Flat White

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

Joel Fitzgibbon: the leader Labor needs, but will never get?

25 November 2020 5:00 am

There’s an old gag that says the sixties didn’t come to Australia until the election of Gough Whitlam in December…

Victoria keeps its Triple A rating for reckless budget bastardry

25 November 2020 4:06 am

Having morphed its deadly 2020 Covid response ‘strategy’ into a popularity triumph with voters the Andrews Victorian government has delivered…

The great koala capers continue

24 November 2020 8:31 pm

Multinational green corporations such as World Wildlife Fund are taking millions of dollars from well-meaning and naive people concerned about the welfare of…

Ita Buttrose: Emma Alberici, eat your heart out

24 November 2020 4:03 pm

In case you managed to miss Ita Buttrose’s stirring speech in defence of her well-remunerated job, sorry, the ABC, here’s…

Clive James, sex and revolution

24 November 2020 1:25 pm

One year ago, on November 24, 2019, the great man of letters, comedian, and raconteur, Clive James, died.   I won’t even pretend to be impartial. Ever since I was fourteen,…

Mourning the non-existent transexual murder epidemic

24 November 2020 5:00 am

Imagine a funeral where mourners stand grieving around an empty coffin. Those gathered for the service are inconsolable. That there…

Those small-l liberals and their ABC

23 November 2020 5:49 pm

In his recent appearance on Insiders, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull vehemently declared that: The Guardian is an avowedly, small-l liberal,…

The Sword of Damocles hangs over the heads of some SAS troopers

23 November 2020 1:29 pm

Central to the Special Air Service badge is a dagger, surmounted by wings. It was inspired by SAS founder Colonel…

Where is Australia’s conservative intellectual movement?

23 November 2020 5:00 am

“There are right-wing commentators aplenty on the ‘op-ed’ pages of the newspapers and in journals of opinion, but they are…

Just how voluntary will any coronavirus vaccine be, given the ethical concerns?

22 November 2020 6:17 pm

Over the last couple of weeks there have been several developments with regard to a potential coronavirus vaccine.  On 16…

Don’t our special forces need a fierce warrior culture, General Campbell?

22 November 2020 2:00 pm

I do not know of anyone currently in the armed forces or anyone who has done a tour of duty in Afghanistan,…

What’s woke this weekend?

22 November 2020 10:59 am

Hallelujah brothers, sisters and — of course — the gender non-conforming! Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies…

How coronavirus has made our democracy sick 

22 November 2020 5:00 am

Panic by our governments has squandered Australia’s good fortune of being so lightly touched by Covid-19 (and natural isolation). Panic…

South Australia’s corona fiasco: there should be a new Marshall in town

21 November 2020 3:26 pm

It would be fair to say that virtually none of the Premiers have had a good pandemic. Daniel Andrews, short…

Lockdown lunacy and Big Public Health’s jackboot tendencies

21 November 2020 12:34 pm

Have you ever wondered why some public health efforts seem useless? How about something excessive? Personally, I believe that most…

The compulsory super scam: why get in to bed with the devil if you only want to cuddle?

20 November 2020 4:41 pm

Reported in the Oz: Scott Morrison will delay a decision on whether to ditch next year’s scheduled rise in the…

There was nothing like this Dame

20 November 2020 2:45 pm

It’s barely raised a ripple in the media, but senior Fraser government minister Dame Margaret Guilfoyle died on Remembrance Day,…

ABC director defends the indefensible

20 November 2020 12:36 pm

When directors of taxpayer-funded boards start defending the indefensible you know there’s a serious problem. In this case, the problem…

The great Great Reset and technocrat tyranny

20 November 2020 5:00 am

It really would be nice if the Great Reset was just another conspiracy theory. Sadly it is not, however, and…

The tests are in – and Kev’s caught bots

19 November 2020 7:40 pm

Poor Kevin Rudd, standing there in front of Twitter, holding up his little bot-infested petition.  I was going to write…

How LGBTQI does a member of the LBGTQI community need to be?

19 November 2020 4:37 pm

How LGBTQI does a member of the LBGTQI community need to be? Packed to the Rafters star Hugh Sheridan will…

Victoria returns to the rustbelt under Daniel Andrews

19 November 2020 2:17 pm

Dig into the detail of today’s unemployment figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and one figure leaps out; one…

War crimes? The buck stops at the top

19 November 2020 12:26 pm

MEMO: Foreign Minister Marise Payne, cc Defence Minister Linda Reynolds. Ministers, in a long life not always perfectly, although generally,…

A pledge this International Men’s Day

19 November 2020 5:00 am

Slithered between overbearing, relentless discussions about the Liberal party’s “women problem”, obsession with cancelling Pete Evans, and ongoing Trump Derangement Syndrome, politely and quietly sits…

What to do for Woke-a-thon 2020

18 November 2020 7:56 pm

Send a postcard of barefoot Aussie cricketers supporting BLM to remote Aboriginal communities: ‘Wish you were here’. Donate your copy…