'Australians will start to regain freedoms when the nation is 101 per cent vaccinated...'
Seven reasons why Scott Morrison is likely to lose the next election
Hello August 2021. that disappointing sequel to 2020. Or perhaps we’re actually in the 20th month of 2020 – Augustember.…
Will big financial institutions destroy our resources sector before the Greens?
Last month Paul Kelly wrote that Australia was being inescapably propelled to adopting a Net Zero CO2 emissions policy, not by…
Why haven’t we heard more from the human rights bureaucracy about Covid and our liberties?
Just about everyone would agree that a child born in Australia should have the same opportunities and rights as any…
Ivermectin and the doctor-patient relationship
At the outset, let’s make one thing clear. I do not share the absolute conviction of some who advocate the…
Today the troops appear on Sydney streets – and it’s heartbreaking that they’ve been sent there by Liberals.
From this morning 300 Australian Defence Force personnel will be deployed on Sydney’s streets after a weekend’s worth of training…
#TheirABC, #TheirEthics
There’s so much going wrong for the ABC it’s hard to keep track. The latest news reveals the broadcaster is…
It’s now the Greens who have the ugly faction
Just in case any readers have been living under a rock for the past few days (as opposed to heavy…
'Australians will start to regain freedoms when the nation is 101 per cent vaccinated...'
Australians have been promised they will start to regain freedoms when the nation is 101 per cent vaccinated, under a…
Macron's vaccine passport is uniting French anti-fascists and nationalists
Saturday was what is known in France as the Chassé-croisé, the busiest day of the year on the roads, when…
Is it fair for Laurel Hubbard to compete against women?
Today, the conversation about transgender rights and the interests of women turns to sport. At the Olympic Games, Laurel Hubbard…
We need to act now to save the army's Afghan interpreters
In July 2010, near the end of my two-year tour as defence attaché in Kabul, I was phoned by the…
In defence of Novak Djokovic
Why does no one like Novak Djokovic? If Roger Federer is the player that even non-tennis fans can’t help but…
Is it fair for Laurel Hubbard to compete against women?
Today, the conversation about transgender rights and the interests of women turns to sport. At the Olympic Games, Laurel Hubbard…
New Zealanders are revolting against Ardern
Thousands of tractors this recent week lined the streets of towns and cities throughout the country. In ‘The Howl of…
New Zealand's transgender debate is turning nasty
New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. But now,…
Will fairy dust power New Zealand?
Wishful thinking, allied to government incompetence and the ambition of our Prime Minister, is lining up trouble ahead. In one…
Any conviction politicians out there? Hello?
Speaking quite broadly one can say that there are two sorts of politicians. One operates from a set of principles…
The right to cheat
Every once in a while, around annual exams time for secondary schools, Indian media will show images of people scaling…
Chronicle of a Covid death foretold
When Adriana Midori Takara died last weekend just a fortnight after testing positive for Covid, there was an understandable clamour.…
Brisbane wins Gold in the hyperbole stakes
There were two old codgers on the golf course. On the first hole, Bob tells Bill that he’d just won…
Lockdown needs a smackdown
For the first time I deeply fear for the future of my country. This fear arises not from existential threats…
Jive talkin’
Has anyone the area code for the Isle of Man? I urgently need to get hold of the mayor of…
Australia is turning into a prison colony (again)
‘Can you identify one major problem facing Australia, which, if it were not created by the politicians, has not been…
New Zealanders are revolting against Ardern
Thousands of tractors this recent week lined the streets of towns and cities throughout the country. In ‘The Howl of…
John Mortimer & Leo McKern
What earthly guarantee do we have that live performance is going to be a viable option for Sydney or Melbourne…
The Greeks
What a time of captivity, what a time of plague. The Disney musical Frozen, long delayed by the mammoth Melbourne…
Martin Clunes
Just as the lockdown imprisons the people of Sydney those in Canberra have had the chance to see that exhilaration…
Opera Australia’s production of Otello
Lockdown must be making me irritable; an article during the week really got me going. It concerns two forthcoming productions…
Death and dishonour: The Promise, by Damon Galgut, reviewed
If death is not an event in life, as Wittgenstein observed, it’s a curious way to structure a novel. But…
Why do anglers get so hooked?
The other day a friend asked me what a lascar was. Fair enough: it’s not a word you come across…
What is the secret of Duran Duran’s durability?
In my second year at secondary school we were all deeply envious of a girl named Judi Taylor because, obviously,…
The disappearing man: who was the real John Stonehouse?
November 1974 was the month to disappear. On the 7th, Lord Lucan went missing, and a fortnight later John Stonehouse…
Prehistoric footprints in Norfolk set us wondering
During the first lockdown last year, taking my lockdown puppy for our Boris-sanctioned daily walks, I discovered a love of…
The book as narrator: The Pages, by Hugo Hamilton, reviewed
It is a truism that a book needs readers in order to have a meaningful existence. Hugo Hamilton’s The Pages…
On the run from the Nazis: a Polish family’s protracted ordeal
Writers of memoirs are often praised for their honesty — but how do we know? I found I did believe…
Foucault was shielded from scandal by French reverence for intellectuals
Consider the hare and the hyena. The hare, Clement of Alexandria told readers of his 2nd-century sexual self-help manual Paedagogus,…
