Flat White

In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.

Victoria’s great Cnut

18 October 2021 12:48 pm

According to Henry of Huntingdon when Cnut the Great was King of England, Denmark and Norway he had his throne…

Education ministers must act on our woke national curriculum

18 October 2021 11:26 am

In a matter of weeks, Australia’s nine education ministers will decide the fate of the revised national curriculum released earlier…

Conservatism as a philosophy of change

18 October 2021 4:00 am

Conservatism is a philosophy of change. Not that this is well recognised by its chorus of hyperventilating critics, nor particularly…

Why won’t the advocates tell us the cost of net-zero?

17 October 2021 6:10 pm

Nowhere in the world can wind and solar compete without subsidies which drive out more competitive supplies and eventually raise…

Lockdown might be loosening but who’s in charge?

17 October 2021 4:00 pm

In his two weeks or so in office New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet has done more to lift the…

The Premier pretends to say something and the people pretend to listen

17 October 2021 2:00 pm

Daniel Andrews has clearly never heard the dictum by psychologist and philosopher Ernst von Glasersfeld “you can’t not communicate.”  Giving…

What price the truth of the story of white settlement?

17 October 2021 11:50 am

If truth were a commodity, you’d short sell it.  Think the Coates enquiry into hotel quarantine, cheap renewables and so…

Politicians need to ditch the faux celebrity act

15 October 2021 12:54 pm

There’s an old adage which says that politics is “show business for ugly people”; the idea being that if you’re not attractive…

Daniel Andrews and Victorian Labor: devious, dangerous and duplicitous

15 October 2021 4:00 am

Victorian taxpayers are supposed to believe the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, is pure as the driven snow. We are supposed…

ScoMo doesn’t need to go to Glasgow. I grew up there and can tell him all he needs to know

14 October 2021 5:04 pm

I grew up close to Glasgow on the River Clyde, and from our kitchen window you could predict the weather…

Covid, compassion, conscience and civil disagreement

14 October 2021 3:08 pm

Some would argue that thanks to ‘cancel culture’ and the curious notion that a differing view is synonymous with stupidity…

The Bureau of Statistics bells the cat on lockdown and jobs

14 October 2021 1:01 pm

Today’s unemployment figures give a picture-perfect snapshot of the impact of lockdown on jobs. The unemployment rate increased to 4.6%,…

News Corp has its woke and eats it?

14 October 2021 11:29 am

Is the Harvey Norman, sorry, News Corp papers’ sudden greenwashing an attempt to generate advertising revenue? One reader thinks so.…

Who exactly runs the ABC nowadays?

14 October 2021 4:00 am

The combative, pugnacious Gaven Morris is quitting his taxpayer-funded job as national news chief at the ABC.  The questions as…

The imperative of a complete ban on Hamas

13 October 2021 6:03 pm

On October 1, the head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, expressed support for banning Hamas in its entirety. When questioned during…

You can’t cancel women from women’s sport

13 October 2021 3:36 pm

From the US Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her references to “menstruating person”, to the Lancet’s “bodies with vaginas” to Australia’s…

A Catch-22 defeated Peter Ridd – but there’s still hope for academic freedom

13 October 2021 12:25 pm

Peter Ridd has lost in the High Court, but the judgment has nevertheless set an important precedent in favour of…

Superwoke

13 October 2021 11:23 am

Faster than a Pride Parade. More powerful than a social justice warrior. Able to leap all 72 genders in a…

Academic groupthink: is Nick Coatsworth the new Peter Ridd?

13 October 2021 4:00 am

Never has it been so important for Australian universities to be places of free intellectual inquiry than it is right now.  But…

Dave Chappelle braves the TERF wars

12 October 2021 6:11 pm

Dave Chappelle has us arguing again over his last Netflix special “The Closer”.  Chappelle has controversially declared himself “team TERF.”…

Why cry over Covid yet back state-sanctioned killing?

12 October 2021 4:33 pm

The newly appointed New South Wales Premier, Dominic Perrottet is being criticised for expediting the process of bringing his out of its…

Come fly the gender neutral skies

12 October 2021 3:05 pm

The gender-neutral brigade are getting a bit much.  Last week I wrote an article for SpecOz about how women are…

The IBAC sensation: ‘ICAC, hold my beer’

12 October 2021 1:01 pm

State corruption and integrity commissions are well and truly du jour at the moment. Less than a fortnight ago, ICAC felled its…

Look over there! Look over there!

12 October 2021 11:26 am

If it wasn’t so serious you’d fall off your chair laughing. A major sleaze scandal is threatening the Andrews Government…

Freedom Day? You have a barcode on your forehead

12 October 2021 4:00 am

You wouldn’t let a premier tattoo a barcode on your forehead, so why do we submit to QR check-ins?  “Those…