Conservative notes
James Allan and Chris Kenny are wrong Conservatives have long, and rightly, been wary of legislating for human rights—seeing all…
Simon Collins
With its manicured beachfront and sparkling, yacht-speckled view out across the water to the harbour heads, The Bathers Pavilion at…
All Hallow’s notes
The spooky science of transgenderism Halloween, witches and bearded women. The witches’ scene in Macbeth invites a transgender reading, where…
Shark bait
‘That moment when they lock eyes and they acknowledge you, it’s hard to put it into words,’ a clearly smitten…
Pearl Harbor
The Punchbowl in Honolulu, Hawaii is a place of reverence in which 34,000 American battle-dead are interred. Battlefield remains are…
Boys unburden their load
Last week, news broke that something terrible had happened on Melbourne’s public transport. It wasn’t violence, drug taking, or vomiting—these…
Greta’s familiar tune
When I listened to Greta Thunberg’s recent speech at the UN, I was struck by the immediacy of her dystopian…
PM abdicates responsibility
The drought is our greatest problem today. While they can’t make it rain, it is elementary that governments can move…
Cultural notes
Swimming in the Twitterverse What even is Twitter? Speaking as a creature who evolved in its depths, I feel a…
Scott superglues his colours
And so the Great Betrayal of the Australian people continues. Not content with sneakily ratifying the Paris Agreement on Climate…
Brown study
I am catching up on writing my award-winning treatise on practical politics. Here are three general principles about politics on…
The bizarre war on sombreros
Many Brits still bristle at the importation of Halloween. It’s easy to see why. It is an American holiday that…
What Farage’s Brexit ultimatum means for the Tories
There’s been much speculation this week about how the Brexit party will approach the incoming general election. Varying reports suggested…
Why the left wants a political advertising ban
An easy, crowd-pleasing opinion column would maintain that banning political adverts from social media platforms is wrong because it implies…
The Democrats don’t want to remove Trump
Democrats are eager for the 2020 election to be defined by something other than the issues. The impeachment of Bill…
Dogma is dominating debate on euthanasia in the West; emotion frustrating facts
The Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2019 is currently before the upper house in Western Australia. The bill has been widely…
Stop those tears! Can’t you see the oceans are already rising?
Another day, another useful and informative bulletin from Extinction Rebellion. It appears that the silly hippies aren’t just scaring innocent…
What’s woke this week?
Roll up! Roll up! The death of a terrorist (and possibly any semblance of balanced reporting), more from the safe…
Pelosi caved: what the impeachment rules resolution really means
Trick or treat, Mr President? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to deliver the former with the House resolution — passed…
The impeachment horror show
Is President Donald Trump spooked? The Democrats just pushed through a Halloween raft of impeachment rules. Nancy Pelosi’s smile has…
Yes, companies sometime underpay workers. Get over it
Most of us have now heard that another company — Woolworths this time — has underpaid workers and are going…
Barack Obama helped create cancel culture. Now he condemns it
Like many others, I was very struck by recent footage of Barack Obama criticizing cancel culture. Less than three years…
Why a Tory-Brexit party pact isn’t likely
Nigel Farage’s European election-winning machine is the guest that has not yet turned up to the 2019 general election party. This…
How our biased electoral system could change British history
Last night’s report in the Financial Times that Nigel Farage is considering a pact with Boris Johnson has terrified what…
Leunig and the loon brigade
The ‘martyr mother’ archetype sums up motherhood in 2019 succinctly. The outrage over Michael Leunig’s illustration ‘Phoney Love’ is proof…
