Ross Fitzgerald

Writing about leaders

1 April 2023 9:00 am

Historian Chris Wallace, who currently holds a professorship at the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of…

Not camping out

3 December 2022 9:00 am

As is the case with one of my favourite Australian writers and playwrights, Louis Nowra, Sydney is also my adopted…

Unrepresentative Victorian swill

26 November 2022 9:00 am

Preference trading corrupts Victorian politics

Atomic reading

14 May 2022 9:00 am

So you think you know the story of Britain’s notorious atomic tests in Australia? In that respect, the name of…

Blowing in the wind

9 April 2022 9:00 am

He’s still smiling but Scott Morrison might not be after reading this revealing book. If he reads it that is.…

History on the side of Barnaby Joyce

9 February 2022 9:00 am

The ambush on Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison at his Canberra Press Club address last week was extraordinary. So too…

Ukrainian roulette

5 February 2022 9:00 am

The West is paying the price of constant appeasement

Communists down under

15 January 2022 9:00 am

When I was a fifteen-year-old student at Melbourne High School, I tried to join the Communist Party of Australia. One…

Josh Frydenberg: the man who would be king

9 December 2021 4:00 am

He’s the man who would be king, but Josh Frydenberg originally wanted to be a tennis pro rather than a…

The Coalition has surrendered its key point of political differentiation - debt and deficit

13 May 2021 1:31 pm

There were a heap of euphoric headlines in response to the federal budget. And what’s not to like in a…

Body politics

30 March 2021 4:09 pm

It’s my observation that most women come at politics from a fundamentally different perspective than men – as they do…

We’ve got the vaccine, but what will fix our sense of nationhood?

23 February 2021 4:00 am

With Covid jabs now beginning to roll out, my sense is that we’ll soon declare victory over the pandemic and…

Twelve months is enough: we need a clear lead from the PM on freedom of movement

1 February 2021 2:45 pm

In 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, there were almost 22 million international arrivals into Australia. That’s Australians…

Deadly virus kills our freedoms

10 January 2021 5:04 pm

It has been fascinating to watch how different countries have dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic. Some nations have been nothing…

Born comics die laughing

7 November 2020 9:00 am

Evolutionary theory is primarily about survival but, as Jonathan Silvertown makes clear in this intriguing book,  as well as having…

Portrait of the piss artist as a young man

17 October 2020 9:00 am

Being the son of the revered John Olsen has often been intriguing, and sometimes difficult. Olsen, 92, is arguably Australia’s…

Covid notes

12 September 2020 9:00 am

I’m at risk, but I don’t want lockdowns It’s hard to credit in a democracy like Australia, but five and…

This isn’t leadership

22 August 2020 9:00 am

It’s time to get a sense of proportion about the virus

The so-called National Cabinet

1 August 2020 9:00 am

This is no way to produce sensible policy

Bedwetter’s lament

11 July 2020 9:00 am

The trouble with political memoirs is that it’s very hard to get the balance right between the book-length version of…

A smaller man

1 May 2020 11:00 pm

Never trust a person who keeps a diary. After all, who keeps a diary other than someone who wants subsequently…

Recognising China (for what it is)

12 October 2019 9:00 am

Scott Morrison’s recent speech to the Lowy Institute was the most important prime ministerial foreign policy announcement in some years.…

Vengeful pygmies

13 July 2019 9:00 am

It says almost everything that needs to be said about Niki Savva’s latest book that its original title was Highway…

Libs must now lead

15 June 2019 9:00 am

The euphoria is understandable. After trailing Labor in the polls throughout the last parliament, the Liberals can be forgiven a…

Gladys throws the Libs a lifeline

30 March 2019 9:00 am

The return of the Berejiklian government demonstrates that good governments can win a third term, despite self-inflicted wounds. That will…