Bill English shows Malcolm Turnbull how to win
As counting closed on New Zealand’s election night, the main focus of Kiwi commentators was on the performance of Labour…
Sorry ladies, but there’s only one Ashes
Popping up in my Facebook feed are the latest Cricket Australia ads promoting something called the ‘Magellan Men’s Ashes’. It…
Turnbull should watch New Zealand and tremble
It may not mean a lot to people on this side of the Tasman (besides Barnaby Joyce and Scott Ludlum),…
I’m a baby boomer, and I like a drink. So there
Oh dear, nanny state researchers are out and about again, finding fresh angles to demonise those of us who enjoy…
Section 44 solved in six easy steps
Malcolm Turnbull has a heck of a political problem on his hands. For once, it’s not entirely of his own…
It ain’t choice, Joyce
In 1995, I was there when, one question time, John Howard’s reinvigorated opposition so niggled prime minister Paul Keating that…
The Dean Smith Five
Watching Liberal senator Dean Smith on the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday morning, I was impressed by the quiet and dignified…
Tax addict
At Australian Labor party conferences in New South Wales and Queensland last weekend, Bill Shorten proclaimed himself the Robin Hood…
Vaping, Big Public Health and the new McCarthyism
One of the more emotive arguments thrown up against e-cigarettes and vaping is that multinational tobacco companies, including Philip Morris…
Turnbull’s just Dizzy
Well, Malcolm Turnbull did it on Monday in London. He took Tony Abbott’s bait and weighed into the moderate v…
Is Turnbull planning a lightning strike against Abbott?
The Tony Abbott insurrection against the moderate overlords of the parliamentary Liberal party continues. ‘I am a member of the…
Abbott’s right about being more right
I wrote recently that the sensible centre in Australian politics is dead. Labor is off with the populist pixies and…
The curse of the Black Hand
How appropriate Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne was speaking to a Liberal left faction group called the Black Hand when…
Warsaw Diary
When one first lands in Warsaw, it’s easy to dismiss the prevailing Soviet realist architecture. The endless blocks of flats…
An attack on Andrew Bolt — and all believers in free speech
I know Andrew Bolt moderately. For a time I appeared on The Bolt Report. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting…
The health department head compounds his sins
Embattled Health Department head, Martin Bowles’s, Senate estimates performance last week is a gift that keeps on giving. As we…
The Health Department boss should pack his bags
If I was Health Department secretary, Martin Bowles, I’d be checking my superannuation paperwork is in order. Over three hours…
Where’s a drug test for hypocrisy when you need one?
I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning, and Twitter always is pungent with its bitter almond aroma. Today…
Budget 2017: politically clever, but…
I’ve been lamenting that for too long we’ve had no sensible centre in Australian politics, effectively ceding the political debate…
Time to scrap the rebates
Malcolm Turnbull almost lost an election because he had no health policy. Bill Shorten and Labor’s blatant, fabricated ‘Mediscare’, claiming…
Tony Nutt: Turnbull’s fall guy
On Wednesday, Liberal federal director Tony Nutt announced his resignation after a year and a half in the job. The…
Election notes
Malcolm, take note… As the dust settles on the Western Australian election result, and Labor’s Mark McGowan sweeping to office…
Thank you, Colin Barnett
As the dust settles on the Western Australian election result, let’s not forget that for 8 ½ years Colin Barnett…
Let’s have a day for middle-aged white men
So International Women’s Day (aka the ABC’s male presenters’ RDO) has come and gone. Feminists and social media mavens have…
Our pols can learn a thing or two from the Kiwi cousins
Today, Malcolm Turnbull visits New Zealand for his first leaders’ meeting with Kiwi Prime Minister Bill English. Trans-Tasman trade and whether there’s a future for the…
