Flat White

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

You up the back there, Spectator reader, stop laughing

9 November 2016 9:38 pm

[We wanted to parody the virtue signallers’ reactions to the Trump victory but wanted to ensure we published something high-quality.…

So much for elite opinion

9 November 2016 6:47 pm

On the morning of the American presidential election, The Australian, with all the massive North American and indeed worldwide resources…

Indigenous kids failed again

9 November 2016 12:56 pm

The Family Matters report released by SNAICC, the peak Indigenous child welfare services lobby group, is a recipe for perpetuating…

The incendiary Greens

9 November 2016 7:13 am

Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake on May 30, 1431 for her defence of Orleans during the Franco-English…

Religion, ABC-style

8 November 2016 4:01 pm

“The Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne has blasted the ABC for axing most of its religious programming,” The Australian reports today,…

The right is to blame for Trumpery too

8 November 2016 11:59 am

Explaining Trumpery in terms of the attitudes of the Left alone gets the story precisely backwards. Yet that is what…

November 8: decision time

8 November 2016 6:53 am

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

7 November 2016 7:49 pm

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

7 November 2016 4:34 pm

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

7 November 2016 1:00 pm

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

7 November 2016 6:57 am

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

6 November 2016 8:30 pm

“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

6 November 2016 6:14 pm

This Ausyn Crites thing has me all nostalgic. It calls to mind my own run-in with the Secret Service. November…

18c is unconstitutional

6 November 2016 1:59 pm

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?

6 November 2016 6:44 am

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

5 November 2016 6:14 am

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

4 November 2016 3:02 pm

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

4 November 2016 11:37 am

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

4 November 2016 7:37 am

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

3 November 2016 6:43 pm

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?

3 November 2016 4:39 pm

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?

3 November 2016 9:00 am

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

3 November 2016 7:23 am

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!

2 November 2016 4:38 pm

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…

2 November 2016 12:30 pm

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…