Hey Albo, cop this mate. With love, The Don
Can quotas fix the Liberal Party culture?
Melissa McIntosh, the Shadow Minister for Women (and Communications), sat down with the ABC on Insiders to talk about the Liberal…
The Albanese economic outlook
Listening to the Prime Minister give his thoughts on Australia’s ‘economic outlook’ could be considered a form of torture. This…
Even Tony Abbott is tired of Welcome to Country
Former Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott appeared on an Institute of Public Affairs interview hosted by Daniel Wild. ‘Speaking of…
Promises and lies (they are the same thing)
My tea almost ended up on my keyboard while scrolling through X after I came across the Prime Minister’s latest…
Like ‘déjà vu’ all over again?
As we see the stars align one can’t help but wonder if the same sentiments, events, and alignments now coalescing…
The RBA’s perfect bluff
When Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock and her board chose to hold the cash rate steady at 3.85…
Hey Albo, cop this mate. With love, The Don
As Albo continues to ignore the only nation and ally that has spilt blood in the defence of our continent,…
Disband or privatise selective public schools in NSW?
There are 17 fully selective public high schools in New South Wales, and on paper, they look like a public…
The hierarchy of entitlement
I know I can overthink what I hear, but words matter. The difficulty (in all of us, to be fair),…
The international student dilemma – is Canberra turning a blind eye?
The Trump administration’s recent crackdown on foreign students was probably the right thing to do – but if our federal…
Whose balls are these?
Two weeks ago, after security protocols surrounding Mr Trump’s schedule were ramped up following his decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear…
Reflections from a broken Europe
Travel is very much an Australian pastime. Australians subscribe to the quote attributed to Saint Augustine: ‘The world is a…
The truth about Victorian colonisation
The over 100 recommendations to the Victorian government, including Aboriginal reparations, natural resource revenue, and selling off public land, made…
Disloyal far-left breakaways are coming for Labor
I don’t care what left-wing pundits say about the last election. Political parties shouldn’t chase young voters. It’s obvious from…
Dear God! It’s 2028
Sure enough, there was an intensely bright light. I was overcome with a floating sensation and rapidly came to the…
Why ‘Chapter II: The Executive’ in our Constitution needs an overhaul
‘Our Defence Minister – who probably doesn’t know how to fire a gun […] he’s a Labor Party lifelong hack.’…
Zohran, real estate czar
We are a little over 160 days into the second term of President Trump. That’s just a tad over five…
Budget season ends
I read a lot of novels. It is a relief to get away from all those economic reports and commentary…
Will Trump sink Aukus?
Recently US Under-Secretary of Defense, Elbridge Colby, announced a review of the Aukus agreement. Our Defence Minister Richard Marles claimed…
Dead babies
It has been a little over a year since Western Australia removed abortion laws from its criminal code. Depending on…
The rape gangs scandal
The twin scandals of the existence of child rape gangs and elite contempt for white working-class girls go back over…
F-bombs and N-bombs
There has been so much misinformation and disinformation about the Trump Doctrine. Where to start? The biggest misnomer, as one…
Cold comfort at Glastonbury
The antics at Glastonbury last weekend took place in performance spaces with twee names such as ‘Woodsie’s Stage’, ‘Avalon’, ‘Arcadia’,…
Could Wite be the new Blak?
‘I’m dreaming of a wite Christmas’ wrote Irving Berlin, invoking an American ideal. ‘Wite’ is a beautiful word, euphonic and…
Musk’s AI chatbot praises Hitler
Uh oh. Elon Musk’s AI chatbot is in the doghouse – after Grok shocked Twitter users when it began praising,…
Relying on Macron to tackle the migrant crisis is a fool’s errand
The French have so far been underwhelmed by Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Britain. The late Queen was universally admired…
Would scrapping jury trials save Britain’s broken courts?
The Sentencing Review, published in May, may not have had much to say about sentence length. But now we have…
King Charles’s bromance with Macron is true soft power
As the once-promising bromance between King Charles and Keir Starmer appears to be fading, the monarch has found another leader…
Jacinda Ardern’s triumph of style over substance
Jacinda Ardern’s tenure as New Zealand’s Prime Minister (2017–23) was lauded globally as a masterclass in empathetic leadership, her image…
Jacinda Ardern and the empty politics of ‘kindness’
Just over two years on from stepping down as Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern is awaiting the imminent…
307,000 Voices
Growing concerns at the impact of unregulated free speech around the world, and especially in the English-speaking West, are understandable.…
New Zealand’s cringeworthy new tourism slogan
‘Everyone must go!’ New Zealand’s new tourism declares, but so far almost everyone seems to be cringing. The prime minister…
We should welcome regime change in Iran
Bush noir
Barry Jones likes to allude to the fact that John Adams declared that he had to study agriculture and warfare…
Last days, spare room
In a world of international horrors and hopes it is weird to have one of the weirdest true-life crime stories…
Russians greats
The house was awash with the Russians this week – first because someone was reading George Saunders’ A Swim in…
Dial Q for Cold Case
By the time this is published, your columnist will have seen the students of the National Theatre perform their chosen…
Who’s deceiving whom?: The Art of the Lie, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, reviewed
In this age of lies and delusions, the trickster may seem to be a peculiarly modern creature, but he or…
Masculinity in crisis – portrayed by Michael Douglas
There isn’t another actor alive whom I’d rather watch than Michael Douglas. Just as Pauline Kael once said that the…
Could the giant panda be real?
Nathalia Holt’s book begins irresistibly. The year is 1928. Two sons of Theodore Roosevelt called Ted and Kermit – yes…
Highs and lows: The Boys, by Leo Robson, reviewed
The Boys, the entertaining debut novel by the literary critic Leo Robson, is set in Swiss Cottage during the 2012…
Tim Franks goes in search of what it means to be Jewish
It’s hard to classify this thought-provoking book – part memoir, part philosophical exploration, but mostly a deeply researched family history.…
Putin’s stranglehold on the Russian press
Since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the Russian press has been slowly, methodically strangled, which has forced existential…
The key to Giorgia Meloni’s resounding success
Giorgia Meloni has emerged as one of the most significant politicians in Europe since she became Italy’s first female prime…
The race against Hitler to build the first nuclear bomb
Ettore Majorana vanished in March 1938. According to Frank Close in Destroyer of Worlds, the 31-year-old Sicilian physicist ‘probably understood…