There’s nothing to celebrate in the revised budget deficit
Treasurer Scott Morrison yesterday announced that the Commonwealth budget deficit has reduced by $4.4 billion from the forecasted budget in…
Bill and Penny’s excellent (Korean) adventure
Bill and Penny are going to Korea! What fun ! Even better – they didn’t have to pay for their…
We must not forget the fundamentals of free markets
The twentieth century taught us enough about the limits to government intervention that the Australian energy market debacle — a…
Their ABC: “Vote ‘no’; you’re thick”
Remember that “respectful, balanced and impartial” ABC reporting of the same-sex marriage plebiscite we were talking about yesterday? There’s an update.…
If corporations care so much about diversity and inclusion, they should hire older workers
It has become fashionable for corporations to promote diversity and inclusion, but if they cared about being inclusive, they would…
18c: the process is still the punishment
Despite the federal government’s amendments earlier this year, the process is still the punishment under section 18C of the Racial…
Respectful, sure — but balanced and impartial?
It was only last month that ABC staff were officially warned by editorial policy manager Mark Maley “now that the government…
Bill English shows Malcolm Turnbull how to win
As counting closed on New Zealand’s election night, the main focus of Kiwi commentators was on the performance of Labour…
Transgressing the Law
Have you seen the old American TV cop show where Detective Joe Friday calms the person he is interviewing with…
Behaviour goes to character in the same-sex marriage debate
“A question or topic such as this should be considered based on its own meaning, value and consequences, and not…
At this rate, we’ll have to rename New York
Growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, I took the monuments around the state capitol for granted. The first Confederate soldier…
Learning to talk
One of the great achievements of science is that so many of its branches, from astronomy to zoology, have been…
Deep learning
Given the brilliance of his career as a fiction-writer, it is easy to forget that J.M. Coetzee has a commensurate…
Harsh, but entertaining
When millionaires become billionaires they become even greedier and more ruthless. At the highest level, Trumpian economics can be lethal.…
The cult of Holy Bob
The Harder They Come, Jamaica’s first (and still finest) home-grown film, was released in 1972 with the local singer Jimmy…
The hunger
In 1933 my aunt Lenina Bibikova was eight years old. She lived in Kharkov, Ukraine. Every morning a polished black…
Muddled in minutiae
‘Publitical’ is a neologism worth avoiding. Bill Goldstein uses it to describe T.S. Eliot’s activities when launching and promoting his…
Demonised by history
Some oleaginous interviewer once suggested to Winston Churchill that he was the greatest Briton who ever lived. The grand old…
Britain über alles
David Cannadine was a schoolboy in 1950s Birmingham, which was still recognisable as the city that Joseph Chamberlain had…
A Millenial changes her mind
Spectator Australia contributor Anne Gallagher is currently overseas and received this letter from her 17-year old daughter. It is reproduced…
The inconvenient truth about Al Gore
A decade ago Al Gore released his documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Second only to 9/11 it was the decade’s most…
Tying the Gordian knot
The same sex marriage push didn’t just appear overnight. It’s the result of carefully crafted campaigns by US homosexuals with…
Unlearning truth
Nearly ten months on, the University of Sydney appears to be coming to grips with the fact that Donald Trump…
Turnbull, SSM and the culture wars
In his capacity as an individual, Malcolm Turnbull has just as much right to an opinion on same-sex marriage as…
What Trojan horse?
One popular metaphor used by No campaigners is that of the Trojan horse. Same-sex marriage will, the metaphor suggests, introduce…
