Features Australia
Aux bien pensants
Why do some governments behave as if they’re little more than thieves in the night? Why is it that the…
Checking out
Religion has no part to play in public policy, according to TV producer Andrew Denton — even when it comes…
Unlike Zwingli
Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) the great Protestant reformer of the sixteenth century would have been impressed with the determination shown by…
WARNING: This article contains ideas that offend
Disgracefully, an Australian university is introducing ‘trigger warnings’
Leakphobia
What could a trendy, tattooed, godless leftie in the hippest bit of Melbourne possibly have in common with an Isis-admiring…
World Vision’s blind spot
‘I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here,’ said Captain Louis Renault as he collected his…
Cartoon heroes
While non-Aboriginal Australians squirm with guilt over their ‘privilege’, a cabal of middle-class Aboriginals have proven adept at pretending their…
Mad and bad
On a warm summer night in London’s Russell Square a young, Muslim migrant randomly stabs members of the public. He…
In praise of Bill
A few months ago I attended a lunch at which I was serendipitously seated next to a hero of mine,…
Restraining Kevin
If a diplomat, as Winston Churchill once said, is a person who can tell you to go to hell in…
Cabinet is not ‘fit for purpose’
The new cabinet confirmed at its very first meeting that it is not ‘fit for purpose’. With 23 ministers, it…
So even Rudd’s better than a Kiwi?
Anyone who has observed the relationship between Australia and New Zealand over many years is forced to an inescapable conclusion.…
DEL-CON NOTES
With the House of Representatives composition now known, though with the Senate still to be finally decided, this note is…
Business/Music etc
Thanks, but no, thanks. Don’t even bother thinking about complaints that the big end of town should have done more…
Head-counting the Christians
Is it just me, or is there something distinctly uncertain about atheist advertising campaigns? I mean they lack nothing in…
Tora! Tora! Bora!
I have just returned from Japan. The country represents a different model of development, its collective emphasis often chanelled towards…
Deconstructing the construction unions
The Coalition may have prised a slim majority from the jaws of electoral defeat, but the fate of Australia’s construction…
Letters from my husband
At this time of general opprobrium for Britain by the more vociferous officials of the European Union, most particularly Jean-Claude…
Why go into politics?
The state of politics here, and in the United Kingdom, and in the United States, raises the question of why…
Learning when to catch blackfish
The NSW draft curriculum released last week glosses over thousands of years of western development and progress, in favour of…
The case for Isms and Phobias
In a world awash in cultural relativism there remains one absolute commandment: Thou shalt not be -ist. Thou shalt not…
Decline of the West, a hundred years on
The first volume of Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West (Der Untergang des Abendlandes) was published in 1918, followed…
Dishlicker’s diary
Mr Tom, pet greyhound of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia (1762-96), shared a bed with her lover, the colossal…
Aux bien pensants
There is a disturbingly authoritarian trend in Australia, an insistence that out-of-touch politicians know best. Decisions are made reducing or…
Business/Robbery etc
Malcolm Turnbull, already weakened by his narrow election win, has no option but to stick to the substance (excepting unintended…
