Hyper candidate forensics
Tony Abbott, the ‘masochist’ conservative warlord
It’s all hands on deck to save the Liberal Party (not necessarily the Coalition). The return of former Prime Minister…
The watershed legal moment that could drown Australia in climate reparations
Something terrifying happened last week. The UN General Assembly supported the International Court of Justice in its shameless climate crusade…
Angus Taylor calls the PM an ‘arrogant pr–k’
The Leader of the Opposition, Angus Taylor, has dished out a bit of much-needed character. Angus Taylor quietly interjected ‘arrogant prick’…
Alex Antic doesn’t like Paris either
Calling the Paris Agreement ‘just a piece of paper’ is a mistake that will haunt the Coalition, possibly all the…
An unclear endgame
The US perception of achievements in Iran is a double-edged sword. The US administration may assume it has destroyed the…
The failure of Jim Chalmers
Jim Chalmers has a big job which he’s not executing very well – reduce government expenditure to align with income,…
The trickle-down AI revolution?
The vibes around artificial intelligence in the workforce are becoming increasingly dystopian. As governments around the world race to ‘win’…
Why won’t you take a knee for Nowak?
Southampton is seething; some might even suggest that the ‘Tiber is foaming’ – and the average punter has decided to…
Gilding the Lily
Supporting small income tax cuts is gilding the lily if bracket creep and investment taxes reverse those cuts. It is…
Gold rush on black market tobacco
As a government, if you wish to stop a destructive public behaviour – you punish it. This can be through…
Hyper candidate forensics
If our ancestors knew half the things we know about their contemporary politicians, would they have voted the same way?…
The horrifying demise of Australian small businesses
When the Federal Budget was released last month, some prominent entrepreneurs and founders came out to lament the impact it…
The political pendulum is moving to the centre-right
When explaining the dramatic rise of One Nation, surging from just over 6 per cent of the primary vote at…
The Architecture Cult
Like so many others, I was lured into architecture as a child by the seductive glow of British television. Grand…
The ‘tradwife’ question
Recently, 60 Minutes ran a segment on tradwives: the women who have stepped away from the ordinary demands of a…
Australia’s greatest weakness
Australia should be one of the most resilient nations on Earth. We possess enormous mineral wealth, abundant agricultural land, vast…
What did I miss?
From Port Havannah, Vanuatu: What have you missed? If you’ve had a gutful of trending politics like me, probably all of it.…
The new aristocracy doesn’t wear crowns
A few weeks ago, Senator Dave Sharma used Senate Estimates to question why a government-appointed fuel security coordinator was being…
Is deradicalisation ‘coercion’?
We have been hearing that word ‘deradicalisation’ tossed around again of late, normally as a question: ‘Will they undertake a…
A house divided
What does it mean to be a conservative in modern society? The Centre Right in Australia has been engaged in…
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner loses again – A victory for free speech | Celine Baumgarten S3 Ep 18
Celine Baumgarten (Celine Against the Machine) has celebrated her SECOND victory against the eSafety Commissioner. This wasn’t only a personal…
Did Donald Trump conquer the world with witty insults? | Joel Gilbert S3 Ep 17
Did Donald Trump conquer the world with witty insults? I’m joined by Joel Gilbert to discuss the genius of humour…
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…
Lies and deception
When I was growing up, a clear distinction was always made between right and wrong. It wasn’t as if my…
If only Labor took Enoch Powell’s advice
‘You don’t tax a loss. You only tax a profit.’ That was the great insight of Enoch Powell six decades…
Just repeal and undo
How many readers have noticed this huge failing in so many long-standing, establishment conservative political parties around the democratic world?…
Caliphate by other means
The return of Isis ‘brides’ alongside the anticipated trial of an alleged Isis-inspired Bondi terrorist has forced Australia to revisit…
Who is an Aborigine?
The definition of Aboriginal has shifted from race to association. The problem with this nicety is that the essence of…
The fool on the Vatican Hill
St Peter’s Basilica is located near the Vatican Hill (in Latin Mons Vaticanus), across the River Tiber from the location…
JobKeeper – the disaster
Since the turn of the millennium, Australia has produced a long catalogue of poorly considered and badly designed public policies.…
Obituary for climate catastrophism – not the Coalition
The dramatic rise of One Nation, crystallised in the results of the South Australian election and the Farrer by-election, has…
France’s hidden immigration reality
A people was there, stable, occupying the same territory for fifteen or twenty centuries. And suddenly, very quickly, in one…
Trump is hollowing out America’s intelligence agencies
Donald Trump never loses the ability to astonish. Many people will have breathed a sigh of relief last month when…
Aid cuts didn’t cause ebola
Ebola is a very scary disease, the sort of nightmarish plague seen in a Hollywood disaster movie with gruesome symptoms…
Henry Nowak and the problem with ‘anti-racism’
To determine the proper response to the murder of Henry Nowak we must first dismiss those courses of action that…
Why union members turned their backs on Labour – and switched to Reform
Labour used to be able to rely on the support of union members. Not any longer. Reform and Labour are…
Vickrum Digwa is no Sikh
British Sikhs have long been considered a model minority and an integration success story. The core teachings of Sikhism promote…
Has America been hacking the phones of Kremlin officials?
In 2014, Vladimir Putin notoriously described the internet as originally a “special project of the CIA” that “is still developing…
MP assisted dying hopes on life support
A co-sponsor of Kim Leadbeater’s failed assisted suicide Bill has privately admitted to constituents that MPs trying to ram through…
Watch: Labour MP slams party’s trans obsession
Totally fascinating clip. The ? that @Jonathan_Hinder gives Derbyshire, as she actively works to get him to describe ‘trans rights’…
Flashback: Polanski attacks rent controls
Zack Polanski in April 2016 citing San Francisco as a prime example of why rent controls don’t work and stifle…
I have sympathy with Peter Murrell’s toilet paper panic buying
Let’s leave aside for one moment Nicola Sturgeon’s claim of ingenuous innocence in the matter of her husband Peter Murrell’s…
Nigel Farage: Enough of anti-white prejudice
The fear of being called racist was greater than dealing with Henry Nowak’s murder. We should respond to this with…
The row over English becoming an official language of New Zealand
Parliamentarians in New Zealand have been limbering up for an oddly unedifying debate over what ought to be the most…
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’…
The Pope’s merciless war against the Old Rite
Elegance and intrigue
Anyone who knows the Sixties can easily be reminded of the beauty and the authority of Sidney Poitier. The MTC…
Sex symbol or respected actor?
You don’t have to be any specific age to thrill to the Opera Australia production of La Traviata. It is…
A masterpiece of economy
There’s something very odd about the fuss that’s been made about David Szalay who won the Booker a few months…
The performance of her career
It’s odd, isn’t it, the uncanny relationship between success and achievement. Just the other night the Melbourne Theatre Company had…
Portrait of an addict: Keshed, by Stu Hennigan, reviewed
In the tradition of literary lowlifes and lushes as conceived by Charles Bukowski or Jean Rhys, Keshed is a story…
Reading between the lines: the power of the unsaid
This is the kind of book I wish I had the chance to sit down and discuss with the author.…
Caroline Aherne’s comedic genius is much missed
Who do we have on television now, or even on social media, who can unmask pomposity and self-obsession quite like…
How the 18th-century Panopticon inspired today’s giant distribution hubs
The future of work is increasingly on our minds. Now that AI is coming for our jobs, will we end…
Witty, lyrical and abstract: the art of Kurt Schwitters
Aged ten, Jennifer Potter moved to Ambleside in the Lake District and was soon aware that one of the giants…
A family affair: Love Lane, by Patrick Gale, reviewed
The title of Patrick Gale’s latest lyrical novel alludes both to its central theme of the hidden, winding paths of…
The vexed relationship of Winston Churchill and George V
It is ironic that although Winston Churchill revered the concept of monarchy – his wife Clementine joked that he was…
Why should it be shameful to study the Classics?
Mary Beard opens this book with a recollection of her first meaningful encounter with the ancient world. It was 1960,…