One of the grave concerns of parents is bullying at school, that unbearable circumstance in which good, hard-working students are…

This is the story of an Australian Opposition Leader who cried wolf about a new tax. In the months leading…

When Kevin Rudd was rising through the ranks of the Parliamentary Labor party a decade ago, his most diligent critic…

In the public dispute over Labor-Green preferences, Sarah Hanson-Young, the Greens’ immigration spokesperson, made a telling contribution. ‘There’s a big…

One of the delusions of life in Canberra is that laws passed on Capital Hill have a big-bang impact on…

First, an important update. In September I reported on the new system by which the memory of journalists would be…

Nothing excites journalists more than a debate about the future of journalism. While this is not unusual among professional groups,…

For those who study the succession to the throne, last Friday was a red-letter day. Britain’s Prince Charles gave a…

In the 1980s classic Ghostbusters, Ray Parker Jr’s theme music gave rise to an enduring catchcry: Who you gonna call?…

Parliamentary service confers on its participants a wide range of life skills. One of these is an unerring ability to…

Each year with the commemoration of Anzac Day, there are some fascinating reflections on our national culture. I think the…

There is a story, apocryphal perhaps, about the meeting between John F. Kennedy and the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in…

A common lament in political commentary is how parliamentary life has changed beyond recognition. The end of Cold War ideology…

No one could accuse the Queensland Labor Party of over-intellectualising its political tactics. At a time when academics and commentators…

Some of the new television programming for 2012 has been hard to follow. Last Sunday, for instance, I tuned into…

One of the mighty tales of American politics concerns the populist, Depression-era Governor of Louisiana, Huey Long. Campaigning for office,…

The Gillard-Rudd struggle is not just about party politics. It is also about media politics. At the Sydney Morning Herald,…

Kevin Rudd’s resignation as Foreign Minister is consistent with every other scene in this Rudd-inspired soap opera. The man who…

Later this year, Labor’s new leader (either Stephen Smith or Bill Shorten) will have a strategic decision to make: what…

One of the delusions of the nanny state is that laws made in the distant chambers of Parliament House can…

The wonder of the Tent Embassy riot lies not in how or why it happened, but in the political judgement…

Saturday morning at the nearest coffee shop, marvelling at the power of Murdoch self-promotion. One paper presents a profile of…

December was a bad month for the Kim family. First Kim Il-Carr was dumped from Julia Gillard’s cabinet. Then Kim…

In the pages of this magazine and elsewhere, the British neolibertarian Brendan O’Neill has mounted a curious argument about media…

On one of his visits to Australia, Bill Clinton confessed to former NSW Premier Bob Carr that ‘Some people in…