David Furse-Roberts

Why the NSW Liberals must give the Modern Slavery Act effect

2 November 2021 2:51 pm

In June 2018, then-Premier Gladys Berejiklian told parliament there was “an undeniable moral imperative to take action in relation to all forms of…

The true Tony Abbott

20 February 2020 11:00 am

Earlier this week, the book Abbott: The Defining Speeches, which I edited with the former prime minister’s speechwriter Paul Ritchie,…

Boris Johnson’s forgotten people?

17 December 2019 7:16 pm

With an ascendant, centre-right leader triumphing over an avowedly socialist opponent in an epoch-making general election, just as Robert Menzies…

Tim Fischer: a statesman of courage and character

26 August 2019 8:04 pm

Last week Australia lost one of its great characters in public life with the death of our tenth deputy prime…

Restoring the roots

11 October 2018 8:45 pm

Witnessing the metamorphosis of his own party in the early 1970s, Kim Beazley Senior famously quipped: “When I joined the…

Enid Lyons: the speech of the nightingale

28 September 2018 2:26 pm

In one of his many colourful metaphors, Prime Minister Billy Hughes once described Australia’s first female Federal parliamentarian as “like…

Morrison and Ming

11 September 2018 3:52 pm

Returning to hallowed ground of Liberal folklore, Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week chose Albury as the place to reinvoke…

Edmund Burke down under

11 July 2018 1:11 pm

Accepting the Edmund Burke Award in November 2016, John Howard paid homage to the eighteenth century Anglo-Irish statesman, remarking that…

Launching ‘Howard: The Art of Persuasion’

15 June 2018 7:56 am

Speech by the Editor, David Furse-Roberts. Tonight’s occasion and this book is all about honouring a great Australian and a…

Campion College shows we need more champions for the liberal arts

29 May 2018 2:36 pm

Launching the iPad 2 in March 2011, the Apple co-founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs, reflected that “It is in…

George, Abbott and Howard were both Liberals too

15 May 2018 7:52 am

The contest for the philosophical soul of the Liberal Party seems as old as the hills when one recalls the…

Australian free trade must trump protectionism

12 March 2018 6:40 pm

With the Trump administration pledging to impose tariffs on aluminium and steel imports to the United States, the spectre of…

Billy Graham: a titan of faith and freedom

25 February 2018 1:20 pm

Reflecting on his wartime leadership, Winston Churchill remarked that with the nation having the lion’s heart, he “had the luck…

Lucy Gichuhi will be a boon to the party of Menzies

5 February 2018 1:19 pm

In a 1943 wartime broadcast on social security, Robert Menzies told the country that “there are amazing possibilities in every…

Slavery no more: Wilberforce and the settlement of Australia

26 January 2018 6:05 pm

On the meandering banks of Sydney’s Hawkesbury River, there lies a small, historic town featuring a sandstone church, a cemetery…

John Gorton: a rugged Australian idealist

11 January 2018 12:36 pm

Following the death of Sir John Gorton on 19 May 2002, Christopher Zinn wrote in the Guardian that “Gorton left…

2017: a year to acknowledge the leaven of faith in Australian politics

22 December 2017 12:50 pm

With Australian politics becoming somewhat top-heavy with careerist party-hacks and apparatchiks who view power for its own sake as the…

Howard’s end? The enduring legacy of ‘Lazarus’

24 November 2017 7:24 am

With the entrance to The Lodge turning into something of a revolving door since prime minister-elect Rudd bestrode the victory…

The conception of modern Israel: remembering the centenary of the Balfour Declaration

9 November 2017 12:18 pm

Great moments in history are sometimes defined by a piece of paper, in this case, a letter penned from one…

Celebrating a preserving revolution: remembering the Reformation 500 years on

30 October 2017 6:25 pm

When the Victorian Whig historian, Lord Macaulay, touched on the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in his magisterial five-volume tome, The…

Remembering the Forgotten People

22 May 2017 12:17 pm

Three-quarters of a century ago, with the Second World War raging in the jungles and high seas of the Pacific,…