Terry Barnes

Liberals must be careful wading into Somyurek’s derin bok

18 June 2020 2:13 pm

As the lurid text messages of the Adem Somyurek sting federal MP, Anthony Byrne, dominate today’s news cycle, it’s clear…

St Jacinda walks among us – virtually. So what?

5 May 2020 1:05 pm

Social media, The Grauniad and the ABC’s fanbois and girls have worked themselves to a state of near orgasm knowing…

Annaliese Van Diemen shows covidiocy is contagious

1 May 2020 4:00 pm

If you saw my reflection yesterday on the “shame industry’s” degrading of the James Cook 250th anniversary from a celebration…

Cook 250 has been destroyed by the shame industry – and that’s something we should be ashamed of

30 April 2020 5:00 am

The 250th anniversary of the landing of James Cook on the rocky shore of Kurnell 250 years ago yesterday passed…

Miserable ghost Malcolm Turnbull’s ill-timed bigger picture

21 April 2020 11:00 am

Australia is well ahead of most of the West in suppressing coronavirus. Out of a population of 25 million Australia…

Tim Brooke-Taylor: not just a Goodie

13 April 2020 1:30 pm

When I heard this morning that Tim-Brooke Taylor had been taken by the despicable coronavirus, I could have been knocked…

George Pell remains a guilty man

7 April 2020 2:42 pm

Today, legal justice has been thankfully, belatedly, served. Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on all counts was quashed unanimously by the…

Dodgy Dan’s short sainthoood

3 April 2020 2:34 pm

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has been getting a lot of brownie points, first for his role in coordinating responses to…

Send Xi the reparations bill

28 March 2020 9:00 am

China must be made to cough up for the coronavirus

Will Mr Invisible destroy the Morrison government?

11 February 2020 3:30 pm

What a shemozzle. A week after the mad uncle, Barnaby Joyce, tilted unsuccessfully to snatch the National party leadership back…

Mad Uncle Barnaby stays in the attic

4 February 2020 12:03 pm

Politics is the natural stage for egotists, narcissists and attention-seekers. So it was no surprise today to see Barnaby Joyce,…

Scott Morrison stopped the boats. If he wants to seize back the political agenda, he can stop the rorts

3 February 2020 5:00 am

So Bridget McKenzie has bitten the dust. Finally, and not because of the flagrant pork-barrelling she and her office were…

Why I’m over Australia Day

28 January 2020 2:00 pm

So Australia Day has come and gone for another year.  Yet again we had the Lay On the Guilt With…

Blunderbuss Bridget’s boondoggle blasts back

23 January 2020 5:00 am

Once the Bridget McKenzie grant approval story broke a week ago, it was never going to go away.  The revelation…

Sports Rorts revisited: Bridget’s big boo-boo

17 January 2020 11:13 am

In 1996, I was interim chief of staff to new health minister, Michael Wooldridge. I occupied a small room next…

We need a natural disaster supremo – and Tony Abbott’s the man for the job

8 January 2020 5:00 am

As catastrophic bushfires continue to rage across south-eastern Australia, as property continues to burn, human and animal lives continue to…

Stuff the diversity warriors and say it loud, say it proud: Merry Christmas!

22 December 2019 6:53 pm

An outfit called the Diversity Council claims to be the place to go for advice on diversity and inclusion in…

Beijing Bob bangs the wrong drum?

19 November 2019 6:03 pm

On Monday, ABC’s panel programme The Drum discussed Australia’s complicated relationship with China, and the Chinese Communist Party’s government decision…

Winnie, you and your Peking party panjandrums can’t purge our pols

18 November 2019 7:51 am

It seems that two prominent Liberal MPs, James Paterson and Andrew Hastie, have blotted their copybooks with the panda panjandrums…

John Howard’s one big blunder: persuading Malcolm Turnbull to stay

7 October 2019 4:16 pm

John Howard is a great Australian and a great Liberal.  Over the 75 years if its existence, only two figures…

What the world needs now is love, sweet love: ScoMo

11 July 2019 1:23 pm

In a speech to the Hillsong church in Sydney on Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison riffed intriguingly on the power…

G’day Albo, mate. Welcome to Hell

1 July 2019 5:00 am

When a loved one dies, the real grieving is often postponed. The senses numb the immediate shock, helping the bereaved…

Cassidy’s cheerio reveals the groupthink luvvieland that is the ABC’s Insiders

10 June 2019 2:21 pm

For political groupies, Barrie Cassidy’s last episode of Insiders on the ABC was reason to look both backwards and forwards.…

Kristina Keneally: Albo’s golden girl – or a golden goose?

3 June 2019 4:38 pm

The week just past in politics, the week to come: Rarely in federal politics has there been as meteoric rise…

The election is over; the future beckons

27 May 2019 3:52 pm

The week in politics, the week to come. The theme for this election-period weekly column has been Backwards and Forwards.…