In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Doing business with China without retreating on national security
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
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
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
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
With speculation rampant that the Coalition will take Australians to an early federal election in September 2018 to avoid a…
“My gynaecologist found…”
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
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
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
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
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
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…
“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?
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
The challenge we face today is to maintain rigorous discernment and objectivity despite the concern we all feel when greeted…
Winston Oakeshott
Today, the last effective centre-right government of the Anglosphere has fallen. The New Zealand National government led by Bill English…
Tax creeps
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
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?
I don’t believe in conspiracies of silence except when it comes to Harvey Weinstein and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.…
Dangerous sex
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
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’!”
Last Saturday evening I had a curious encounter. I was busy running around LibertyFest making sure everything ran smoothly when…
18c, weaponised
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
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
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
The government’s abandonment of the expanded renewable energy target that the Finkel report recommended represents a careful compromise. The Prime…