust. And…
Catastrophic bias: if it bleeds, it leads
Sometimes it takes a while for rigorous data-based statistical research to catch up to what anyone with eyes to see…
The ABC and SBS have a problem
The reluctance of Australia’s public broadcasters to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism should not surprise…
Albo’s big, fat pork pie
The Prime Minister of Australia seems to be consistently unable to tell the truth about future policy, especially when it’s…
Standing on the shoulders of leftists
Do you remember the election debate between Morrison and Albanese? Morrison effectively said that Labor had introduced great ideas but…
Of trust and trusts
Our existing political elites fundamentally broke trust over the Covid debacle. They panicked, threw the manual out the window, and…
The aspiration deficit
Deception works best when it appeals to the victim’s deepest anxieties. The Trojan Horse promised divine protection to a profoundly…
What did I miss?
Small businesses copped Labor’s socialist king-hit. These days they’re called a ‘coward punch’ which is fitting, because what the Treasurer…
No wonder men are opting out
The warning signs have been there for decades. Back in 1983, American author Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a powerful book –…
The address from the Monaro
Watching Angus Taylor’s response to the Budget on Thursday night, many would have wondered why his policy framework of lowering…
The illusion of ceasefire
The United States recently extended the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire for another 45 days, even as Hezbollah continued low-level attacks and maintained…
43 million by 2100 is a choice, not destiny
Australia’s rapid population growth is often linked to the sheer size of Asia’s population. Look how many people there are…
In search of a healthy majority?
Most political commentary in the aftermath of the recent UK local and devolved elections has, understandably, focused on the Labour…
We have a liar in the Lodge
We’ve heard an awful lot on the past few days about lies, about Labor’s lies, and about the Prime Minister…
Angus Taylor’s Budget Reply follows One Nation’s lead
On Thursday night, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor delivered the Opposition’s Budget Reply, focusing on what he termed ‘generational tax reform’…
An economy up in smoke
Given the state of our economy, we must give greater scope to the market despite the government taxing and spending.…
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…
Retreat from net zero
He wouldn’t admit it, but Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen – affectionately referred to as B1 by Speccie…
How Tickle v. Giggle happened
Recently my sister attended a meeting in Goulburn for women hoping to establish a women’s only space, possibly like a…
Too many devil-worshippers in the Liberals’ broad church
It is said, naivety in grown-ups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity. The…
Business/Robbery, etc
There is a lot more depending on the necessity for newly minted opposition leader Angus Taylor’s restoration of traditional Liberal…
The return of Jew-hatred
There was a time when I could watch films and documentaries and read books and first-hand accounts of what happened…
A Human Terrain assessment of the Islamist safe haven of Victoria
Before entering a village in Afghanistan or any other uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment I have worked in across Africa,…
Snouts in the trusts
When Animal Farm was published in 1945, George Orwell had a particular grievance in mind. He had watched, over a…
Bolt from the blue
‘Two former Liberal party heavyweights defect to One Nation,’ read the Sky News Australia headline on Sunday evening as ominously…
Fifa’s Iran flag ban is a new low
At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, I was approached by soldiers holding assault rifles outside the stadium before Iran’s…
Why is Bridget Phillipson teaming up with a Towie star?
Once, a battle for the future of the Labour party meant serious politicians debating ideological differences through lengthy speeches. In…
The unbearable smugness of Arsenal fans
Arsenal are Premier League champions after a 22-year wait: their first title since the famous Invincibles season under Arsène Wenger…
Trump’s NATO troop reduction isn’t Europe’s biggest problem
Before Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, there were many commentators who sought to sanitize the President.…
Keir Starmer is resigned to resigning
Has Sir Keir Starmer already checked out? There was a strange atmosphere in the House of Commons today. A sort…
HS2 is a national scandal
HS2 has never had the attention it needs and the scrutiny its scale demands. This is Britain’s largest infrastructure project,…
It’s no surprise Starmer’s ‘pompous’ tone annoys voters
Keir Starmer probably found it vaguely comforting that today’s Prime Minister’s Questions at least gave the impression that he is…
Watch: Sir Keir Starmer hails trade deal with ‘North Korea’
? WATCH: Keir Starmer corrects the record after accidentally saying the UK struck a trade deal with North Korea instead…
The Nova exhibition is a glimpse into the abyss of humanity
The film playing as you enter the Nova exhibition – which commemorates the 7 October attack – was painfully familiar to me.…
Starmer’s sanctions U-turn will put money in the Kremlin’s pocket
The British government yesterday quietly issued two sweeping import licences for Russian oil and gas. This may ease European supply…
AI paranoia has come for fiction
‘Polished and confident, with a melodic voice that lingers long after the final line, Jamir Nazir’s prose pulses with a…
Why drones will carry out the next 9/11
Few know more about drone warfare than Brett Velicovich. During the Iraq war, the former Delta Force intelligence analyst lived…
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’…
Things can always get worse
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…
A masterpiece of economy
There’s something very odd about the fuss that’s been made about David Szalay who won the Booker a few months…
The performance of her career
It’s odd, isn’t it, the uncanny relationship between success and achievement. Just the other night the Melbourne Theatre Company had…
Skill of the characterisation
Yasmina Reza is one of the most dazzling playwrights alive because she creates sweepingly funny bits of theatre (masterfully translated…
Another heroic freethinker is wiped from Russian history
It sometimes seems that those people chosen to be subjects for biographies are drawn from a strictly limited cast. Every…
Macbeth in Swahili? There might even be improvements
Let’s start with some low-hanging fruit. When, in Henry V, the king inspires his army before Agincourt, the Danish translator…
The punishing gluttony of Georgian high living
Georgian dining, if you were wealthy, was an incredible experience. Everything, from the location to the furniture, was carefully planned…
Highland noir: The Grey Coast; The Serpent; Blood Hunt, by Neil M. Gunn, reviewed
Before he died in 1973 at the age of 81, Neil Gunn was arguably Scotland’s greatest living novelist, a leading…
A weary trek in the steps of Garibaldi and his Redshirts
By the time he died in 1882 at the age of 74, Giuseppe Garibaldi had freed the Italian peninsula from…
It’s grim up north: Malc’s Boy, by Shaun Wilson, reviewed
Shaun Wilson’s latest novel gets going with a childhood recalled like James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young…
What does it say about Britain that the Palace of Westminster is crumbling?
Many political scientists are oddly uninterested in politics. Their fascination is at a level of theory; but the means through…
How Rupert Murdoch destroyed the innocent enjoyment of watching sport
In July 2000, Rupert Murdoch’s Sky acquired an obscure online gambling brand called Surrey Sports. It was little remarked upon…