Fanning the flames
The drone wars
There’s an urban legend going back many years about an early drone delivery system. Following successful tests in America and…
Tim Pallas leaves a state-crushing debt behind him
When Victorians remember Tim Pallas, they will recall the extraordinary mismanagement of the Treasury under Labor Party rule and the…
Operation Resolution: cleaning up after HMNZS Manawanui
HMNZS Manawanui, formally a chirpy red and yellow MV Edda Fonn, sank on October 6 much to the shock of…
Pesutto must go
It seems impossible for Liberal Leader John Pesutto to remain in power, and yet that is what he has pledged…
Christmas clean-up list!
As a child, I remember my parents lamenting how quickly the years seemed to fly by, insisting that each year…
2024: A year of missed opportunities for energy and the environment
As we approach the end of 2024, Australians have little reason to feel optimistic. Living standards have fallen, the currency…
Competition is essential to education
As night follows day, whenever the Year 12 ATAR results are released critics argue it must be replaced. Instead of…
The Pub Test: The real state of the Australian economy
Labor’s machine is out in force this Christmas in a vain attempt to recover the electoral ground that is collapsing…
Happy Birthday, Menzies
It is the anniversary of the birthday of Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, Australia’s most important Prime Minister. The Australia he…
Broke and broken: Victoria’s dire outlook set to get worse
Victoria finishes the year much as it started it. Badly. Very badly. With the state election still two years away…
A very Arabian Christmas: stolen cars, flying princesses, and the Russian Mafia
Part 2 of A very Arabian Christmas continues to do for Speccie Christmas articles what Die Hard did for Christmas…
The misinformation behind the MAD bill
The government’s MAD (misinformation and disinformation) bill has been killed – withdrawn from the Senate in what might have been…
Post Assad: Kurdish autonomy needed in the New Syria
Terror in the Middle East continues where the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, along with the two non-Arab entities…
The misdeeds of AHPRA: high time to reform or repeal
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) was established on July 01, 2010, as part of the National Registration and Accreditation…
AHPRA and the Medical Board’s reign of terror
Australia’s medical regulator AHPRA and the Medical Board have become not just failed watchdogs, but an active threat to public…
Nuclear cannot match coal as a competitive electricity supply
The debate between the Coalition and the Labor Party has long had an ethereal dimension. They are in furious contention,…
Spectator TV Australia | Friday 6 December, 2024
The Week in 60 Minutes Australia: Ep41 | Spectator TV - Wednesday 4 December, 2024
The Hon. John Ruddick MLC & Brianna McKee -Thursday 5 December, 2024
Following Enron’s playbook
Given the policies of the Albanese government, it might be that they mistook George Orwell’s 1984 for an instruction manual.…
Workplace follies
A reckoning in workplace relations is inevitable, and the $140 million financial hit Woolworths suffered in December from a near-three-week…
Socialism: the grift that keeps on taking
Belatedly Australians are becoming aware of an active fifth column in their midsts dedicated to debasing traditional values, trivialising respected…
Yada yada yada
How did 2024 go for the federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers – Jimbo to Speccie readers? If you believe what he…
Looking forward and back
Happy New Year to all Speccie readers. Let’s start the year with a bit of forward-and-back recapping of how 2025…
Twin tragedies
Two tragedies at the top and bottom of Australia brought death and destruction to the country 50 years ago. As…
All tail and no dog
It’s hard to stand for anything when you’re curled up in a ball. That’s the problem with making yourself a…
Decline and fall in Victoria
Something is rotten in the state of Victoria. It has been for a very long time. A visit to the…
The problem with ‘diversifying’ the curriculum
As an English teacher, one of my favourite poems to teach, to pupils of almost all ages, is Chinua Achebe’s…
Which political party leader had the best year?
It’s been an eventful year in British politics, with a snap general election and multiple leadership contests keeping political journalists…
Gareth Southgate’s knighthood is a reward for failure
Some of football’s greatest names have been knighted for their achievements in the game. Sir Alf Ramsey received his gong…
China’s hacking frenzy has reached the US Treasury
When Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves visits Beijing in January on a mission to improve ‘economic and financial cooperation’…
Operation Resolution: cleaning up after HMNZS Manawanui
HMNZS Manawanui, formally a chirpy red and yellow MV Edda Fonn, sank on October 6 much to the shock of…
Why is this New Zealand airport clamping down on hugs?
‘Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world,’ Hugh Grant famously offered in the heartwarming opening scene of Love,…
How New Zealand managed to sink a tenth of its naval fleet
New Zealand just lost one tenth of its naval defence fleet. The HMNZS Manawanui – the jewel in the nation’s small military…
How does New Zealand solve a problem like China?
New Zealand’s most important trading partner is also the nation’s biggest security headache, according to a new risk-assessment report produced…
Macron is the author of his own despair
Summer Reading
There are a thousand ways of celebrating the Christmas holiday that are culture specific but have a universal appeal. You…
The triumph of When Harry Met Sally
Look at any list of the ‘greatest ever romcoms’ and you’ll find When Harry Met Sally near the top of…
Pulp have always been in the wrong place at the wrong time
Pulp, the legendary band fronted by Jarvis Cocker, have revealed that they’ve signed a new recording deal with equally legendary…
Take it easy on a long, hot summer
It’s a strange time, the summer holidays in Australia. Some people have riveting memories of Boxing Day tests, of Australian…
The good, the bad, & the just plain wrong
With much of the world’s attention focused on the US political scene during 2024, a book that offers some useful…
Spot the Nobel Laureate in Literature
How many can you spot? For answers, click here
When will Ronald Reagan get the recognition he deserves?
The talented military historian Max Boot has published a well-researched life of Ronald Reagan that is fundamentally wrong. First the…
Thomas Kyd may have delighted Elizabethan audiences, but he still wasn’t a patch on Shakespeare
The biggest blockbuster hit of the Elizabethan theatre was not by William Shakespeare or Christopher Marlowe or Ben Jonson. In…
The rotten core of Credit Suisse
The tale of Credit Suisse ought to be Buddenbrooks on steroids. A staid Swiss lender enters marriage with a racy…
Why does James Baldwin matter so much now?
James Baldwin matters. To veteran Baldwin admirers, his renewed prominence comes as a surprise after decades of indifference. This year,…
Modern-day ghosts: Haunted Tales, by Adam Macqueen, reviewed
I don’t approve of ghosts, from the sublime (I generally just mouth the words ‘Holy Ghost’ in church, as I…
Nostalgia for the bustling high street is misplaced
Every Christmas the proportion of money we spend online escalates. This year probably more than a third of all our…