Leading article Australia
Broken society
The deaths of NSW teenagers Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie were beyond tragic. The senseless, random nature of the violence…
Very, very effective
The border protection debate is roaring again, and we’re happy to join the fun. One place to start is to…
Climate change jokers
They call it the silly season, when not much is happening in politics, so far-fetched yarns and preposterous anecdotes get…
Abbott’s Christmas renewal
It’s been only three months since Tony Abbott’s decisive victory on 7 September, and already the critics are baying for…
Say it ain’t so, Joe
Under which particular pillow does Joe Hockey hope to find a lazy trillion dollars lurking? That’s the estimated investment Australian…
Stop attacking Aunty
This magazine rarely misses an opportunity to criticise the ABC. So readers may be surprised to find us defending Aunty…
A delicate diplomatic dance
‘Few international problems in the postwar period have proved as difficult for Australia as the development of a friendly and…
Professor Strange-palm
Dinosaurs, disgruntled employees, Chinese spies, Titanic enterprises, JFK rip-offs, unpaid taxes, smacking Senate bottoms, strange circular self-generating taxation schemes and…
Slaying the beast
They stabbed it with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast,’ sang the Eagles in ‘Hotel California’.…
Labor’s penance
And so the sins of the forefathers shall be visited upon the sons, or so it must feel like to…
Grim reading
Left-wing dogma is destroying the literary skills of an entire generation. Such is the depressing conclusion of a recent report…
Do you feel lucky, Bill?
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, ‘Will he really go to a double dissolution?’ Now to tell you the…
Don’t silence Mr Brave
Almost exactly a year ago in these pages we wrote about John Ruddick’s worthwhile efforts to draw attention to the…
Triumph in Jakarta
Walking into the gilt opulence of the ‘Credentials Room’ of the Istana Merdeka palace in Jakarta, our new Prime Minister…
A changing climate
When we say the climate is changing, we do not mean that man-made global warming is destroying planet Earth. We…
Global warming pause
Given that the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change now apparently acknowledges that an unexpected and unexplainable ‘pause’ in…
Calling Jon Faine
With Tony Abbott’s stunning election victory, it is time that the Australian media had a comprehensive purging of those within…
A foreign policy realist
‘The United States does not want either side to win this war. Victory for either side would mean dreadful massacres…
Welcome to our app
Some take ‘selfies’ of their shaving cuts. Others set up fatuous Facebook pages pleading to be ‘liked’. Many more propel…
Tony’s time
Should he fail to win the forthcoming election, Tony Abbott would be forgiven for expressing his frustration by punching a…
Tongue-tied election
One of the more enduring images of this election campaign will be the toe-curling performance of Liberal candidate Jayme Diaz…
The old ways
Perhaps if Labor had offered up Bill Shorten, Bob Carr, Greg Combet or any candidate other than Kevin Rudd for…
Malcolm, messiah
Justinian II, Charles II, Napoleon, Gladstone, Churchill, Menzies, de Gaulle, Nixon, Wilson, Howard, Clinton, Rudd — what do these figures…
Lurching to the right
It’s the great irony of our times: Tony Abbott, derided as being an unpopular opposition leader, is in fact the…
Carbon copy
The Coalition has been right to oppose both Julia Gillard’s carbon tax and Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme. But Tony…
