Flat White

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

It’s erotic if you use a feather. It’s only perversion if you use the whole peacock

9 June 2021 4:00 pm

Sensuality boutique Honey Birdette has come under fire for one of their video advertisements on display outside their stores in Australian shopping centres.  …

Andrews’ fumbling acolytes take Victoria to the brink

9 June 2021 12:07 pm

It’s all in a day’s work for the still absent, highly paid Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews. While Dan comfortably takes…

The G7, woke corporates and the end of capitalism

9 June 2021 4:00 am

The Bank of International Settlements, the G7 Finance Ministers and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission have amped up carbon emissions-based “climate…

The diminishing returns from our macho tobacco laws

8 June 2021 8:11 pm

For most people who work at the ATO, chasing tax evaders must be rather boring. They sit at their desks and review tax returns for undeclared income and ineligible…

The centre-right cannot hold

8 June 2021 6:04 pm

With apologies to WB Yeats and Joan Didion, the lost, snookered souls of the Australian electorate are now slouching, not…

How to win the Ashes using cancel culture

8 June 2021 4:06 pm

The suspension of English cricketer Ollie Robinson for poor form – not on the field but on Twitter — should…

While we were sleeping, New Zealand has lost a democracy

8 June 2021 2:35 pm

Jacinda Ardern believes New Zealand will become a republic.  It’s all right, though, because she’s not in a hurry. But…

Curious… The woker it gets, the greater the ADF’s PR problems

8 June 2021 1:01 pm

As the inimitable Sir Humphrey Appleby once opined, “Minister, two basic rules of government: Never look into anything you don’t…

Victorians need an alternative government

8 June 2021 4:00 am

If there is one thing that to be learned from NSW in the last 18 months, it is the fact…

Trans activists are stepping up their war on women

7 June 2021 7:16 pm

First, they came for the Christians and I complained a bit, then they came for the lesbians and I was…

Scott Morrison stands for nothing – and his kitchen cabinet thinks it’s great

7 June 2021 6:04 pm

The Spec Oz has been warning about this. Now it’s official. Scott Morrison stands for nothing. The Sun-Herald and Sunday…

Princess Annastacia versus the little people

7 June 2021 4:16 pm

The Queensland government is denying vaccinated parents of a newborn the right to see their baby while, at the same…

Trolling the Queen

7 June 2021 2:18 pm

The Ginger and the Whinger have welcomed a daughter into the world, Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. We should all be…

Twitter now claims to be an essential human right

7 June 2021 12:06 pm

Where to start?  Twitter outdid itself over the weekend when it ditched any semblance of modesty and decided to identify…

The Dan Show

7 June 2021 4:00 am

Strap on your masks and break out the hand sanitiser – The Dan Show is back for a fourth season, sans Dan!   Debuting…

My daddy issues

6 June 2021 12:49 pm

Prince Harry wants to talk about his childhood and work out whom to blame. So do I. I grew-up in Mount Waverley and they really were…

A harsh lesson for our university chiefs

4 June 2021 4:13 pm

Education Minister Alan Tudge gave a speech at the annual Universities Australia conference yesterday. Here is how the AFR education editor described what…

Another cock up from their ABC

4 June 2021 2:13 pm

If a story would not stand up in court, it should not be published.   It certainly should not be published…

‘Crackpot’ lab leak theory suddenly ‘feasible’

4 June 2021 12:00 pm

What a difference a year makes. Sir Richard Dearlove, the MI6 chief (‘C’) from 1999 to 2004, was first interviewed on the UK’s excellent Planet Normal podcast almost exactly a year ago. His…

Being in opposition is awesome (really)

4 June 2021 4:00 am

If you ever catch a cuppa with an Australian federal or state politician who is out of government and in…

What are the odds of a politician saying something sensible about sharks?

3 June 2021 7:23 pm

For the first time in five years, an Australian politician has acknowledged a bleeding obvious fact about the way we…

‘Sweaty men have touched that ball’: South Australia’s special corona craziness

3 June 2021 5:00 pm

Every cloud has a silver lining, and corona craziness is providing a unique insight into how the nawabs of nannying,…

Sesame creep

3 June 2021 3:26 pm

Just because it’s Gay Pride Month—yep, there’s so many varieties on the LBTIQ+ spectrum they couldn’t just have one day—in…

Their ABC fails the objectivity test on Aboriginal history

3 June 2021 12:12 pm

According to its Code of Practice, the ABC “has a statutory duty to ensure that the gathering and presentation of…

China’s concerning Covid diplomacy

3 June 2021 4:00 am

Covid-19 has so far caused the deaths of near three and a half million globally and led to significant social and…