In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Is political correctness responsible for our radical reactions to COVID-19?
One of the great ironies of the Covid-19 pandemic is how consistent Western governments have been at providing inconsistent health…
President Biden’s short road back
On August 14, 2020, I woke up to a barrage of WhatsApp messages. Group conversations I’m in were buzzing. The…
Unfair contracts bill a boon for small business
With all the focus on Covid, it’s good to see that major reform efforts are still underway. Last week the…
From vaccine passports to vaccine apartheid
According to a YouGov poll published in yesterday’s Australian, two-thirds of Australians agree that people who are not vaccinated should be denied…
Why a move to home quarantine is long overdue
For those stuck in their umpteenth lockdown – despair not! It seems that after 18 months of working from home, someone…
There’s polling – and there’s polling
Whenever you read a piece on polling by honest commentators like our own Charles Pier, you’ll find a line in…
Lockdown with Aristotle – and a teenager
Who would’ve thought I’d be seeking the advice of a 2,400-year-old guy during a New Zealand lockdown. Maybe you’re thinking…
Ben Eltham vs Craig Kelly: it’s never ok to dox
Yesterday on Twitter, Guardian Australian Arts writer Ben Eltham, possibly bored from writing about culture in a country that doesn’t…
ANZUS, Afghanistan – and where’s Billy Hughes or John Monash when you need them?
The last Australians to stand up to bullying by the United States were World War I General John Monash and…
Brad Hazzard’s schoolmaster schtick is making lockdown more laborious
It makes perfect sense that the New South Wales Health Minister would describe unvaccinated people as “self-entitled and indulgent”. He…
Living in a left-wing psychodrama
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we have managed to survive four years of…
Profiles in Courage: Malcolm Turnbull
From today’s lockdown emergency toilet paper source, The SMAge: Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says American-led wars in the Middle…
Thirty per cent of Coalition voters question if ScoMo deserves another win
The fortnightly Essential Poll is out today, eclipsed (as it all too often is) by the Monday Newspoll, despite showing…
How can anyone own the word ‘liberal’?
There is no word more mangled in the political lexicon than ‘liberal’. It’s the only word whose definition first requires…
Daniel Andrews, democracy is an essential service
The Commonwealth parliament is sitting this week. The Victorian parliament is supposed to be. Except it isn’t. On the advice…
Australia: addicted to fear
Australians are the canaries laying at the bottom of the birdcage with all their little green and gold feathers gathering…
ABC frontliners drowning in their own sycophancy
Just how stupid do ABC marketers and presenters believe their audience actually is? On the evidence, the answer is very.…
‘We can no longer tolerate what ails us, nor its remedy’
Earlier in my career, in a very different world, I lived in China. It was possible, then, to stand on…
The PM and the Coalition's polling paradox
Today’s Newspoll is ugly for the Coalition, throwing their primary vote and two-party preferred deficit back into late Malcolm Turnbull…
Why does Annastacia Palaszczuk think National Cabinet’s roadmap to reopening doesn’t apply to her?
Queenslanders are now far too familiar with the snap lockdowns and border restrictions used by the state government to manage…
Can we get our money back on ADF chief Angus Campbell?
In signals intelligence the term “look through” describes the tactic of penetrating deliberate noise and interference to reveal the real…
Have WorkSafe Victoria breached their statutory obligations over the hotel quarantine disaster?
It’s been eight weeks since the Victorian WorkSafe Authority failed to send to the Director of Public Prosecutions its investigation…
The political extremism of the left: a sacred cow
Everyone that wants to combat dogma and extremism should support heretics, no matter what sacred cows they slay. The fact…
Why I write or Hemingway’s chicken suit
Flat White lore is rich with stories of those who didn’t quite make it and those who did make it but we really wish hadn’t, and those who may make…
SpecOz TV – featuring Laurence Fox
This month’s edition of Spectator Australia TV is out now. Gideon Rozner rocks and is joined this month by a…
Editor’s picks
World
Magazine
Into the lion’s den
Justice Lee has just put an end to the old-fashioned date night
