Morrison’s defence
Revealed: the true hottest day ever recorded in Australia
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology deleted what was long regarded as the hottest day ever recorded in Australia, Bourke’s 125°F…
Standing for Hong Kong
First, they came for the Tibetans, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Tibetan. Then they…
Eden-Monaro: how dare #Cobargo residents think for themselves?
It’s been a week since the Eden-Monaro by-election. The outcome has been overshadowed by the mounting coronavirus crisis, but one…
We need industrial relations reform for post coronavirus recovery
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced there will be an overhaul of Australia’s industrial relations laws. He wants business groups…
There is no greater taboo than perceived insensitivity to Aboriginal Australia, so why the constant cries of racism?
“Burn the f…ing place down!” screams the angry young Aboriginal woman on the TV screen (in a red dress and…
Do we want to follow St Jacinda and price our industry out of existence?
Rio Tinto’s announced closure of its aluminium smelter in New Zealand due to uncompetitive power prices this week is a…
We are killing more people because of lockdown than we are saving
While it’s tempting, and even invigorating, to experience a shiver of schadenfreude at the resurgence of COVID-19 in Victoria on…
The woke: disregarding goodness in the absence of perfection
There was a time when our celebrities didn’t feel like they had to join the madding crowds and rush to…
Will Cambridge stand up for free speech in China?
Last month, Dr Priyamvada Gopal, of Churchill College, Cambridge University, tweeted ‘White Lives Don’t Matter’. She was abused online and…
Coronavirus has exposed the EU’s greatest flaw
Politics begins and ends with sovereignty: the duty and right to make the legitimate final decision. We have seen this…
Pro-lifers, it’s time for civil disobedience
The Supreme Court has ruled in June Medical Services, LLC vs Russo that the dismemberment and removal of unborn human lives was more…
Will the BBC become a victim of its own bias?
The BBC is losing me. It’s a sudden estrangement and an unwelcome one but I can’t seem to shake it…
Birthday/Reflections etc.
Australia is on course to self-destruct One of the many benefits in having a big bash to celebrate turning 90…
Mistaken identity politics
Way back in those halcyon days of Martin Luther King the charge of racism related to someone’s failing to be…
Morrison’s defence
In his panoramic survey of war through the ages, the eminent historian Azar Gat discerned two significant trends. To casual…
Welcome to Wuhanistan
Australians found out this week that if they are foolhardy enough to travel to China they could be arbitrarily detained.…
Emperor Xi & Pax Sinica
War preparations, a government-imposed recession or depression, shock reporting about an allegedly resurgent Wuhan virus, borders closed, talk that overseas…
The cancellation of Mr Heydon
In chambers last week the Dyson Heydon affair occupied many hours of debate. The allegations were shocking but the Chief…
Meagre gruel
Think back to 2013 when the Coalition came into office. Having won that election, and two more, under three different…
Friends in creed
The Chinese Communist Party has abolished the freedoms and semi-autonomous status promised to Hong Kong in the ‘one country two…
Jessie Traill: A biography
She could have been one of our great-aunts. She was from that remarkable generation of educated, unmarried women who chose…
Wendy Bowman, 2019 by David Darcy Darling Portrait Prize 2020
She is not a theoretical or idealogical environmentalist. Wendy Bowman became an activist when her crops were ruined by polluted…
Keith Urban using a Maton guitar, recording Gimme Shelter in Olympic Studios, London
We are critical of ourselves for not designing or manufacturing things any more. Well, there is a contrary example in…
Laughing Child by John Brack
In a futile attempt at participating in the current cultural revolution, I tried to suffer ‘harm and offence’ from an…
The Sixties vibe: Utopia Avenue, by David Mitchell, reviewed
There aren’t many authors as generous to their readers as David Mitchell. Ever since Ghostwritten in 1999, he’s specialised in…
How far can we trust the men in lab coats?
A month ago the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine each retracted a major study on Covid-19 drug…
Saying yes slowly is what’s hampering progress today
One of my long-held beliefs is that evolutionary biology should be taught extensively in schools. There may be some objections…
The famous cities of the ancient world were surprisingly small and fragile
Greg Woolf didn’t know his book would come out during an urban crisis. Thanks to coronavirus, Venice’s population, for example,…
Spotting the mountweazels: The Liar’s Dictionary, by Eley Williams, reviewed
There is a particular sub-genre of books which are witty and erudite, comic and serious and often of a bibliophilic…
Children’s books provide the perfect escape from coronovirus
The lockdown we have been enduring has at times felt drawn from the pages of a children’s book. The eerie…
It was Bevin, not Bevan, who was the real national treasure
On a family holiday almost 40 years ago I visited Winsford, the village on the edge of Exmoor where Ernest…
Monuments to the second world war are looking increasingly dodgy
Most monuments are literally set in stone — or cast in bronze to better survive the weather. Being enduring, they…