Flat White

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

The brave new world of ‘moral bioenhancement’

21 August 2020 5:00 am

O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t. …

The cultural juggernaut of transgender ideology: not kids’ stuff

20 August 2020 7:12 pm

Even as an adult, it can be an intimidating and daunting task to untangle and challenge the lies of transgender…

Labor: the party of the workers – or the woke?

20 August 2020 2:16 pm

Labor might need to split into two separate parties if it is to represent workers as well as inner-city poodle…

California dreamin’, our cheap and reliable electricity nightmare

20 August 2020 11:00 am

Matthew Warren in the AFR three days ago was highly critical of the electricity market manager’s proposed spending on new…

Look out, Lidia’s parading to parliament

20 August 2020 5:00 am

In case you’re under the illusion that 2020 cannot possibly get any worse, I’m afraid I bring bad news.  Lidia…

A coronavirus vaccine? Great – but make it safe, effective and reliable, please

19 August 2020 7:17 pm

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen governments, universities and pharmaceutical companies in a mad scramble for a cure and a vaccine.…

Forget coronavirus. The ABC wants to know if you’re suffering from “climate grief”

19 August 2020 5:30 pm

“Climate grief” is overwhelming many Australians who now suffer from “eco-despair” because of global warming, the ABC has warned. The…

How white was my tele

19 August 2020 4:00 pm

Racism is a diverse creature. It survives as a pilot-fish ideology that attaches itself to human civilisation, suckled at the…

Clive Palmer: the unlikely canary in the coalmine

19 August 2020 2:00 pm

In 2002, Geoff Gallop’s Labor government in Western Australia entered into a state agreement with Mineralogy, Clive Palmer’s company, for…

What’s a hammer and sickle on a campaign office wall among friends?

19 August 2020 12:13 pm

Be careful what you put on your office walls – or at least where you take your photographs: A small icon…

It’s on: we’ve triggered an official OHS investigation of Victoria’s hotel quarantine farce

19 August 2020 10:00 am

Yesterday, on behalf of Self Employed Australia, I wrote to the Victorian WorkCover Authority requesting them to investigate the Covid-19…

Public administration in New South Wales and Victoria has failed us

19 August 2020 8:11 am

Between them nearly three-quarters of a million people earn their living from the public purse in Australia’s two largest States.…

Will generation lockdown write good history?

18 August 2020 5:41 pm

Twenty-first century history is being made each day. The news is full of statue-toppling anarchists and clueless looters, politicians making…

What’s woke this week (or racist)?

18 August 2020 2:18 pm

Another week, more rounds of ‘Ring a ring a racist’. Pick a subject, any subject and it’s probably made an…

Daniel Andrews is openly using the corona crisis against non-unionised workers

18 August 2020 5:00 am

You start to worry that democracy in Victoria is under threat. It’s one thing for government to impose curfews, massive…

The miracle of coronavirus: 350 flu deaths for July 2019, just one in July 2020

17 August 2020 6:04 pm

We have become trapped in a political and media fear narrative that exaggerates the risks of COVID and creates highly…

“My name is Karen, I’m from Queensland and I’m here to help…”

17 August 2020 3:00 pm

Former prime minister Karen Rudd will lead a new government agency to approve cartoons before they go to print. Mr…

Fact checking finds ABC’s Fact Check un-factual

17 August 2020 12:06 pm

As small businesses close their doors forever, right across the country, the(ir) ABC still continues with the chorus of “Brother,…

A reminder: government can’t save everyone and everything.

17 August 2020 5:00 am

As a collective, Australians generally dislike the government involving itself unnecessarily in our daily lives and expanding the ever-growing influence…

Why stop at ending HECS-HELP for failing students? Give the universities some skin in the game

16 August 2020 2:23 pm

Some students have accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt without obtaining a qualification. In response, the government…

Hello. I’m a smiling bureaucrat. Would you like to be patronised? Let me patronise you…

16 August 2020 10:52 am

Hello. Are you an idiot? Would you like me to treat you like an idiot? Are you under 10? Would…

Beneath the mask

16 August 2020 5:00 am

With mask-wearing obligatory and restrictions in our movements, we sink further into ourselves.  This is not necessarily a bad thing;…

Not so accidental guerillas: how to counter the modern rioter

15 August 2020 5:23 pm

“They sayin’ Black Lives Matter and all this stuff,” he said. “But man, you’re hurting the black community.” These are the…

In which the Mad F–king Witches jump the shark…

14 August 2020 6:06 pm

Up the sisterhood? Solidarity forever? Beyond question, at the appropriate juncture, in due course, in the fullness of time? Up…

Want to fix coronavirus unemployment? First, fix industrial relations regulation

14 August 2020 5:05 pm

Industrial relations regulation in Australia is too prescriptive and complex, and disempowers both employers and individual workers trying to strengthen…