In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
The Territory Gap leaves Indigenous communities at a loss
The Northern Territory has the worst economic outcomes for Indigenous people in remote or very remote locations of any state…
Biden unwisely wages war on MAGA
It is popular on the left side of politics to charge people with the terrible crime of destroying democracy. Yet…
Theatre of the absurd
While Putin’s Russian Federation is one of the world’s most corrupt and cruel regimes, it quizzically continues to be obsessed…
Morrison: the spinner that lost
It is a shame Scott Morrison picked politics over cricket as a profession, as there are only so many ways…
Too many climate change think tanks
In public discourse, there are those promoting the truth, and those looking to further their agenda. This is most obvious…
Anonymity for men falsely accused of rape
‘No man should have to go what I went through,’ said the teary John Jarratt, after a jury took 15…
Cash is King (for now)
Nicola Salvi’s Baroque Trevi Fountain sits in the centre of Rome. It is a relatively modern addition, built on the…
Sydney: no petrol or diesel cars, no gas, no future
New South Wales is in for an energy nightmare, and it makes no difference whether they vote Labor, Green, or…
The perversion of the English language
Language is a powerful vessel. It defines how we think, speak, write, and communicate. If you control language, you control…
Australia died when Zoe Buhler was handcuffed
On September 2, 2020, a young pregnant woman in Ballarat, Zoe Buhler, had several police officers turn up at her…
Power crisis in Europe
As summer mellows into autumn, Europeans are beginning to prepare for winter. This is bad news, as the winter of…
Apologies are not enough
Last week in the Parliament of Victoria, I called for Premier Daniel Andrews to apologise to a Ballarat mum who…
Father’s Day
Father’s Day is too often written off as a Hallmark Holiday. Yes, it is a recent social construct, but when…
Cancelling the Cashless Debit Card: ideology trumps reality
The Albanese/Labor government was elected with a manifesto that included discontinuation of the compulsory cashless debit card (CDC); the bill…
Higher taxes: that old chestnut?
Why was I not surprised when Ross Garnaut started touting higher taxes for the mining industry to solve our current cost…
The optics of dictatorship: Joe Biden
To be fair, US President Joe Biden makes a lot of gaffes – and that’s when he is coherent enough…
Celebrating Australia’s National Flag
One of the truly unique stories of Australia’s National Flag is that it was designed by public competition. In 1901,…
Killing society with kindness
Those with modern sensibilities might say that CNN has been caught fat-shaming people by reporting that Covid death rates are…
Pride and shame
I first read Pride and Prejudice in a feminist theory course. I wanted to be cynical about it and notice…
Australia’s miracle of multiculturalism…?
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Labor’s victory in the last federal election in May is a victory for multiculturalism.…
To hell with the transport union
The Sydney Rail, Tram, and Bus Union has rejected the NSW government’s offer and is planning to continue striking. I am…
From Canada, with madness
The Covid safety regime highlighted how intensely ‘Mother States’ dislike independent men
Dreaming of a Constitution without colour
It is the objective of every writer to avoid cliché, yet I have found there is a category of great…
Dangerous energy politics
Electricity has properties that require supply and demand to always balance every few seconds. This means, firstly, that there has…
