Flat White

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

Free to air tedium

3 January 2021 3:31 pm

It is said that you get what you pay for, and as regards free to air television, truer words have…

End the misery and confusion: we need national COVID coordination

3 January 2021 11:30 am

At a time when Victorians should be celebrating the end of a horror year, thousands have cancelled their holiday plans…

How good is ScoMo’s ‘new and improved formula’ national anthem?

2 January 2021 4:38 pm

Ever since Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s (ridiculous) decision to announce via Tweet the changing of Australia’s national anthem, the usual…

Happy New Year and do what you’re told

2 January 2021 2:03 pm

While taking a rare trip one day on a suburban bus, I noticed a very small discreet sticker on the window…

Once upon a time we had a plebiscite to change the national anthem – and try telling the Premiers we are ‘one and free’

1 January 2021 4:41 pm

Australians all awoke today to discover that we are “one and free”. Yes. Just like that. Even despite the best…

2020: Orwell or Huxley?

31 December 2020 2:31 pm

One need not be a Hebrew prophet of old to be able to discern the times and give more or…

How 2020 became the year of the New Pharisees

31 December 2020 5:00 am

One of Australia’s great singer/songwriters, Paul Kelly, has a very insightful song titled, ‘Little Kings’. It’s about how “everywhere the…

Can’t get no satisfaction? Try, for a happier New Year

30 December 2020 5:00 am

The older I get, the less inclined I am to make New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps I’ve developed an unconscious superstition…

My New Year’s resolution: no more Mr Science guy

29 December 2020 1:44 pm

My New Year’s resolution for 2021 is to go full bore whacko religious on climate change.  No more Mr Science…

Fifteen reasons why Santa is a Communist

24 December 2020 4:01 pm

It’s that time of the year again to wish readers a very Merry Christmas — whatever circumstances you find yourself…

Happy Xmas (woke is over)

24 December 2020 5:00 am

To mark the end of the year that saw elected politicians of all political stripes impose what retired British top…

Palestinian kids in UN-run schools are being taught to hate and kill

23 December 2020 2:04 pm

Schools being operated by the UN Relief and Works Agency are teaching Palestinian children as young as 6 to hate,…

Celebrate Christmas

23 December 2020 5:00 am

Only two sleeps till Christmas and I just cannot wait.  I love Christmas. My fifth music album was all Christmas…

Merry Christmas corona chaos from the Premiers

22 December 2020 5:45 pm

State Premiers have rushed to support New South Wales in a show of national unity as authorities battle to control…

Why do politicians pretend they can wipe out the Wuhan virus?

22 December 2020 3:11 pm

Why do politicians so l often make decisions based not on judgement but on computer modelling?  This is notwithstanding the telling…

The Coate Report: This must never happen again. Really?

22 December 2020 12:25 pm

The Spectator Australia is first with the news. We have proved this time and again. Just yesterday, if proof were needed,…

Roll up, roll up for the 2020 Nanny State Awards – bigger and brassier than ever

22 December 2020 5:00 am

It’s never been difficult to find worthy contenders for the highly coveted Nanny State awards. But this year took nanny-stating…

Daniel Andrews: diminished, damned and disgraced

21 December 2020 3:37 pm

And so the 543-page final Report of the Coate Inquiry into Victoria’s deadly Covid-19 hotel quarantining has been tabled.  …

Doug Anthony: the original All Star goes out

21 December 2020 1:48 pm

The death over the weekend of former Country/National Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Doug Anthony, breaks the last link but…

What won’t be in the Victorian hotel quarantine fiasco inquiry report today

21 December 2020 5:00 am

Justice Coate’s much-awaited final report of her inquiry into Victoria’s Covid-19 hotel quarantine program is due for release today.   If…

Unto them a child is born: the joylessness of secular faiths

20 December 2020 5:11 pm

While those committed to extreme forms of secularism argue religion, especially Christianity, must be abolished it’s ironic that at the same time they adopt many of the characteristics of the…

The Greens cult of no personality

20 December 2020 3:09 pm

Out today: yet another screed of delusion, distortion and deceit that the Greens pass off as their magazine. It’s only…

2020: The year in review with Alexandra Marshall

20 December 2020 5:00 am

If we have learned anything from 2020, it’s ‘don’t eat bats’. From Ebola to Covid, these winged Petri dishes have proved…

Woke and broke: what’s honourable about Victoria?

18 December 2020 5:31 pm

Time and common sense have appropriately bourne witness to the disappearance of centuries-old parliamentary extravagances such as gowns, wigs, frilly…

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…