In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Good luck manning the polling booths, Mr Baird
You all know the lines from Brecht: After the uprising of the 17th June The Secretary of the Writers Union…
Budgie smugglers and the rise of the staffer brat
Once again politics and budgie smugglers have divided a nation and provided days of rather unusual commentary. The familiarity is…
Who’s your nanny?
There once was a time when we, Australians and Americans, used to have a good laugh at the countries of…
John Howard: no villain, no racist but instead one of our best
John Howard, for the very reason that he was one of our best and longest serving prime ministers, remains the bête noire of…
Trolling with Clementine Ford
Fairfax columnist and ABC Drum presenter Julia Baird is drawn to forceful, opinionated public women. Baird is writing a biography of Queen Victoria, and in a column this week…
Calumnies from the clickbait farm
“This is what would happen if Australian halted immigration”, the introduction to ditzy Fairfax economics correspondent Jessica Irvine’s latest bleatings…
David Van Gend and the Rainbow Jihadists
Traditional marriage campaigner David Van Gend recently did that most rare of things – he defended the freedom of his…
The sickness at the soul of Generation Ink
The presence of body art is more prominent today than it has ever been before. What explains this new desire…
The campus left and definitions of morality
The University of Melbourne Student Union is an oh-so-democratic body that left-aligned student groups vie to control so they can…
John Howard upsets Sydney’s sandstone soviet
Sydney University staff already skip off to Syria to help Bashar al-Assad with his propaganda ploys and get involved in…
Time to talk frankly on immigration
Last week The Australian editorialised on Australia’s immigration policies, noting that the Prime Minister’s “reception this week at an invitation-only UN summit on…
Israel and the slippery slope of anti-Semitism
In a screening interview for a government job I was once asked about my religion. I said I was Jewish but not very religious;…
So, South Australia, how’s that move to renewables working out for you?
Oh. From the Adelaide Advertiser, this afternoon: The entire state has lost all power in the midst of today’s big…
First they came for the racists
Look at the comments on any article on Free Speech, in particular Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, and…
On the upside, Prime Minister…
Yesterday’s Newspoll wasn’t exactly the best of news for the Prime Minister, but it shouldn’t have come as any surprise.…
South African cricket: from racist to rainbow nation and back again
The obsession with race in South Africa has clearly not ended with the demise of National Party rule in 1994.…
New welfare model, old welfare results
Social Services Minister Christian Porter has announced that the government intends to introduce a New Zealand style approach to welfare.…
The trumpet blasts of the monstrous regiment
On the weekend I was on an ABC Radio National panel discussion about major topical events of the week. The return…
Marriage equality: the left wants Turnbull to be a dictator
The left-wing admiration for Malcolm Turnbull, with his PC-opinions and hip leather jacket during his wilderness years of 2010-2015, was…
And in further news from the inner-city…
Looking for a little culture this weekend? Here’s something: Hilariously though even this sort of stuff comes completes with a…
RIP Reading Recovery
Thanks to NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli, the deeply entrenched, multi-million dollar Reading Recovery program will no longer be sacrosanct…
A lack of accountability is the biggest issue in Indigenous affairs
For too long governments have convinced themselves they are contributing to better Indigenous outcomes simply because they are spending money…
And in news just in from the inner-city…
From the latest e-mail missive from Melbourne Farmers Markets: Keep your veggies and leftovers fresh with BeeKeep. Beeswax coated cloth provides…
Muslim immigration: we are all very guilty, very guilty indeed
So, we now know why Essential Research has found that 49 per cent of the people it polled support a…
Hinch’s s*** on the liver
Revelations reported yesterday about Human Headline turned crucial Senate vote Derryn Hinch’s fondness for a tipple caused a bit of…
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