Flat White

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

The real story of the Q Society dinner

12 February 2017 10:38 am

Jacqueline Maley’s report of Thursday night’s Sydney Q Society dinner published on the Sydney Morning Herald’s website on Friday has…

An inconvenient record

11 February 2017 12:09 pm

I’ll tell you a tale and it won’t take me long, all climate alarmists are bastards. Not only do they…

Renewables: stupid is as stupid does

10 February 2017 2:54 pm

Recent (and frequent) power failures and ever increasing renewable energy targets by Labor States makes it seem like Australia is…

What would have happened if she had a gun…

10 February 2017 1:55 pm

Last week a woman named Teresa Bradford was stabbed to death by her husband. Speaking at the crime scene, Detective…

Now the Liberal loyalists must make their case

10 February 2017 7:06 am

Liberal Party loyalists, right-wing pragmatists, and parliamentary purists are currently wringing their hands and lambasting Cory Bernardi’s decision to break away from the Coalition as variously…

Advice for the South Australian Liberal leader

9 February 2017 6:45 pm

Dear Steven, I used to have a boat next to yours at the yacht club and we spoke occasionally. Never…

E-cigarettes, not prohibition, are the best way to reduce smoking

9 February 2017 1:22 pm

Anti-tobacco crusaders are becoming increasingly honest about their end goal of banning smoking, with the Cancer Council of Queensland calling…

Cory is not the enemy

9 February 2017 7:25 am

As a member of the Liberal Party, and as a conservative classical liberal, I think it would have been better…

Dear Cory…

8 February 2017 8:45 pm

Dear Cory Your resignation is not one of insignificance and it has been met with a mixed reaction from Liberal…

Euthanasia: abandoning the aged

8 February 2017 4:33 pm

Recently my mother and I had to decide whether our 16-year-old dog required surgery. The need was clear, without going…

Are you a conservative, or a Liberal Party diehard?

8 February 2017 12:41 pm

Since the formation of the Australian Conservatives, many of my hand-to-God conservative mates have been passing around a quote from…

The 16 per cent non-solution

8 February 2017 7:03 am

As you read this it will have been half a year since Mr Turnbull and the Coalition limped back into…

Some senators have guts

7 February 2017 6:57 pm

Cory Bernardi is the worst sort of politician. He is the sort of politician who makes it plain that he…

Fairfax on Trump. Measured. Always

7 February 2017 4:12 pm

You thought Fairfax got carried away when the Abbott Clerical Dictatorship (© Gerard Henderson) came to power? Since The Donald…

Cory finally gets off the pot

7 February 2017 11:21 am

So Cory Bernardi has finally done it.  Today he leaves the Liberal party for his own vanity project, taking the six-year…

A plunge into politics as Trainspotting meets The West Wing

7 February 2017 7:33 am

Australia’s federal parliament isn’t normally associated with sex, drugs and dance parties and nor should it, because they’re rare occurrences.…

Full circle after 65 years on the throne

6 February 2017 5:33 pm

The first British (and Australian) monarch to spend sixty-five years on the Throne, today Her Majesty the Queen celebrates her ‘Blue Sapphire…

The ABC: would you miss it if it wasn’t there?

6 February 2017 2:24 pm

“The ABC is letting Australia down in terms of news presentation,” Paul Keating declaimed in typical style late last year.…

No one loses from the Cory caper

6 February 2017 9:13 am

Since Tony Abbott’s ouster, the Liberal bosses’ efforts to purge conservatives from power has been in stark defiance to global…

A lecture from UQ on diversity and tolerance – not

6 February 2017 7:27 am

Lofty notions of free enquiry, open debate and tolerance are paid no shortage of lip service in Australian universities. In…

Domestic violence leave doesn’t fix the problem

4 February 2017 7:50 am

ACTU President Ged Kearney last year took to the stage at the International Labor Organisation conference to make an impassioned…

Black gold

3 February 2017 12:03 pm

Last Wednesday, attentive readers may recall, Prime Minister Turnbull gave a Press Club presentation designed to re-start his government. It…

Revealed: how your taxes fund the 18c Fan Club

3 February 2017 7:36 am

One of the most obvious features of the parliamentary inquiry into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act has been…

The Nauru deal: don’t say we didn’t warn ya

2 February 2017 10:26 pm

Back in November, just after the presidential election, Neil Brown wrote a cracker of a column for the Speccie. It…

Worst. Phone call. Evah. Really?

2 February 2017 4:08 pm

It’s impossible to say for sure whether this business about a phone call between Turnbull and Trump is true. It smacks of…