Flat White
In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Trumpet of Patriots announces a Liberal election platform
From the National Press Club: Clive Palmer’s address on March 13 delivered the first tranche of the Trumpet of Patriot’s…
Scorched Earth disease control
Way back in 1858 Nongqawuse, a prophetess of the Xhosa tribe in South Africa had a vision telling her that…
Gender pay gap drama sparked by newly released WGEA figures
The grievance industry has sprung into action with the release of the latest gender pay gap figures by the Workplace…
Wind energy: the worst peacetime policy blunder?
Wind droughts would have been the most important discovery in the 20th Century but the discovery came too late to…
Holding court over culture
The decision of the High Court this week that found native title is ‘property’, is bold. It potentially opens the…
The reckoning that never came
Nearly three years ago, on the eve of the election, I wrote my debut Spectator Australia article calling for a…
The failure of Family Law reform in Australia
John Stapleton spent a quarter of a century working as a general news reporter for two of Australia’s leading mastheads,…
Reciprocal tariffs would be foolish
Trump imposing tariffs on Australia was perhaps inevitable. Trump 2.0 is not the Trump 1.0 who negotiated free trade agreements…
You can thank our politicians for Trump’s tariffs
It’s all fun and games until Trump pulls the tariff card. Remember that while having a chuckle at the President’s…
Censorship laws: a rod for our own back
An Australian pro-Palestine activist has been charged with allegedly using ‘insulting words in public’ under Section 17(1) of Victoria’s Summary…
Is Jacqui Lambie right, are Vice Chancellors overpaid?
University Vice Chancellors are often accused of being overpaid and of under-performing. For example, Jacqui Lambie has posited that university…
Australia has to change the way its Budget is spent
We need to rediscover a real productivity agenda in our budgets. In the past, Australia built a vastly successful nation,…
Labor’s debt apocalypse is upon us
The Albanese government has spectacularly failed on every level. Instead of pricking the Covid-inspired spending balloon it inherited, Labor has…
Trudeau: farewell, au revoir
Put your Castro jokes away, Justin Trudeau’s reign as Governor Prime Minister of Canada has come to an end. His…
Unnecessary distraction on the Right
We’re weeks away from an election. The economy is floundering, social cohesion is under unprecedented strain, and we’re saddled with…
How long can we cruise?
Australia is like a cyclist who has stopped peddling. We have been travelling for some time ,not under our own…
Nasho 2.0
My late father emigrated from Cyprus as a teenager. Unable to speak English he ended up in Katoomba. Within a…
Trump’s ‘art of the deal’ trumps ‘the science’
Being on the receiving end of a deal with the most powerful person in the world must be quite disarming.…
What does it mean to be an Australian?
As we approach another Federal election, which I believe to be my 25th as a voter, this proud Old Bushy…
What did the WA Liberals do wrong?
‘Is this the result I hoped for? Of course not. Is this what we have been working for? Absolutely not.…
Albo’s education funding: a predictable failure in schooling
I shuddered when I read this closing sentence in The Australian: NSW Teachers Federation President Henry Rajendra said the agreement…
The chapter closes on Gene Hackman
The final days of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, have slowly come into focus. Arakawa (65) is believed…
Finally, the ‘truly superior moral justification for selfishness’
Mount Arapiles in Victoria offers some of the best climbing in the world; it is what Zermatt is to skiing…
Why free speech is an essential election issue
As the 2025 election is looming – scheduled to be held sometime before Saturday, May 17 – many people have…
Editor’s picks
Magazine
Presidential paradoxes, priceless real estate
We don’t have to like Trump, we just have to earn his respect
Fortune favours the brave, Mr Dutton
We need the Coalition to fight, fight, fight
