The case against the unions
Look who’s cashed-up and running for blue-ribbon seats
From Woolhahra, Point Piper, and beyond the multi-billionaires are queuing to support an Independent. But who are they really supporting?…
Fiona Patten in the lead for ‘most despised politician of the year’
Victorian MP Fiona Patten has made a last-minute attempt at winning Australia’s Most Despised Politician of the Year Award. The…
Do not go quietly, George Christensen
The gas-lighting of retiring MP George Christensen by senior Coalition figures in Canberra is a disgrace. It is also very,…
The case against the unions
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed trade unions as impotent and inflexible, a lethal combination for any organisation seeking growth and…
The ‘Voices’ network seeks to unseat the Liberals
The ‘Voices for’ network is standing self-declared ‘Independent’ candidates in affluent Liberal Party seats in the coming federal election. It…
Let’s not copy New Zealand’s mistake with ciggies
New Zealand this week banned smoking for the next generation. Those under 14 will never be allowed to legally smoke…
Erasing mothers’ violence towards their children
When the Howard government introduced family law reforms encouraging shared parenting, Australia led the world in supporting children’s rights to…
Sex sells – or does it?
Everyone knows that ‘sex sells’. Forget woke advertising campaigns full of gender-creative pronouns, complex quota-ticking spreadsheets, and the latest ‘the-world-is-melting’…
Why Omicron may overwhelm our health service
What we know from the imperfect data we have is that Omicron is vastly more infectious but less virulent than…
Boris is in deep trouble
This evening feels eerily familiar to anyone who remembers the meaningful votes of Theresa May’s premiership. The Tory rebellion on…
Boris suffers huge Tory revolt over vaccine passports
Boris Johnson has just suffered a large majority-busting revolt in the House of Commons over vaccine passports, with 98 Conservatives…
The sex work divide in British politics
They seem like completely unrelated questions: ‘Is sex work real work?, and ‘Who will replace Yvette Cooper as chair of…
Let’s not copy New Zealand’s mistake with ciggies
New Zealand this week banned smoking for the next generation. Those under 14 will never be allowed to legally smoke…
New Zealand embraces gender ghosts as the national religion
From where I sit from across the ditch it appears ‘the land of the long white cloud’ is encased in…
Decline and fall of New Zealand
As some readers of this fine weekly will know, my family and I spent eleven wonderful years living and working…
Saint Jacinda's war on fags
It is a curious irony that the West’s leading progressive icon is probably the most authoritarian leader in the free world…
Decline and fall of New Zealand
As some readers of this fine weekly will know, my family and I spent eleven wonderful years living and working…
The tide’s gone out
‘Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked’. It’s one of my favourite sayings from…
Business/Robbery, etc.
‘Chaos’, said the headlines. ‘Revolts on the left and the right’, along with ministerial and backbench departures, both voluntary and…
Are the kids OK?
On Sunday, Ben Madgen who plays football for Southeast Melbourne Phoenix tweeted that he ‘ended up in the emergency room…
Last rights
Fraud is an intrinsic and disgraceful part of the Australian electoral system. If our credit card or registered mail systems…
High courts and misdemeanours
The latest forensic disaster, in which one of Australia’s most respected forensic scientists, Kirsty Wright, laid out the serious errors…
Pork-barrelling: the real reason to be in politics
When it comes to parliamentary question time, I hold an equivocal position. On the one hand, I feel I should…
China’s behaviour demands a boycott of the Winter Olympics
First it was former prime minister, Paul Keating, telling us that Australia has no interest in defending the democratic freedoms…
Jane Campion
A new film by Jane Campion is always going to be a magnetsing prospect and the idea of it suddenly…
Nitram
Nitram is the Martin Bryant film which sent shivers down everyone’s spine at the mere prospect. Justin Kurzel’s film about…
As You Like It
As You Like It is middle Shakespeare, probably lateish 1590s. It’s not one of the earlier happy comedies like the…
Don’t forget the motor city
Detroit is the only American city where I always felt uneasy. Even the cops look at you as if you…
Children’s books for all ages: the best of 2021
She’s done it again: J.K. Rowling has written a captivating children’s book. The Christmas Pig(Little Brown, £20) is about a…
A book trade romp: Sour Grapes, by Dan Rhodes, reviewed
Dan Rhodes’s career might be regarded as an object lesson in How Not to Get Ahead in Publishing. Our man…
Has nostalgia become the Greeks’ national disease?
Imagine a new take on the Greek myth of Pygmalion. A love-shy artist makes a woman out of marble who…
The 17th-century Huron chief Kondiaronk can still teach us valuable lessons
Ten years ago, David Graeber was a leading figure of the Occupy Wall Street movement. He and his fellow protesters…
Lost in the fog: The Fell, by Sarah Moss, reviewed
Novelists are leery about letting the buzzwords of recent history into their books. The immediate past threatens to upstage the…
Richard Needham takes a businesslike attitude to the Troubles
This memoir from Sir Richard Needham, 6th Earl of Kilmorey, businessman and former Northern Ireland minister, has a frank opening:…
Father Christmas battles through the Blitz
When the shrill air raid sirens blared their familiar warning cries over the city at 6.01 p.m. on 29 December…
Culture clash: Things We Don’t Tell the People We Love, by Huma Qureshi, reviewed
Apart from what the title tells us, these stories are about a fundamental difference in cultures. Huma Qureshi writes like…
