Victorian Liberals can’t afford to gamble
Many litigants are like gamblers on the pokies. Having had the satisfaction of winning a small jackpot, they punt, punt…
Never interrupt your enemy
Napoleon Bonaparte once observed, ‘never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake’. Politics can be defined as war…
Punish Pooh-bahs, not poor people
An ancient dead white bloke, Aristotle, conceived a world with natural masters and servants, writing ‘That some should rule, and…
Will the Cormack-Liberal jaw-jaw lead to more war-war?
At the moment I’m re-reading AJP Taylor’s classic The Origins of the Second World War. In his uniquely lucid and…
Memo various Victorian Liberals: don’t offer a solution when you are the problem
Just as Liberal preselection wars are hotting up in NSW, David Crowe reported in Fairfax Media on Thursday that Victoria Liberal Party…
Liberals note: only the impotent are pure
I read with great interest David Pellowe’s response to my Flat White article on factionalism in the Victorian division of…
What’s going on in the Victorian Liberals?
It seems that some in the Victorian division of the Liberal party want to lose elections more than win them.…
NDIS: When will the other shoe drop?
In announcing today that — way hey! — the Turnbull government now has a revenue windfall to fully fund the…
Boundary re-draws have a silver lining for the Coalition, if not the poor PM
In the world of political nerdery, nothing beats electoral redistributions. Who wins, who loses, new primary and two party-preferred margins,…
“Life is short but smokers’ lives are shorter. Legalise vaping now.”
The much-anticipated House of Representatives committee report on e-cigarettes and personal vaporisers – in other words, vaping – was tabled…
Australian notes
The feminist revolution is already over. Men lost. International Women’s Day is a day when women of the chattering classes…
The Victorian Liberals wake-up call
Yesterday’s Newspoll, showing the Victoria’s Labor government of left-winger Daniel Andrews has an election-winning lead of 52-48 two-party preferred, was…
Michaelia Cash: no credit
Last year I was invited to a private fundraising dinner for a backbench Liberal senator featuring then minister for employment,…
Australian notes
18C for Tarneen? Last Friday marked the 230th anniversary of a penal colony being founded on the shores of Sydney…
The AMA’s double standard on standards
The Australian Medical Association is a very curious beastie. It is like a three-year-old child. It only hears what it…
Far East diary
Ever willing to challenge nanny staters, just before Christmas I travelled to Bangkok to advise regional consumer organisations on coordinating…
Puffed-up public health poohbahs pan our happy heroes
So the public health poohbahs are off and running in 2018. The prurient puritans, the humourless harridans, the admonishing androids…
Bennelong win doesn’t cure dying Liberal culture
While voters went to the polls in the Bennelong by-election, in Melbourne I attended the memorial service of a local…
Milo Yiannopoulos insults conservatives along with everyone else
Watching Fairfax’s and the ABC’s outraged and breathless coverage of the violent Left protesters outside the Melbourne venue for the…
Survival or expediency?
The federal parliamentary party is divided, disordered, dystopian. The Prime Minister’s leadership lacks clear purpose and vision. Budget repair isn’t…
Simon Chapman defends disruptive new technology
In Wednesday’s Australian Financial Review, public health academic and media commentator Simon Chapman came out in strong support of a…
Pestminister diary
A fortnight ago I arrived in Britain, to speak at the annual Battle of Ideas festival. Think Festival of Dangerous…
Time for the Terminator
Returning this morning after three weeks in the Old Dart and the USA, I was greeted by yet another lousy…
Winston Oakeshott
Today, the last effective centre-right government of the Anglosphere has fallen. The New Zealand National government led by Bill English…
Yes/No notes
At least it shows we don’t need compulsory voting Australians are having their two bob’s worth on same-sex marriage.The first…
