Flat White

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

Doing business with China without retreating on national security

26 October 2017 6:00 pm

China is a one-party state led by Xi Jinping, whose powers look like growing to that of a modern Stalin,…

How the cult of the expert weakens democracy

26 October 2017 7:10 am

A new survey from Pew Research Center, which asked 42,000 people in 38 nations about their attitudes towards democracy, has…

Very Lonely Planet’s guide to Canberra

25 October 2017 8:28 pm

The residents of Canberra have woken up this morning to a novel sensation: somebody out there actually likes their city.…

Time to unite the right

25 October 2017 12:00 pm

In the midst of an apparent identity crisis, the American Right are asking themselves, is ‘Classical Liberalism’ the same as…

Hanson and Bernardi face a looming Senate showdown

25 October 2017 7:24 am

With speculation rampant that the Coalition will take Australians to an early federal election in September 2018 to avoid a…

“My gynaecologist found…”

24 October 2017 5:04 pm

Michelle Barrow is an American who studied at Yale in the same years as Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton.  Barrow’s…

A free market strategy to solve societal problems

24 October 2017 12:00 pm

People seem to have lost faith in both the free market and in government. Capitalism and investing are now pejorative…

Mango, memes, millennials and the MSM

24 October 2017 7:23 am

I had a ‘delightful discovery’ of my own last week. And that is, young people today (i.e. millennials) understand what’s…

As a UN Human Rights Council member we must not reward Palestinian terror

23 October 2017 4:12 pm

Now that Australia is to be a card-carrying member of the UN’s Human Rights Council from January 2018 (alongside such…

State-sanctioned suicide

23 October 2017 12:54 pm

James Merlino, Victoria’s Deputy Premier spectacularly crossed the floor last week to oppose his leader, Daniel Andrews, on the matter…

Our universities value identity politics over Western civilisation — and here’s the proof

23 October 2017 7:29 am

The IPA’s report, The Rise of Identity Politics: An Audit of History Teaching at Australian Universities in 2017, written by…

Meanwhile, across the ditch…

20 October 2017 3:17 pm

“Jacinda, you can get up off the floor now, you’ll ladder your stockings and you know, if you’re going to…

How will you celebrate a “Yes” win?

20 October 2017 12:08 pm

The Labor caucus has said “no” to inserting extra protections for religious freedoms in any bill to legalise same-sex marriage…

Gender dysphoria: scientifically baseless

20 October 2017 7:26 am

The challenge we face today is to maintain rigorous discernment and objectivity despite the concern we all feel when greeted…

Winston Oakeshott

19 October 2017 7:43 pm

Today, the last effective centre-right government of the Anglosphere has fallen. The New Zealand National government led by Bill English…

Tax creeps

19 October 2017 6:00 pm

Last week, the Parliamentary Budget Office issued a report Changes in average personal income tax rates: distributional impacts’ which found…

Mango and the “delightful discovery” of childhood sexual abuse

19 October 2017 2:21 pm

You know you’re getting old when your kids have to tell you what the different emojis really mean. You see,…

More hot days — or “purpose-designed” temperature sensors at play?

19 October 2017 7:28 am

I don’t believe in conspiracies of silence except when it comes to Harvey Weinstein and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.…

Dangerous sex

18 October 2017 5:48 pm

It is safe to say, that nowadays, sexual gratification is fraught with danger. It’s probably always been that way for…

Don’t cry for Hillary, Australia

18 October 2017 3:17 pm

The ABC Four Corners is supposed to be a gutsy, fact-finding expose-type television program. Most of the time it is.…

“My family’s voting ‘Yes’!”

18 October 2017 12:37 pm

Last Saturday evening I had a curious encounter. I was busy running around LibertyFest making sure everything ran smoothly when…

18c, weaponised

18 October 2017 7:25 am

Who can forget the Beaconsfield Mine Disaster of 2006? For two weeks, the entire nation was gripped with the rescue…

Let the poor pay more for electricity

17 October 2017 6:10 pm

An outfit called the Victorian Council of Social Service, one supposes, would be concerned with the less well-off. Apparently not.…

Victoria’s euthanasia bill is not safe

17 October 2017 3:03 pm

The Parliament of Victoria is about to vote on a bill to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia. Health Minister Jill…

End the renewables rorts now for cheap power

17 October 2017 11:01 am

The government’s abandonment of the expanded renewable energy target that the Finkel report recommended represents a careful compromise. The Prime…