A lesson for Down Under on right to die laws
Dr Boudewijn Chabot is a retired Dutch psychiatrist and psychotherapist. In 1993 he was charged with having assisted in the…
Abbott’s right about being more right
I wrote recently that the sensible centre in Australian politics is dead. Labor is off with the populist pixies and…
Public health dogmatists putting millions at risk
The current House of Representatives inquiry into the legalisation of personal vaporisers should be welcomed and not criticised, as tedious,…
The end of the Liberal Party?
This morning in Brisbane, Tony Abbott launched his campaign for the return to the prime ministership and to win the…
Ignore the preschool panic
You might forgive parents reading the Sydney Morning Herald this week for thinking they’d better abandon their skinny latte and…
The black hands of Liberalism
Somewhere near Liberal Party HQ the comrades of the Black Hand gathered to discuss their next move in the overthrow…
The Liberal left master class
The important thing to remember about Christopher Pyne is that he was once a highly factional Young Liberal. The rot…
Labor’s education dreams: all Gonski
Sometime around 2.00 am Friday morning sleep-bleary parliamentarians gave a Gonski and allowed the government’s Gonski 2.0 education bill to…
The curse of the Black Hand
How appropriate Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne was speaking to a Liberal left faction group called the Black Hand when…
The F-35: where to from here?
Our Government has told us that the RAAF’s F-35 fleet of 72 aircraft will cost us $16,000 million. Setting aside…
Pauline Hanson and the boy in the cage
Pauline Hanson set several cats among flocks of pigeons with her recent comment on autistic children in classrooms. Canberrans were…
The roots of the new Cold War
The decision by President Trump to bomb the Syrian military airfield that launched chemical weapons against Syrian civilians in April…
The turf
Back on the political beat with CNN for the general election, I was reminded how politics is now dominated by…
Diary
Five years after I swore I’d finished with him, it’s odd to be back on the road with Alex Rider.…
Opening gambit
The unexpected outcome of the general election has led some to hope that a weakened government will be forced to…
Australian letters
Denialist Sir: David Williamson (‘Oceans apart’, 17 June) shows that the planet is dynamic and many natural processes are not…
Australian notes
The new aristocrats Listen these days to some of the world’s elite politicians, commentators and officials pontificate and you’d think…
Brown study
I should stop saying I am surprised by this or that decision of the Turnbull government. But last week’s one…
Consider this…
Theresa May, arsonist Are you aware that Theresa May, UK Prime Minister, set fire to a residential tower in Kensington,…
Andrew Nicholl A distant view of Derry through a bank of wild flowers
Last week came the welcome announcement of the State Government’s funding of the major extension, indeed doubling, of the exhibition…
Thespian notes
Vacancy for a leader, not a comedian Malcolm Turnbull is the latest Australian politician to risk relations with our most…
Dis-con notes
14 and counting As the Parliament resumed last Monday for its final sitting prior to the winter recess, Newspoll again…
Trouble in Libland
The clock is now ticking on Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership. He currently faces active resistance from more than a score of…
Why I’m sad to see Barclays in the dock – and astonished to see John Varley there
Regular readers know I have an umbilical connection to Barclays, because my father spent his working life there, I was…
What should party leaders be allowed to believe?
‘If he can’t be in politics,’ the Archbishop of Canterbury tweeted last week after Tim Farron resigned the leadership of…
