Be fit to fight Covid coercion. Get vaccinated
Their ABC and ‘allegations’, rather than ‘facts’
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it…
We are stamping on our children’s future with our attempts to stamp out Covid
It used to be an intergenerational compact, an unwritten commandment, that we will give to our children better than we…
Police blow the whistle on the weaponisation of domestic violence claims
Interesting skirmish a few weeks ago over a police union submission to the federal inquiry into family law. In their…
Dear (as in expensive) political leaders: you have failed
The fact that people vastly overestimate the number of deaths from Covid as recent polls have shown, is a signal…
Electric vehicles are bad for our economic climate
Lockdowns and regulations are plaguing Australians and putting a damper on our moods. Many are bearing the brunt of unemployment—or…
The Greens still seem to like a lot about Julian Burnside
Despite accusations of anti-Semitism directed at St Julian of Burnside and his blessed bride Kate Durham, the Greens still seem…
Using your equity in retirement
Australia has had a national age pension since 1909. Introduced by the government of prime minister Andrew Fisher, it mostly…
Be fit to fight Covid coercion. Get vaccinated
It is quite clear that governments around the world are going to mandate vaccine passports for certain purposes in coming…
Belarusians in exile aren't safe from the iron grip of Lukashenko
This week has laid bare the terrifying situation faced by Belarusians in their home country and abroad. From Tokyo’s Olympic…
Cult of Mao: Will the Olympics punish China?
As one of the embassy drivers I met in Beijing saw it, ferrying diplomats to meetings was secondary to his responsibility…
Should Henry Morton Stanley's statue be pulled down?
Should Stanley fall? Debate is raging over whether a statue of the Victorian explorer Henry Morton Stanley, which was erected…
Biden’s eviction comments create a constitutional pickle
At first, the White House insisted it did not have legal authority to extend a national eviction moratorium. After all,…
You go, girl! Laurel Hubbard and the other trans Olympians
You’ve got to give it to Shania Twain. When she belted out her 1997 hit, Man! I feel like a woman! she…
Compelling children to wear masks
Should small children and even teenagers be compelled to wear masks against the Coronavirus variants? Given the pandemic in the…
Laurel Hubbard? No thank you
The footage today of three of the strongest women in the world politely declining to comment on the entrance of a male into their sport…
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…
The strange case of Covid-19
The responses to Covid-19 by rich countries across the world include some strange and inexplicable events. In the face of…
Waging the war on Covid
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made headlines around the world this week when she put soldiers on the streets…
Business/Robbery, etc.
A (temporary) triumph of political reality over economic principle as the Morrison government seeks to avoid a very loseable electorally…
Is Grattan. Is Good.
Reform is one of those terms that means different things to different people. The dictionary definition talks about changes and…
Hart was right
For my day job I’m a law professor, having been a lawyer in London and Toronto way back in the…
True lies
The best form of gossip is always laced with the truth. It’s the same with active measures (AM) used to…
The People vs the Privileged
The long line of red lights stretching into the darkness ahead of me is a familiar sight. I am on…
No longer creative destruction
No longer, as Shakespeare might have said, ‘this other Eden, demi-paradise,’ a land of gradually advancing prosperity, based on liberty,…
Rose Byrne
‘Unemployed at last!’ That wonderful bit of national self-mockery that opens the classic Australian novel Such is Life takes on…
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…
Lucy Ellmann is angry about everything, especially men
Is Lucy Ellmann serious? On the one hand, yes, very. The novel she published before this collection of essays was…
An interest in the bizarre helps keep melancholy at bay
If you crush the right testicle of a wolf and administer it in oil or rose water it will induce…
The AI future looks positively rosy
In the future, men enjoying illicit private pleasures with their intelligent sexbots might be surprised to find that even women…
The Cambridge Greek Lexicon is an eye-opener for classical scholars
The great Latinist D.R. Shackleton Bailey was once said to have been pinned into a corner at a party and…
When family viewing was full of creeping menace
Strange, really, that the scheduled output of traditional broadcasters became known as ‘terrestrial’ television, given that TV is an etheric…
Startlingly sadistic: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, by Quentin Tarantino, reviewed
There’s no doubt that Quentin Tarantino is a movie director of brilliance, if not genius. But can he write? Well…
A true bohemian: the story of Nico’s rise and fall
It is well established that artists are not always the nicest people. On the surface, the life of the model,…
Gay abandon: Filthy Animals, by Brandon Taylor, reviewed
What does it mean to be a body in this world? It’s the question animating Brandon Taylor’s Filthy Animals. Our…
