A smaller man
Never trust a person who keeps a diary. After all, who keeps a diary other than someone who wants subsequently…
Dear politicians, life must go on
The worst day of my childhood was in 1995 when my father lost his job. He worked close by as…
Coronavirus reinfection fears appear to be unfounded
A week ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a warning which, if it were true, would constitute the most…
The old explorer is returning to the land of the lucid
‘There is a giant python slithering across the foot of my hospital bed. It’s at least eight feetlong and it’s…
We’re over over-hearty healthcare workers
Over the past couple of months, the world has seen some heartbreaking scenes from hospitals hit hard by the COVID-19…
If Labor loses Eden-Monaro, stand by for civil war
Despite the Morrison governments various missteps and scandals since the election in May last year, opposition leader Anthony Albanese has…
Emmanuel Macron is experiencing the calm before the storm
Today marks the third month of my confinement in my fifth floor apartment in Paris. As I wrote all those…
How the lockdown could be modified
We’ll get a fairly detailed plan from the PM next week encouraging businesses to start operating again, public transport to…
Annaliese Van Diemen shows covidiocy is contagious
If you saw my reflection yesterday on the “shame industry’s” degrading of the James Cook 250th anniversary from a celebration…
Nothing like exposing the Twits of Danandrewstan
As I write this, coronavirus isolation measures are being eased in almost every state and territory in Australia. But in…
Coronavirus: wet markets or the lab – or both?
The most credible version of how the coronavirus was let loose on the world glues together the two apparently contradictory…
Our cultural divide will complicate lockdown exit strategy
Exit from the COVID-19 emergency measures is getting closer. Exit will be fractious. Some of us will want the disease…
Lockdown sceptics might be wrong, but let’s still listen to them
Does Laura Perrins want me dead? The conservative commentator is coruscating about the government’s Covid-19 response. She abhors the lockdown…
China’s COVID cover-up shows it can’t be trusted
‘Hide your capacities, bide your time’, China’s former leader, Deng Xiaoping, famously once said. Few in the West understood what…
Can a South Korean approach help Britain defeat coronavirus?
The government now has a plan for how it intends to get out of this crisis. It is, as I…
In praise of old white men
Remember when it was fashionable to hate old white men? Of course you do. It was only a few weeks…
Do Joe Biden’s supporters still ‘believe all women’?
There is an obvious attraction in certain simple claims. ‘Believe all women’, for instance, is easy to utter, beneficial to…
The coronavirus can’t stop the windpower blowhards, let alone economic reality
For Australian energy, 2020 started precariously. The bushfires showed the vulnerability of the nation to its subsidy-induced reliance on renewable…
Meet the Pakistani cleric who blamed women for Covid-19
It was only a matter of time before a Pakistani cleric blamed the Covid-19 outbreak on women. It just happened…
Bail out the Italians and Spanish? ‘No, no, no’
While most of us have been hunkering down at home, Brussels big wigs have been trying to thrash out of…
How dare we ignore our celebrities at a time like this?
In the latest example of how the cult of celebrity trivialises everything it touches, actress Hilarie Burton has announced that…
The world can still learn from Singapore’s coronavirus response
Singapore has been praised around the world for its coronavirus response. Early on, the city-state closed its borders and began…
Hey, Beijing. Min yi shi wei tian
Did we really need to get into a diplomatic spat with China while battling the restrictions placed on us by…
