Flat White

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

What’s so bad about January 26?

26 January 2017 8:26 am

This week, Warren Mundine proposed that Australia Day should be moved from January 26 to January 1, because the 26th…

Fairfax celebrates Australia Day

25 January 2017 8:37 pm

Fairfax is celebrating Australia Day in its own inimitable style. Here’s a screenshot from The Age’s website from early this…

The Order of Australia: still a substandard product

25 January 2017 3:37 pm

At a conference of the Samuel Griffith Society in August 2014 Sir David Smith KCVO, AO delivered a paper entitled…

Time to expose the public health boot boys and their media droogs

25 January 2017 7:18 am

This week the public health Pooh-Bahs opened self-righteous fire on yet another front. A public health Pooh-Bah is a self-appointed…

Forget the Australia Day stunts, let’s just celebrate

24 January 2017 8:28 pm

Be warned. In recent years it has become the custom to spoil what would otherwise be an enjoyable Australia Day…

But they’re not honourable…

24 January 2017 2:22 pm

The Honourable Andrew Fisher, prime minister on three occasions between 1908 and 1915, was one of the very few politicians…

Follow Trump: dump the renewable energy target

24 January 2017 7:19 am

The Trump victory came with his pledge to take the US out of the Paris agreement on climate change. This…

Fighting fading curtains in the Sunshine State

23 January 2017 1:47 pm

It’s a state divided, sibling against sibling, family against family, community against community, city against country. It’s not America under…

Meat & Livestock Australia deserve an Australia Day roasting

23 January 2017 7:19 am

“Aren’t we all boat people?” is the question posed by Meat & Livestock Australia’s current pre-January 26th holiday marketing spiel.…

Time to invade Turkey again

21 January 2017 9:27 am

The time has come to box Johnny Turk’s ears again. Turkey – the homeland of St Paul the Apostle and…

Donald Trump and a spooky coincidence

20 January 2017 12:25 pm

Now there’s a coincidence. An article by Michael Pascoe on Fairfax websites today declares: On April 6, 1917, the United…

Muslim misogyny and the West

20 January 2017 7:35 am

If you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and watch the France 24 clip on Muslim misogyny Rita Panahi posted on her Herald…

Trump’s evangelical supporters are on the wrong side of history

19 January 2017 2:19 pm

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from…

About that Australia Day billboard…

19 January 2017 7:30 am

So. About this Australia Day-hijab-billboard thing. A billboard promoting Australia Day celebrations that featured two girls in hijabs has been…

Live outside Tram Zone 1? Piss off!

18 January 2017 5:55 pm

The Age has let us know what it thinks of people who live outside Melbourne (read inner-city Melbourne, as Age-types…

Where’s the bloody Human Rights Commission while Valhalla’s burning?

18 January 2017 2:24 pm

Although the Human Rights Commission spends a lot of its time digging up imaginary wrongs and encouraging people to get outraged and…

There’s still an elephant in the room, Prime Minister

18 January 2017 11:27 am

So we have a new ministry. Or an amended ministry, anyway. But there’s still an elephant in the room. Or…

Julian Assange, Australian of the Year

18 January 2017 7:32 am

Without question, the most internationally famous, influential and impactful Australian in 2016 is Julian Assange.  Through Wikileaks, Assange had a…

And they tell us the science is settled?

17 January 2017 6:18 pm

Please find below three examples of wisdom from the groves of academe, courtesy of The Conversation. Read the three “You…

Fox politics in the Year of the Rooster

17 January 2017 1:35 pm

As we’re coming up to the Chinese New Year of the Rooster I’ve named my three new hens after former…

Free speech gets shredded

17 January 2017 7:22 am

Last Thursday Dr Anne Aly, the Member for Cowan, shared a video of herself shredding the Institute of Public Affairs’ submission…

Nationalism or neo-liberalism, just sell your case better

16 January 2017 1:06 pm

Surely you’ve all seen Tony Abbott’s punchy op-ed in The Australian, and the wee tiff it’s sparked within the Liberal government. In case not, here’s…

Privatise the ABC

16 January 2017 7:31 am

The Middle-Class Rip Off is an episode of the great British satire Yes Minister, where Humphrey Appleby excoriates his minister Jim Hacker, for suggesting that…

A grey beard isn’t everything in politics

15 January 2017 9:04 am

Change is the only constant. Ultimately, that is the only truth there is, and anything else you hear is more…

How industrial awards hit people with disability

14 January 2017 8:29 am

Australia has historically had poor rates of labour force participation for people with a disability, ranking well into the bottom…