Aussie Life
Aussie life
Damn you, politicians. Damn you for what you have done to this country you were supposed to serve and govern…
Politics
Will the Liberal party take a stand on net zero or not? (I am using net zero as a shorthand…
Aussie life
It’s not often you can say, ‘I know exactly how he feels’ about your Prime Minister. But in following the…
Language
Cheryl asks me to explain why we call someone who is off their rocker ‘dotty’. Well, ‘dotty’ has had that…
Aussie life
Talking with an old friend recently about relations between the sexes, I said men these days don’t know if they’re…
Language
Do you know Banjo Paterson’s ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ I asked? Yes, was the answer, I have it off by…
Aussie life
The tendency of Australian politics to shadow British politics is never more conspicuous than when both countries are led by…
Language
Writing in the Daily Telegraph James Morrow has coined the expression ‘pulling an Albo’, meaning ‘looking busy while doing nothing’.…
Aussie life
Legislation for a statewide treaty with indigenous Australians should never have made it to the steps of the Victorian parliament,…
Language
Harvey writes from West Australia about the Native Title Act and asks for the meaning of this word ‘native’. Well,…
Aussie life
The precise location of Victoria’s most dangerous fugitive was finally revealed last week after international news networks aired footage of…
Politics
Conservative politics in Australia looks to be in the worst shape it has ever been in. How many policies does…
Aussie life
The dictionary definition of a banana republic refers to a country that has an economy dependent solely on revenue from…
Language
Because of the alarming level of antisemitism that has grown like a poisonous fungus in Australia, a Speccie reader (Sandra)…
Aussie life
Further evidence that global warming is good for mammals emerged in South Australia last week, when marine biologists confirmed that…
Language
‘Said Hanrahan’ is a phrase from a bush ballad, usually uttered to identify a prophet of doom, gloom and utter…
Aussie life
The vote to cut HECs debt just went through parliament. Clever politics targeting the youth vote yet all I remember…
Language
A Speccie reader (Noel) wants to know if the media is using ‘decimated’ correctly, when a commenter calls on Hamas…
Aussie life
One Sunday morning in 1952, the pilot of a light aircraft flying low over the Pilbara looked down and saw…
Language
Our esteemed editor asks about the word ‘irits’. Is it, he asks, British or American or authentically Aussie. The good…
Aussie life
A strange thing happened recently on a bright and peaceful Sunday morning in Bleak City, aka the once-great Melbourne. I…
Language
The online world breeds some very strange bits of language, and none are stranger than the word ‘catfishing’. This names…
Aussie life
Much of the advice you received as a child is now redundant. For example, don’t even think about telling an…
Language
From time to time there are journalists who like to aggrandise their humble trade by claiming they are ‘speaking truth…
Aussie life
When I’m not writing for the Speccie, I’m counting my money. I picked up the habit attending St Nepo Baby,…
