In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Budget 2017: energy policy’s gushing wounds won’t be fixed with a mop and bucket
If you had a wound that was gushing blood onto the floor and your doctor prescribed a mop and bucket,…
Triggser warning
The Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs has finally found freedom of speech she would like to defend – Yassmin…
Can we please let kids be kids… for once?
Just when I thought Daniel Andrew’s socialist government’s mind-boggling insanity in Victoria couldn’t get any worse, we’re now hearing reports…
When political correctness matters more than common sense
“Welcome to the New South Wales education system,” said Liberal Legislative Councillor Peter Phelps, “where students can be told ‘it’s OK…
Budget 2017: a housing policy shambles
The housing measures in the 2017 Budget present a great case study in how expectations can be mismanaged. The government…
Trump and Comey: the G-Man goes
BOSTON, United States — Even if the president and his staff are completely innocent of collusion with Russia, Trump’s done…
Budget 2017: the Inigo Montoya game
During the Treasurer’s Budget speech, some of my friends like to play the Budget Bingo, downing a shot for an…
Rejoice, rejoice: Fairfax are back
Rejoice, yes rejoice, all good people. The strike at Fairfax is over. The journos we so missed are back at…
Budget 2017: Medicare – not even Labor lite
So the economic narrative of the Turnbull Government has come to this. A ‘tax and spend’ Budget that is more…
Budget 2017: bank levy is just a populist revenue grab
So much can be said about the 2017-18 federal budget — little of it complimentary — it’s hard to know…
Silencing dissent over abortion
Well-informed Flat White readers will be aware of the two abortion bills before the NSW Parliament, and the remarkable petitioning effort against it…
Budget 2017: more unfunded promises and hypocrisy on school spending
One of the delicious ironies of politics is the tendency for one side to admonish the other side for doing…
Budget 2017: politically clever, but…
I’ve been lamenting that for too long we’ve had no sensible centre in Australian politics, effectively ceding the political debate…
Budget 2017: an invitation to vote Labor
Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull have been far too clever by half with year’s budget. Yes, they’ve moved to blunt…
Your ABC: pissing away your taxes
Have a look at how much money the ABC gets in tonight’s budget, but before you do have a look…
Budget 2017: budget for nothing from the budget tonight
Language constantly evolves to match the evolving society. Words get old and become obsolete, new words come in to enrich…
Budget 2017: trashing the Liberal legacy on Catholic schools
Sometimes former Labor leaders become libertarians. This is how we’ve started the week, with Mark Latham joining the Liberal Democrats…
Budget 2017: the Medical Research Future Fund must go
The federal budget comes out this evening and, in what can heart-warmingly be described as a bipartisan tradition, the ‘heroes’…
Milo vs Hillary: signs of strength
It is said that true strength is shown in how you dust yourself off after setbacks and keep going. Take…
Victoria’s euthanasia mission creep
Anyone looking at the experience in Canada since euthanasia and assisted suicide laws came into force last year, should be…
Send in the drones
On a crisp Canberra autumn morning last week scientists and technical experts from the CSIRO, the University of New South…
Will Europe fall to Putin’s grand design?
A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. All the powers of Atlanticist Europe have entered…
Politicians need to listen on abortion laws
Occasionally a politician proposes something so mind-bogglingly extreme and dangerous that it’s hard to fully believe they’re actually being serious.…
The 18C fight: it’s bigger than you think
It has become a sort of trump card in debates over 18C for its defenders to ask its critics what…
The government goes after online shoppers
If there’s one thing government enjoys more than taking your money, it’s finding a convenient excuse to do it. With…