In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
The right is to blame for Trumpery too
Explaining Trumpery in terms of the attitudes of the Left alone gets the story precisely backwards. Yet that is what…
November 8: decision time
Just as with Australian elections, American elections are not as untainted as they should be with the latest bombshell being…
Brexit means Brexit – and democracy, too
The stench of elite hatred for democracy is sifting through the streets of London. The courts have ruled against the…
The CSIRO’s political science
As the grandson and son of coal miners I grew up fascinated by mining. I accompanied dad to work, built…
The presidential race? It’s better than 1856, folks
Politics is like baseball. Like Australia’s summer pastime, it’s a numbers game, and there’s an old saying that three economic…
The government’s a mess, but remember Labor’s old ideals
Remember all that Marxist/Leninist guff, circa a century ago, about public ownership of the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy? If…
Niki Savva, racist? Blame Menzies
“Political columnist Niki Savva is copping criticism after using the expression ‘killed a Chinaman’ on television,” Buzzfeed, the politics website…
The spy who shoved me
This Ausyn Crites thing has me all nostalgic. It calls to mind my own run-in with the Secret Service. November…
18c is unconstitutional
The dismissal of Cindy Prior’s case against three QUT students on Thursday drew sighs of relief from freedom lovers across…
Far-right, or do you just disagree with them?
The return of One Nation at the 2016 federal election and the emergence of a series of small right-wing parties…
In praise of hurt feelings
In the keynote address at the Brisbane Writer’s Festival in September, the novelist Lionel Shriver took aim at some of…
Oh, those wide-eyed Buzzfeed kidz
It must be a quiet news day. Buzzfeed’s Mark di Stefano posted a reheated story this morning, casting a close…
Mike Baird: beyond satire
On September 29, after the South Australia’s electrical power collapsed, I wrote satirically of a fantasy New South Wales premier…
Hazelwood closure: higher costs and lower reliability
A little over two decades ago, as the deputy secretary responsible for Victoria’s energy policy, I accompanied the then Coalition…
We put 1,000 people out of a job today – and it’s only the beginning
Close to 1,000 workers will lose their jobs following the announcement of the closure of the Hazelwood power station in…
Free speech and the boss: who wins?
When the internet first began in early 90s one of its defining characteristics was anonymity. People created Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL accounts with…
Is this the world’s most dangerous feminist?
If you believe the outrage among women’s groups, US-born filmmaker Cassie Jaye is not only the world’s most controversial feminist,…
Impropriety? Sexism and misogyny, puh-lease
A new bit of Clinton-media rot is making the rounds on social media, this one from the formerly estimable Time. Robin…
Excrement, vaginas and rainbow serpents, oh my!
I have been enjoying a road trip through Tasmania. For an island of startling natural beauty, it is ironic that…
18c. I would like to say more on indigenous disadvantage, but…
Kerryn Pholi’s outstanding opinion piece in today’s Australian examines the way the Australian Human Rights Commission has exclusively singled out Bill Leak for persecution under Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act for drawing ‘offensive’ things…
Abbott needs better advice, Turnbull needs to bury his pride
Yes, it is true that the buck stops with him, and that he is responsible for his decisions and actions,…
Lloyd Williams’ Cups doth overflow
“Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a…
The new, objectivity-free journalism?
A prize-winning reporter of the old school (we started as cadets on The West Australian together) has sent me a…
Civil war in DC and Hillary’s endgame
Judging by a intriguing report in The Wall Street Journal and several more like it in The New York Times…
A naked Mark Dreyfus and those Northern Irish bakers
Most are familiar with the children’s tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes. It follows the downfall of a conceited Emperor who fell…
Editor’s picks
Magazine
Something rotten in the state of Victoria
On bikie gangs, corrupt unions and a mendacious Labor party
Pathway to net zero: one way or two?
The Canberra bureaucrats have failed us yet again
