Flat White

In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.

We reap what we sow

21 August 2022 6:00 am

You reap what you sow, as St Paul once said. Thanks to Israel Folau, we know that St Paul said…

Ron DeSantis will save conservatism

20 August 2022 5:50 pm

There is an inevitability to Ron DeSantis’ rise to power that terrifies Democrat leaders. He is not an unstable political…

McGowan’s bid for total control

20 August 2022 12:00 pm

It is to the 19th century British historian, politician, and moralist Lord Acton that we owe the phrase: ‘Power tends…

The leadership qualities of a long-dead parrot

20 August 2022 11:00 am

‘Be careful what you say,’ said my friend, ‘this guy is fanatical about the local colony of parrots and if…

Suing child gender clinics may be harder in Australia

20 August 2022 8:00 am

It would probably be illegal for Victorian families to do what their British counterparts are doing, and sue LGBTQ+ child gender…

Howard still prefers Bush to Trump

20 August 2022 6:00 am

If you have read The Australian recently, you would have discovered that ex-Prime Minister John Howard does not like Donald Trump. Reading…

We need to talk about Sam Harris

19 August 2022 1:53 pm

Stunned silence was my immediate reaction to author and philosopher Sam Harris’ comments on a recent Triggernometry podcast. ‘At that…

AIMS reef monitoring the most extensive in the world

19 August 2022 12:00 pm

I write to firmly contest the claims of last week’s opinion article regarding the annual survey of the Great Barrier…

Sir David Smith’s final bow

19 August 2022 11:00 am

With the impeccable timing only senior vice-regal staff truly understand, former official secretary to various Australian Governors-General, Sir David Smith,…

Do we fill job vacancies with pensioners or migrants?

19 August 2022 9:00 am

The Albanese government is demonstrating a truism in Australian politics: no matter what party you vote for, you’ll get rapid…

Trump in chains

19 August 2022 7:00 am

For all their affectations to equality, republicanism, and the eschewing of class systems, Americans nonetheless respect hierarchical privilege. No ‘class’…

Chairman Trudeau’s digital fortress

19 August 2022 4:00 am

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hasn’t exactly been a pillar of liberty and democracy over the last two years. His…

A mild case of split portfolio disorder

18 August 2022 12:31 pm

As a one-time senior public servant, I find the debate over Scott Morrison’s supposed power seizure of separate ministries to…

China Rising: taking politics out of national security

18 August 2022 11:00 am

[ This is part 4 of a series. Read part 1, part 2 and part 3 ] Part three of…

Good riddance to Liz Cheney

18 August 2022 9:00 am

The Left is running the West – economically, culturally, and politically. Even when we have a right-wing national leader in…

Rain rain, go away!

18 August 2022 7:00 am

The Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite showed that the greatest methane emissions are from the tundra in Canada and Russia, and the…

ScoMo’s secret dysfunction

18 August 2022 4:00 am

Revelations that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison secretly had himself sworn in as minister in five key portfolios, namely: Treasury,…

RAF: the virtue of racism

17 August 2022 4:10 pm

Western civilisation routinely boasts about being the most ‘progressive’ and ‘intellectually evolved’ society in existence. A society, it appears, that…

Queen Elizabeth I was a woman

17 August 2022 12:57 pm

I’m old enough to remember when girls were allowed to reject stereotypes and just be themselves. If girls wanted to…

Matthew Guy is literally history

17 August 2022 10:00 am

The Victorian Liberal Party is very likely to change leaders, again, roughly 100 days out from the Victorian state election…

How the Liberals stuffed up the Senate

17 August 2022 8:00 am

In March 2016, the Turnbull Liberal government joined forces with the Greens to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act and abolish…

A bigger problem than Morrison’s predilection for portfolios

17 August 2022 7:00 am

We must correct the secrecy and overreach of power seen in the pandemic

Self ID ‘wild card’

17 August 2022 4:00 am

The Herald Sun is reporting that the women in the Dame Phyllis Frost Correctional Centre in Victoria are objecting to what they call…

Eat what we tell you

16 August 2022 2:27 pm

Carbon ratings, meat taxes, and lump sums to allow the poor to 'buy animal products'...

The dangerous zealotry of trigger warnings

16 August 2022 12:00 pm

The toddlers who attend our sandstone creches to earn their arts degrees – all the while feigning hurt from micro-aggressions…