Terry Barnes

What winning the Ashes means for Australia

21 December 2025 6:55 pm

This has been a week when Australia could no longer deny the dark stain of anti-Semitism on our national soul.…

A gun crackdown is easier than confronting Australia’s Islamist menace

20 December 2025 4:34 pm

It’s hard to disagree with the verdict of former Australian cabinet minister Josh Frydenberg on the Bondi Beach attack. ‘Guns…

Is Australia finally taking anti-Semitism seriously?

20 December 2025 8:43 am

After four days of looking like a rabbit in the headlights, embattled Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, finally started to…

Will Australia finally take anti-Semitism seriously?

19 December 2025 7:56 pm

After four days of looking like a rabbit in the headlights, embattled Australian prime minister, Labor’s Anthony Albanese, finally started…

Albanese has failed to step up after the Bondi beach attack

17 December 2025 9:51 pm

It’s been three days since the jihad against innocent Jews at Sydney’s Bondi beach. A nation’s grief is swiftly turning…

Bondi Beach and the heroism of Ahmed al Ahmed

15 December 2025 6:03 pm

As the appalling story of Sunday’s anti-Jewish mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach continue to unfold, and 16 people are…

Australia must be purged of its festering anti-Semitism

14 December 2025 11:40 pm

It breaks my heart to write this piece. Today, the resurgence of anti-Semitism that has percolated and festered in Australia…

Will Australia’s social media ban work?

10 December 2025 10:01 pm

It’s all too easy to get hooked by the online world, to fall headlong into it, to spend hour upon…

Aussies are enjoying England’s Ashes meltdown

8 December 2025 10:00 pm

What a letdown for lovers of Test cricket in both England and Australia. After just six playing days, the Ashes…

Why Australia’s sharks keep on targeting tourists

28 November 2025 9:24 pm

Thursday dawned bright and warm over the beaches of northern New South Wales. It was a perfect morning to enjoy…

How a burka brought bedlam to Australia’s parliament

25 November 2025 1:27 am

Australia’s parliament is a curious place when it comes to its dress code. Suits without ties: frowned upon. Dresses made…

Memo to Jess Wilson: I’ve found your shadow Treasurer for you

23 November 2025 2:07 pm

On Friday, I spent an afternoon at the H R Nicholls Society annual conference, as a guest of the Society.…

Australia could regret its decision to recognise Palestine

23 September 2025 2:16 am

When it comes to major decisions certain to anger Donald Trump and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking safety in…

Victoria’s Aboriginal ‘Treaty’ will undermine its democracy

10 September 2025 8:18 pm

On Tuesday evening, my six-year old’s suburban Melbourne primary school staged a wonderful concert, an all-school celebration of contemporary song,…

Australia has finally woken up to the Iranian threat

26 August 2025 10:56 pm

Geographically, eastern Australia is about as far from Israel and Gaza as anyone can get. But given the Australian government’s…

Australia’s relations with Israel are lying in tatters

20 August 2025 4:59 pm

Australia and Israel are – were – traditional allies. A former leader of Australia’s Labor party and then president of…

Why Australia is recognising Palestine

11 August 2025 9:34 pm

In 1968, the American broadcaster Walter Cronkite told his national TV audience the United Stated was losing the war in…

Melbourne’s mad plan to adopt an Aboriginal six-season calendar

7 August 2025 9:48 pm

Victoria’s capital, Melbourne, has a dubious meteorological reputation. Our weather is so predictably unpredictable that Melbourne can easily have four…

How can a sex offender still be a New South Wales MP? 

6 August 2025 4:11 pm

Notoriously, the Australian state of New South Wales was founded as a penal colony. Since it was granted responsible government…

Australia’s fascination with the ‘mushroom murders’ must end

7 July 2025 5:00 pm

After an eight-week trial followed avidly around Australia and the world, and a week’s jury deliberation, Australia’s answer to Lucrezia…

Could Donald Trump scrap Aukus?

12 June 2025 4:42 pm

America’s policy undersecretary of defence, Elbridge Colby, is one of the brightest brains in Donald Trump’s administration. Having served in…

Erin Patterson’s mushroom murder case is Australia’s Trial of the Century

8 June 2025 3:58 pm

Since its general election a month ago, Australia’s politics have endured their biggest upheaval in fifty years. Its Labor government…

Coalition split a disaster for conservatives, at least in the short term

20 May 2025 2:00 pm

Today’s bombshell announcement by Nationals Leader, David Littleproud, that his party is ending its Coalition agreement with the Liberals, adds…

Australian election: Trump helps topple second conservative leader

4 May 2025 1:59 am

Tonight, Australia voted decisively for continuity. The Labor government of prime minister Anthony Albanese has not merely been re-elected. It…

Will Australia’s angry voters punish Labor at the polls?

3 May 2025 4:18 pm

Australia goes to the polls today, pitting the first-term Labor government of prime minister Anthony Albanese against the Liberal-National party…