Flat White

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

Maradona should warn us: excusing our sports stars’ bad behaviour has become an Australian pastime

29 November 2020 3:35 pm

Last week, I received a blunt text message. “Maradona. Should be a lesson to every child.”   In other words, a…

Dictator Dan is still mad on muzzles

29 November 2020 11:59 am

Daniel Andrews has celebrated zero cases of coronavirus and a month of no community transmissions by mask-shaming long-suffering Victorians. “Good…

Where’s the diversity at the ABC when it’s only white people talking left wing dross?

27 November 2020 3:39 pm

Former Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane yesterday slammed the ABC for using too many white-skinned Leftists to present its news…

Daniel Andrews queer theory tyranny

27 November 2020 1:02 pm

While Christian Porter has delayed the introduction of the Religious Freedom Bill until 2021 due to COVID-19, Daniel Andrews is…

The great public policy Razzie awards

27 November 2020 5:00 am

For the third year running, independent research undertaken by two philosophically opposed Right and Left think tanks — the Institute of…

Prayer illegal? In Australia?

26 November 2020 5:05 pm

What tumultuous times they are in which we live? Not so long ago In Australia it was a criminal offence…

Our universities: foundering in the shallows of farce and incoherence

26 November 2020 2:01 pm

As noted by the British Conservative politician Michael Gove in Celsius 7/7, whereas classical Marxism defines the revolutionary struggle in terms of the workers…

Joe Biden, America’s unenthusiastic allies – and the real ones

26 November 2020 5:00 am

Sam Vinograd, an Obama administration national security alumnus – and now, needless to say, a CNN nat sec analyst –…

Daniel Andrews arrogantly bungled coronavirus – and is doing the same to economic recovery

25 November 2020 7:14 pm

Yesterday’s Victorian budget was on-form for the Andrews’ government: it mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and now it is mishandling the economic recovery from the…

It’s an evil copout claiming domestic violence in Aboriginal communities comes from colonisation

25 November 2020 4:56 pm

When a black man hits a black woman it’s a white man’s fault, according to Diversity Council Australia. The Council,…

Joel Fitzgibbon: the leader Labor needs, but will never get?

25 November 2020 5:00 am

There’s an old gag that says the sixties didn’t come to Australia until the election of Gough Whitlam in December…

Victoria keeps its Triple A rating for reckless budget bastardry

25 November 2020 4:06 am

Having morphed its deadly 2020 Covid response ‘strategy’ into a popularity triumph with voters the Andrews Victorian government has delivered…

The great koala capers continue

24 November 2020 8:31 pm

Multinational green corporations such as World Wildlife Fund are taking millions of dollars from well-meaning and naive people concerned about the welfare of…

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…

Clive James, sex and revolution

24 November 2020 1:25 pm

One year ago, on November 24, 2019, the great man of letters, comedian, and raconteur, Clive James, died.   I won’t even pretend to be impartial. Ever since I was fourteen,…

Mourning the non-existent transexual murder epidemic

24 November 2020 5:00 am

Imagine a funeral where mourners stand grieving around an empty coffin. Those gathered for the service are inconsolable. That there…

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 Sword of Damocles hangs over the heads of some SAS troopers

23 November 2020 1:29 pm

Central to the Special Air Service badge is a dagger, surmounted by wings. It was inspired by SAS founder Colonel…

Where is Australia’s conservative intellectual movement?

23 November 2020 5:00 am

“There are right-wing commentators aplenty on the ‘op-ed’ pages of the newspapers and in journals of opinion, but they are…

Just how voluntary will any coronavirus vaccine be, given the ethical concerns?

22 November 2020 6:17 pm

Over the last couple of weeks there have been several developments with regard to a potential coronavirus vaccine.  On 16…

Don’t our special forces need a fierce warrior culture, General Campbell?

22 November 2020 2:00 pm

I do not know of anyone currently in the armed forces or anyone who has done a tour of duty in Afghanistan,…

What’s woke this weekend?

22 November 2020 10:59 am

Hallelujah brothers, sisters and — of course — the gender non-conforming! Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies…

How coronavirus has made our democracy sick 

22 November 2020 5:00 am

Panic by our governments has squandered Australia’s good fortune of being so lightly touched by Covid-19 (and natural isolation). Panic…

South Australia’s corona fiasco: there should be a new Marshall in town

21 November 2020 3:26 pm

It would be fair to say that virtually none of the Premiers have had a good pandemic. Daniel Andrews, short…

Lockdown lunacy and Big Public Health’s jackboot tendencies

21 November 2020 12:34 pm

Have you ever wondered why some public health efforts seem useless? How about something excessive? Personally, I believe that most…