Stephen Spartacus

Covid-19 and the real problem with experts

18 January 2021 7:33 pm

The problem is not listening to experts. The problem is having experts who pay no price for their advice being…

Daniel Andrews: 40-love

17 January 2021 5:22 pm

Hmmm. What can be said? Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in July 2020: Bored is better than intensive care. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews…

Finally, something to keep Malcolm and Krazy Kev off the streets

16 January 2021 2:03 pm

Is there a better reason to export Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd? They can go and consult to the US…

Canberra’s modern monetary theory dreamers are lost wandering their wonderland

14 January 2021 7:05 pm

There are certain human inventions that the world would probably be much better without. Things like nuclear and biological weapons…

The two left wings

13 January 2021 4:04 pm

May I recommend the brilliant writing and analysis of Kevin Williamson in the National Review? He recently authored this nugget titled Joe…

WA's Mark McGowan lets the COVID cat out of the bag

11 January 2021 2:41 pm

Fresh from the Oz: Western Australian premier Mark McGowan has called on NSW to fall in line with the other…

Albo Labor is so bad it’s even dragging down the government

8 January 2021 5:00 am

There are two writers whose analysis I try to almost always read – Aaron Patrick in the Fin and Troy…

Not so useful idiots?

6 January 2021 7:25 pm

In the battle of ideas, idiots are seldom useful. Look to Vladimir Lenin, who is reported to have coined the term…

Meet the skinless chickens (AKA our university vice-chancellors)

18 December 2020 3:27 pm

Australia came to a fork in the road. The private sector went one way. The public sector the other, singing…

Government by the people but not for the people

17 December 2020 6:33 pm

I’m no doubt in a minority, but I believe that the American governing model, with a Montesquieu-ian separation of powers…

#WeGoBrokeWithDan

9 December 2020 4:05 pm

Guess which state or territory has the worst credit rating?  Before answering, let me explain what a credit rating is.…

You can’t reduce debt by taking on more debt

7 December 2020 3:08 pm

Pop. That is the sound of the pin of reality piercing the inflated balloon of Australian economic wishful thinking. Fresh…

Why we should close down Canberra

30 November 2020 5:00 am

The go-to quote for the illiberal intelligentsia to justify their suppression of speech comes from US Supreme Court Justice Oliver…

Ita Buttrose: Emma Alberici, eat your heart out

24 November 2020 4:03 pm

In case you managed to miss Ita Buttrose’s stirring speech in defence of her well-remunerated job, sorry, the ABC, here’s…

Those small-l liberals and their ABC

23 November 2020 5:49 pm

In his recent appearance on Insiders, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull vehemently declared that: The Guardian is an avowedly, small-l liberal,…

The compulsory super scam: why get in to bed with the devil if you only want to cuddle?

20 November 2020 4:41 pm

Reported in the Oz: Scott Morrison will delay a decision on whether to ditch next year’s scheduled rise in the…

There’s no public service recession, new figures find

12 November 2020 2:23 pm

How much is enough?  How much should our children and grandchildren be forced to pay for the cowardice of our…

Who needs the Australia Card when you can do a Xi Jinping?

10 November 2020 1:18 pm

My. How soon people forget. In 1985, at the national tax summit, the Labor Government proposed the Australia Card: The…

Malcolm and Kevin, don’t you have homes to go to? Several homes?

8 November 2020 5:04 pm

At a time of record levels of government spending and intrusion, it is perhaps timely to consider the words of…

Why President Sleepy Joe will keep Australia up at night

6 November 2020 12:50 pm

It’s not yet certain, but it is looking likely that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United…

Judgement time

23 October 2020 11:30 am

When does an error in judgement cost someone their job? It depends.    If it is Gladys Berejiklian, you are safe. If…

Coronavirus tipped us into recession – a recession made inevitable by two decades of policy failures

14 October 2020 1:39 pm

There is a natural desire for people to compare this current 2020-21 economic recession to earlier ones, with the most obvious…

Our ruling Kakistocracy

6 October 2020 5:00 am

Studies have shown that cognitive diversity can improve the effectiveness of thinking and quality of decision making in groups.  This is in part…

Superannuation reform requires more than putting lipstick on a pig

1 September 2020 5:00 am

H.L. Mencken once wrote that “for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong”.  But when…

Another supercilious superannuation superimposition

24 August 2020 7:25 pm

Here’s a little nugget that the superannuation ticket clippers won’t tell you. Early Covid related superannuation withdrawals come with a…