Flat White

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

The rise of left-wing anti-Semitism

27 August 2019 12:59 pm

Evidence is mounting that anti-Semitism is on the rise. For a recent example, a CNN poll found that “more than…

Gillette now knows: razor pain is really irritating

27 August 2019 5:00 am

At some point in a brainstorm when everyone was fuelled with too much caffeine, it probably seemed like a good…

Tim Fischer: a statesman of courage and character

26 August 2019 8:04 pm

Last week Australia lost one of its great characters in public life with the death of our tenth deputy prime…

Why won’t the left admit: their war on Alan Jones is a war on dissenting opinion

26 August 2019 5:51 pm

The woke lynch mob has been busy recently, ramping up their perennial crusade to blackball centre-right voices in the media.…

Our universities Chinese cash cows crisis

26 August 2019 2:29 pm

Australia’s universities are taking a multi-billion-dollar gamble with taxpayer money to pursue a high-risk, high-reward international growth strategy that may…

Dear ABC, what about diversity of thought?

26 August 2019 11:40 am

The(ir) ABC is pushing for 50-50 on-air gender quotas. As part of a “major diversity” push, the taxpayer-funded channel is…

Subsidies, bureaucrats, blackouts and bills: inside our electricity disaster

26 August 2019 5:00 am

The Australian Energy Market Operator is one of the half dozen different government institutions responsible for planning and managing the…

Are abortion activists overstating the demand for terminations?

25 August 2019 5:03 pm

I recently went to see my local member — who also happens to be the NSW Opposition Leader, Jodi McKay…

Nick Kyrgios is a dick (and other startling revelations)

25 August 2019 11:55 am

Nick Kyrgios is a dick. True, I don’t know Nick, so I apologise to him if I’m wronging him, but…

Kashmir in happier times

24 August 2019 4:56 pm

In the nineteen-thirties, my parents, middle class, mixed-race Burghers from then-Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, honeymooned in Kashmir. It was a…

Gladys and Alex: eugenics hip new friends

23 August 2019 3:58 pm

Many people are rightly outraged at just how extreme Alex Greenwich’s “Reproductive Rights Bill” is, which will soon be before…

What’s woke this week

23 August 2019 1:45 pm

When I first began writing this column I used to worry that there might be some weeks that wouldn’t provide…

How to reindustrialise Australia

23 August 2019 11:02 am

This week we heard that that Australian steel producer BlueScope will invest $1 billion in an Ohio-based American steel plant, citing…

Why the Ramsay Centre is a good bet for UQ — and Australia

23 August 2019 5:00 am

After a controversial multi-month negotiation, Ramsay Centre CEO Simon Haines and University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor Peter Høj have signed off…

School choice should mean more than a public-private pick

22 August 2019 7:30 pm

The Australian Scholarships Group (ASG)’s flagship annual publication — the Parents Report Card — dishes up some choice findings about…

Tim Fischer: farewell to a gentle warrior

22 August 2019 2:07 pm

In its campaign advertising in 1996 the Keating government portrayed Nationals leader Tim Fischer as a half-deranged yokel; a national…

Here come the new eco-fascists

22 August 2019 10:59 am

“The Washington Post” beat me taking a closer look at the Christchurch, NZ, and El Paso, Texas, terrorist attacks carried…

Let’s fight poverty. Let’s abolish the minimum wage

22 August 2019 5:00 am

In the months since the election, not only have we seen a new appetite for industrial relations reform but things…

The Pell appeal: why good process makes us a better society

21 August 2019 5:35 pm

In the interests of disclosure, I am Catholic. That said, you only need a two-minute conversation with my mum to…

Clementine Ford the arbiter of language? F**k off!

21 August 2019 2:57 pm

If hateful hard left exhibitionist extremist Clementine Ford is now the gatekeeper of language, we are all fucked. I would…

China’s young nationalists – no holds barred and on our streets

21 August 2019 10:14 am

Last Friday I turned up to the “Stand with Hong Kong — Power to the People” Rally at the State Library of…

Free speech first, then the right to know

21 August 2019 5:00 am

As most Speccie readers would know, I stand unashamedly for free speech; even speech that might offend or insult. Speech…

New South Wales’ looming Liberal leadership crisis

20 August 2019 7:06 pm

Just weeks away from what’s sure to be a roiling Liberal state council meeting, the realisation is dawning that Gladys…

Sex and the Sydney stabbing: preach PC, print prurience

20 August 2019 3:59 pm

The good-girl-gone-bad narrative peddled by the Australian media following the stabbing murder of Sydney sex-worker Michaela Dunn last week —…

As China is shows its true colours, how should we respond?

20 August 2019 1:02 pm

Given the recent news regarding the arrests of Canadian, Australian, UK and US citizens in China — as retaliation toward…