Why every child should stand and sing the national anthem – weekly
The exorcism of Malcolm Turnbull
It’s been almost a decade since Malcolm Turnbull held power over the nation, yet his presence managed to haunt the…
Jeff Kennett suggests preference deal with One Nation
Jeff Kennett’s influence over conservative voters has diminished since the whole Deeming-Pesutto saga, nevertheless he came out over the weekend…
Australia’s Squid Game
We often talk about the agony of modern TV – the hopeless collapse of entertainment into the seething, blind, mindless…
Sussan Ley announces her intention to retire from politics
Sussan Ley emerged to the scaffold of the press gallery with a smile. A strained smile. When I came to…
Don’t let Australia become the Argentina of the Pacific
Having suggested before the last federal election that Australians – despairing at what the Albanese government is doing to Australia…
Why every child should stand and sing the national anthem – weekly
There are few rituals more powerful in the life of a nation than the singing of its national anthem. In…
Barry Humphries’ bronze legacy
Soon, theatre-goers strolling past Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide – the very stage where Barry Humphries made his theatrical debut…
A man’s gotta know his limitations
In Magnum Force, Clint Eastwood delivers one of greatest lines in cinema history: A man’s gotta know his limitations. It…
Will Angus Taylor lead the Liberal Party to the left, right, or back to its base?
At the height of John Howard, poodle politics reigned. Party discipline was tight, Ministries unified, and crossing the floor was…
Abbott is right, Taylor might be able do it
There is a palpable, renewed optimism now that Angus Taylor and Jane Hume are at the helm of the Liberal…
The education industry continues to play with radical gender theory
Just when you thought sanity might prevail as more and more overseas doctors, health officials, and politicians are becoming aware…
The secret to Farrer…
One Nation has started campaigning for the by-election to replace the Member for Farrer, former Liberal leader Sussan Ley. This…
Who is Angus Taylor, and can he defeat Albanese…
Angus Taylor has become Leader of the Liberal Party after deposing Sussan Ley. The leadership spill came after months of…
Words are not saving lives in Iran
In recent days, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, met with Steve Witkoff, the United States special envoy, for…
How does the fall of the regime in Iran benefit Australia?
The Islamic Republic of Iran has long constituted a source of geopolitical tension and strategic concern for many nations, Australia…
Can Angus Taylor free Australia of the green energy nightmare
The renewable energy bubble is popping globally – though not in countries run by green socialist governments, including the UK,…
Digital tyranny or ‘child safety’? 😵 & the bitcoin revolution | Efrat Fenigson S3 Ep 16
When Australia’s Under 16 social media ban started locking adult political writers out of #Substack – it was just the…
Can Angus Taylor save the Liberal Party from the rise of One Nation? | James Allan S3 Ep 15
Has the Liberal Party betrayed Australia’s commitment to #FreeSpeech and freedom of political communication? Can Angus Taylor unseat Sussan Ley…
Australia’s eSafety commissioner and the digital dark ages | Alexander Hatzikalimnios S3 Ep 14
Banning children Under 16 is only the beginning of Australia’s pioneering digital censorship project. If successful, we will sit somewhere…
Falling fertility
Last year, it was revealed that Australia’s fertility rate had sunk to 1.48 children per woman, the lowest figure in…
The backlash against Billie Eilish
Since the great Catherine O’Hara’s premature passing, I have been compulsively watching clips of her playing the faded actress Moira…
Seeking social cohesion
Tadpoles darted through the shady shallows of the Thomson River, as I stooped to fill my bottle with the pristine…
Cometh the moment, cometh the Taylor?
In rough and ready terms there are two theories about what is happening with Australia’s Liberal party. One is the…
Electric cell
The invention of the pneumatic tyre sparked an insatiable demand for rubber, turning the Congo’s rainforest – rich in this…
Ignoring radical Islam won’t make it disappear
Radical Islam, in both its Shia and Sunni forms, has become one of the most persistent drivers of global instability.…
Bangladesh teeters
I have just visited my ancestral birthplace of Bangladesh, where an election is due this month. What is unfolding carries…
Pedagogues for Palestine
‘From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada,’ howled Australian of the Year 2021 Grace Tame. There is no need for…
Labour Together, Apco and the hell of consultancy firms
I’ve long had a theory – despite knowing many clever and nice people who work in the sector – that consultancy…
Labour Together in turmoil over smear campaign
It was the think tank which made Keir Starmer leader – but now Labour Together is struggling. The Sunday Times…
Why Russia used poison to kill Navalny
When leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny died two years ago, the only real question was not whodunnit, but howdunnit? His widow,…
Yvette Cooper: ‘Only the Russian regime had the motive, the means and the opportunity’
Two years on from the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the UK has released a joint statement with…
What they don’t tell you about Christmas in New Zealand
‘I still think New Zealand the most beautiful country I have ever seen,’ Agatha Christie marvelled in 1922. Evidently she’s…
What will Jacinda Ardern do next?
When I first met Jacinda Ardern in the early 2010s, the notion that the young MP with the toothy smile…
The de-Wokification of New Zealand’s education system
The conservative coalition government of New Zealand came to office promising to wind back an enormous, government-run system of ‘Woke’…
Jacinda, Jacinta
I’m not a big fan of self-serving autobiographies, particularly of recently departed political leaders. I had briefly considered dipping into…
The inconvenient truth about polar bears
Dark and stormy
The opening gala of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra this year with the renowned pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet seems in every way congruent…
Camp indulgence
Music has the odd quality of being an abstract art as well as one that generates great gulfs and legions…
What Catherine O’Hara gave to cinema
There are actors who dominate the cinema screen, and actors who deepen it. There are stars who are ‘bankable’ and…
Dazzled and satiated
It’s a tumultuous decade or so since The Night Manager burst onto our television screens and a while longer since…
Searching for the one and only is futile, say the sexologists
In a tiny town tucked into the desert an hour’s drive out of Nevada, a legal brothel operates. Its ‘menu’…
The lost world of the pinball machine
‘Pinball games, with their flashing lights and unforgettable names, are the one thread that runs together my otherwise fragmentary life.’…
The citizens of nowhere adrift in the West
We all know that an Englishman’s home is his castle, or at least it was. Looking back, it is easy…
No good deed goes unpunished: A Better Life, by Lionel Shriver, reviewed
Lionel Shriver is a first-rate storyteller. And yet… A Better Life is a satire on the immigration problem that particularly…
The two faces of modern Japan
Japanophiles, look away now. A country renowned for inspiring fascination, warm feelings and not a little envy in its rapidly…
Why Leonard Cohen felt empowered to pronounce benedictions
If it is true that a serious artist is one with the capacity to go on reinventing who they are…
Growing up with thieves, murderers and heroin addicts
‘You can’t pick your parents, but they get to pick your life,’ Jonathan Tepper points out at the beginning of…
Rupert Murdoch’s warped vision of family
When Rupert Murdoch divorced his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, in August 2022 he made her sign an agreement that she…