‘Fire the Liar’: Albanese’s donation hell
Generally speaking, if you’re a politician, you shouldn’t start arm-wrestling over campaign donations … unless you’re winning. ‘Donations’ are one…
Andrew Hastie: ‘Pauline Hanson’s problem is that she is MAGA first.’
Liberal Leader Angus Taylor barely has his toes in the sand and already there are articles pondering if he might…
The sacrifice of the lambs
The easiest and fastest way to fix a political screw-up is to replace the leader. New leader. New era. It…
Does the Liberal Party have a woman problem?
The Liberal Party has been mulling over its ‘woman’ problem. Disparity might be a better way to describe the situation. In…
David and Goliath
The most consequential allies in the US war on the Iranian Republic (now passing the 100-day mark) are not influential,…
One Nation may have found the Holy Grail of Populism
Like most political commentators, we have been transfixed by the meteoric rise of One Nation as a credible political force…
Inclusive art where we no longer belong
I recently left an art display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia called Attachment Styles: Modes of Belonging in…
Labor failed their political IQ test
This week, Labor failed a political IQ test. The best way to fight your political opponent is to Labor what…
The slow abandonment of home
We are building homes at a rapid rate across Australia’s major cities, yet what is rising around us looks less…
Sex-selective abortion deserves honest debate, not dismissal
A recent article questioned the need for legislation prohibiting sex-selective abortion in New South Wales. At first glance, the article…
Parents turning to One Nation to fight the Woke curriculum
While there are multiple reasons why millions of Australians are turning to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, ranging from financial hardship,…
The diversity we no longer celebrate
Friedrich Hayek once observed that civilisation rests on the fact that people are very different in their gifts and interests.…
Australia: major exporters of internet censorship
Australia has always been a nation that backs the underdog, questions authority, and tells the government where to go. So…
The shocking truth about Australian crime rates
Australia faces a serious crime problem. Many Australians believe our crime rate is low compared with countries like the United…
Penny Wong and the ABC
If actions speak louder than words, then Penny Wong’s actions have been delivering a consistent message for nearly two years.…
Thinking … and other dangerous activities
I’ve been thinking. Three words that have, throughout history, inspired hope, fear, or eye rolls when spoken. When I utter…
When did Albanese change his position?
‘We’ve changed our position’ is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s much ridiculed attempt to hide from accusations that he misled voters…
Ten reasons why the murder of Henry Novak was an example of Wokeness
One of the most heartbreaking videos I have ever seen was the speech made by Henry Novak’s father, Mark Novak,…
The real lesson of Socrates
More than 2,400 years after his death, Socrates remains one of the most misunderstood figures in history. Every few months,…
The Great Political Transition
Politics is undergoing a transition. In the recent Newspoll, ‘Almost 70 per cent of voters agreed that “the people who…
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…
Toilet nullius
I read recently about new Australian Research Council-funded research that proposes to ‘reimagine’ the Australian public toilet. The academics leading…
Hacker’s heresy
In a classic episode of Yes, Minister, Jim Hacker stumbles onto a heresy. His local football club is sliding into…
The problem with big personalities
Last week I wrote that Robert Menzies would never have built One Nation. That was not a criticism of Pauline…
What could have been
I was tempted this week to write about the incredible jobs numbers in the US. The May jobs numbers there…
Any deal with Tehran is a deadly farce
The world has never been in such a state. While a benign, admittedly imperfect alliance for good has existed since…
Cold peace or cold war?
No less a commentator than Niall Ferguson insists the world has left behind the post-Cold War period and has now…
And it’s Pauline, by a nose
I am intrigued by the rapid rise in the popularity of One Nation as a political force and wonder whether…
Housing by scapegoat
When Barnaby Joyce decided to join One Nation, one assumes that it was not because of its housing policy. How…
Trump’s birthday UFC fight is a seminal moment in US politics
The UFC event today at the White House has been widely dismissed as an absurdity. Inevitably, the administration’s critics have portrayed…
Is Trump’s birthday extravaganza his last hurrah?
In January 1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt held a toga-themed birthday party at the White House to mock the accusation that…
The Belfast attack raises questions about Ireland’s borders
As is so often the case following riots, attention on symptoms drowns out discussion about the cause. This pattern has…
Sweden shows that not all immigrants are the same
I’m just going to say it. Not all immigrants are the same. I know that reading that might make you…
How many people did Australia’s backpacker murderer kill?
Australians are known for world-class performances in many fields. Mostly, our achievements are a source of national pride, but one…
South Africa’s migration warning to the West
For months, South African social media has been awash with videos of men marching through the country’s streets carrying sticks,…
The cringeworthy rebranding of Bristol’s SS Great Britain
If you live or work in Bristol, it’s impossible to escape the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s shadow – but that…
Why can’t Elon Musk’s critics just be pleased for him?
The quiet kid from my friend’s school has become a trillionaire, and many people are unhappy that this should be…
Rebel with a cause: The David Hockney I knew
For six years, in the 1990s, I was David Hockney’s ex-pat English next-door neighbour in the Hollywood Hills. A rickety blue…
The MoD wanted more money. Does it deserve it?
John Healey, the former defence secretary, resigned on Thursday because the government wouldn’t give defence more money. Experts, military chiefs,…
Kim Kardashian deserves better than Lewis Hamilton
I’ve always been keen on Kim Kardashian, going right back to the earliest years of her family reality show. At…
Will peace be the perfect gift for Trump?
Donald Trump’s 80th birthday is this weekend, and what better present for a struggling octogenarian Commander-in-Chief than a peace deal…
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’…
The Pope’s merciless war against the Old Rite
A man of music
The other day saw the opening of the Peter Corrigan Collection at RMIT which comprises his personal collection of architectural…
Such stuff as dreams are made on
When Ken Branagh took the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford for the first time in thirty years…
Elegance and intrigue
Anyone who knows the Sixties can easily be reminded of the beauty and the authority of Sidney Poitier. The MTC…
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…
Nothing works: The End of Everything, by John M. Harrison, reviewed
For more than half a century, M. John Harrison has been writing about decay and dispossession in a style that…
Tuscan escapades: Villa Coco, by Andrew Sean Greer, reviewed
The comic novelist Andrew Sean Greer won the Pulitzer Prize for Less, a chronicle of the longings and humiliations of…
Symbol of wisdom or harbinger of death – the owl preserves its mystery
As the author of this engaging book makes plain, it is with good reason that owls are such cherished birds.…
The agonies of an abandoned wife: Mrs Dickens, by Emily Howes, reviewed
For every smog-spitting chimney in Victorian London there was a woman tasked with keeping the hearth clean, both physically and…
The disgrace of Juan Carlos of Spain, a modern-day Don Juan
The life of Juan Carlos I, Spain’s 88-year-old former king, who reigned from 1975 until his abdication in 2014, falls…
The botched coup that presaged the end of the Soviet Union
The best thing about the Soviet Union – arguably the only good thing – was the manner of its going.…
In the dazzling company of Alexander Pope and friends
In the summer of 1726, the writers Jonathan Swift and John Gay spent several weeks at the home of their…
The banality of Hélène von Bismarck’s view of Britain is astounding
Hélène von Bismarck twice quotes (in an officiously corrected version) Robert Burns’s lines: ‘O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie…