It’s Albo, stupid
Albanese’s $150 energy bill promise insults voters
I have no words… Anthony Albanese has promised to take $150 off our power bills if we give him another…
A $600 million education in reality
We were warned. Repeatedly. F- around and find out. That is the mantra of Maga America and its self-described Golden…
Dutton, be careful with citizenship
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton mustered the press with his suggestion for a referendum to make it easier to deport criminals…
Adam who? The unknown leader of the Greens (apparently)
Brand recognition is crucial to election success. That’s why you can’t walk three feet in an election year without being…
How to secure America’s Pacific and European allies during Trump 2.0
President Trump’s intentions to strike a peace deal in Ukraine without security guarantees for Kyiv and his possible relinquishing of…
Peter Dutton must play for keeps
Peter Dutton and the Federal Liberal Party are now on the slide ahead of the upcoming Federal Election. The RedBridge…
Cash (was) King
The Reserve Bank recently published statistics that showed cash payments for everyday purchases have fallen from 70 per cent in…
I recommend not walking the Camino de Santiago
A lefty friend who just loves political arguments, currently living in Buenos Aires, made a rare concession. He’s usually so…
Adolescence is not a template for social media policy
What was Netflix’s Adolescence? An undoubtedly skilled portrayal of provoking fiction by an ensemble of gifted actors. What is it…
One Nation means putting Australia first
When the Liberal-Labor uniparty is not ripping us off – they’re ripping us apart. That’s what it feels like listening…
Electric shock: it’s much worse than you think
Startled, I stared at my electricity bill. My consumption over the quarter had decreased by 4.62 per cent. The bill,…
Is labour market reform possible, or dead?
There is a glaring lack of enthusiasm for labour market reform coming into the federal election. Yet some maintain that…
Weak government response to antisemitism has left councils to fight alone
In January the world stopped to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz. It…
Population in decline?
There is no contemporary political issue that can survive rapid demographic change. Mass depopulation is the problem that no one…
Defending the West: Kevin Donnelly’s anthology against anarchy
Education expert Dr Kevin Donnelly AM is both someone at the tip of the spear and someone who understands why…
The pandemic’s exposé
The Covid pandemic will be remembered not only as a public health crisis but as a profound moral failure. It…
Our very own Eric the Eel
Do you remember Eric the Eel, Eric Moussambani, from Equatorial Guinea? He participated in the Sydney Olympics, entering the 100-metre…
Presidential paradoxes, priceless real estate
Three months into his second term, President Trump is enjoying his equal highest approval rating ever according to a poll…
Fortune favours the brave, Mr Dutton
Three years ago this week, as the 2022 federal election was about to be called, I asked the question in…
Trump, tariffs & tough love
Last week, I noted that tariffs can be a policy tool to protect domestic industry from foreign competition or a…
Justin has left the building
The man who went from ski instructor and kindergarten teacher virtually straight to being the prime minister of Canada has…
Pallywood conquers Hollywood
This month’s Academy Awards were apparently so dull that the main cause of raised eyebrows was Miley Cyrus’s bleached eyebrows.…
It’s Albo, stupid
Upon the election of the Albanese government in May 2022, Commonwealth gross debt stood at $888 billion. Today, it has…
Don’t panic
Someone has to do reading of the latest science for Speccie readers. This task has fallen to me, on the…
Am I the only one who misses lockdown?
Five years ago tonight, Boris Johnson told us we were going into lockdown. In the run-up to the anniversary of…
I’m sick of social media running bores
The phenomenon of people living their lives vicariously through social media is nothing new. We’ve all got that friend who…
Would Richard III have claimed PIP?
Looking at the list breaking down the reasons for which people are granted Personal Independence Payments (PIPSs), up to £180…
The Zoom call that confirmed my fears about Just Stop Oil
Just Stop Oil are their own worst enemies. I support their aims and I do my best to minimise my…
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…
The sacred sites fandango
The second-highest mountain in New Zealand has been granted ‘personhood’ by the NZ parliament because it is regarded as the…
Operation Resolution: cleaning up after HMNZS Manawanui
HMNZS Manawanui, formally a chirpy red and yellow MV Edda Fonn, sank on October 6 much to the shock of…
Why is this New Zealand airport clamping down on hugs?
‘Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world,’ Hugh Grant famously offered in the heartwarming opening scene of Love,…
The World Happiness Report is a sham
Theatre vultures will kill
Having a sportswriter father is no excuse. The young man was tall, long fair-haired with a hat. ‘What do you…
Netflix’s Adolescence is far from perfect
According to one gushing review, Netflix’s Adolescence is the ‘most brilliant TV drama in years’. And that verdict is at…
Is ‘good enough’ all we want from TV?
For those people with a therapeutic bent of mind, the phrase ‘good enough’ has an almost magical power. It says:…
What The Leopard is really about
Written by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa at the end of his life in the late 1950s, it is a novel…
Fight or flight?: 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen, reviewed
In May 1940, as the Nazis invade Belgium, the residents of a sedate apartment block in Place Brugmann, Brussels, wake…
Why are we routinely buying disgusting bread in Britain?
‘Bread is simple. Or is it?’ That is the question David Wright poses about a keystone food that spans the…
The danger of becoming a ‘professional survivor’
It was a relatively minor episode in a period marked by the killing of two African presidents, months of massacres…
The sickness at the heart of boxing
There is a lot of death in the latest, and potentially last, book on boxing by the South African journalist…
Who will care for the carers themselves?
When her brother Lionel was born in 1949, ‘the concept of neurodiversity didn’t exist’, writes Caroline Elton. The subtitle of…
The agony of making music at Auschwitz
Anita Lasker survived the Holocaust because, as a Berlin teenager, she had enjoyed her cello lessons. The Hungarian Lily Mathé’s…
A picture of jealous rivalry: Madame Matisse, by Sophie Haydock, reviewed
‘Your muse or your wife’ is quite the ultimatum to throw at an artist. But that was the choice Henri…
The importance of honouring the enemy war dead
There are several dozen graves from the second world war (and some from the first) in churchyards near my village…