Flat White

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

Why aren’t there more women in politics? Simple!

1 September 2016 7:29 am

As women, we are constantly being reminded that there are not enough of us in parliament. We are being looked down on and…

The poor unloved, ignored Grauniad Austria

31 August 2016 1:00 pm

The poor old Grauniad Austria — The Guardian Australia, to non-media types. Not only did its parent, the Guardian Media Group,…

The great 18c pigeonholing

31 August 2016 7:26 am

There’s a caricature for opponents of section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act. They’re supposed to be racists who are…

Show that you really do believe in free speech

30 August 2016 11:13 pm

Free speech is being destroyed in this country, thanks to the odious section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which…

Fracking usless policy in Victoria

30 August 2016 4:58 pm

The Andrews Government in Victoria has set in motion regulatory arrangements that will permanently prevent hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and other…

ScoMo’s super self-imposed dilemma

30 August 2016 2:50 pm

The Prime Minister and the Treasurer must rue the day they allowed their public service advisers to talk them into…

Back to school with James McGrath

30 August 2016 8:18 am

Daunted by wading through the acres of newsprint about today’s first sitting of parliament since the election? Afraid of eye…

Modest mantillas and bashful burqinis: same difference

30 August 2016 7:19 am

New tripe on the burqini ban, this time from Jennifer Oriel: “When the Syrian city of Manbij was liberated from Islamic State, women burned…

O brave new political world…

29 August 2016 4:10 pm

So here we are again. Federal parliament finally is reconvening, a mere four months since it last met and eight…

Calling time on Turnbull

29 August 2016 12:02 pm

With our pollies going back to Canberra this week for the first time since the election Labor Senator Sam Dastyari…

Ah yes. About that plan, Prime Minister…

29 August 2016 7:24 am

“Our plan is clear”, the Prime Minister Facebooked after his appearance on ABC Television’s Insiders yesterday ahead of the return…

Free speech is too important to be trusted to lawyers

28 August 2016 5:06 pm

On last week’s Q&A, comedian turned mature age law student Corinne Grant shed light on perhaps the most compelling reason…

Time for Barnett to stop being a prat on the plebiscite

27 August 2016 7:36 pm

The WA Premier, Colin Barnett, needs to smarten himself up. He has every right to remind PM Malcolm Turnbull that…

A bank inquiry: what happens if the parliament and executive clash?

26 August 2016 5:26 pm

Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has received advice from the Clerk of the Senate, Rosemary Laing, that the Senate and House of Representatives…

Richer, safer, healthier, vacuous, lost and depraved

26 August 2016 3:20 pm

Sixteen years or so too late, but I’m presently inhaling Peter Hitchens’s The Abolition of Britain. Though a diehard Hitchensonian…

Free speech? Shut up and drink your hemlock!

26 August 2016 7:25 am

When Socrates was tried and executed by his fellow Athenians, his speech was found to be outside the acceptable realm…

Safe Schools’ sleazy Trojan horse

25 August 2016 6:35 pm

The Australian’s latest major Safe Schools revelations have exposed the farce of Pamela Blackman’s new sexual health curriculum Transmission. It hijacks…

Shorten’s mandate theory falls short

25 August 2016 1:32 pm

One thing about close election results is that they give rise to a lot of waffle about mandates. The Labor…

What is behind the left’s sympathy for Islamist right?

25 August 2016 7:19 am

In 2015 Nick Cohen announced his ‘resignation‘ from the left in protest at its open support for the Islamist extreme-right.…

What do we want? Less free speech!

24 August 2016 3:33 pm

For years comedians across America have been lamenting the suffocating political correctness sweeping their country. This growing aversion “offensive” views,…

Time for business to remember its values and cut the Kofi breaks

24 August 2016 7:15 am

Back in the days when Kofi Anan possessed the biggest blue helmet of them all as UN Secretary General, a…

Good governance goes to the dogs with Baird’s barking mad policy

23 August 2016 6:33 pm

New South Wales Premier Mike Baird appears to be emulating characters from American history with his barking mad bill banning…

Indigenous disadvantage: time for a royal commission into why good intentions achieve so little?

23 August 2016 1:06 pm

It might well be Chrenkoff’s First Law of Welfare that all the poverty- and disadvantage-reducing government programs are most successful…

The plight of the middle class white girl

23 August 2016 7:14 am

When the noxious Left are in full self-righteous flight, the societal archetype they show the most contempt for is the…

The real Gosford Anglican Church outrage

22 August 2016 7:49 pm

None of us are wanting for a reason to abhor Nick Folkes’s stunt at the Gosford Anglican Church. It was…