In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Why has only five per cent of the government’s small business support made it through?
Amid all of the public fanfare created by the billions of dollars in “free money” handed out by the Morrison…
Oh Dan, I have sinned against you…
ITEM: The Australian, September 3, 2020 The arrest of a pregnant anti-lockdown protester, which was live-streamed on social media, has…
ANU students want to ban Churchill – but with no traumatic debate, please
Australia’s preeminent university, Australian National University is the latest institution to take part in the importation of cancel culture, with…
Good leaders minimise fear and explain their responses to a crisis. We’ve seen the opposite
Framing the coronavirus response as freedom vs. tyranny is counterproductive, because the government has so successfully stoked fear in Australians.…
Governments have made this recession worse. They can’t now impede recovery
A 7 per cent fall in GDP during the June quarter is pretty much to have been expected. Led by spending falls…
Recession 2020: you ain’t seen nothin’ yet
It’s official. We’re in recession, after two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Matters couldn’t be clearer. As the official release…
Mad at the witches
All is not well in the dark world of Mad F***ing Witches. While they’re attempting to keep up appearances with…
The WHO has let the cat out of the bag: COVID-19 is now more about politics than public health
The World Health Organisation’s Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last Friday that “we will not – we cannot – go back…
The Bushfires Royal Commission: saving reputations, not lives and property
The Interim Observations of the Bushfires Royal Commission are extremely disturbing. Not because they reveal any frightening facts about climate…
Extra infrastructure spending won’t build a road out of the corona recession
Increased government spending on infrastructure has been proposed yet again to revive the economy from the government-imposed recession. The latest…
Daniel Andrews’ deplorables moment
The clock has struck thirteen in Victoria and no man, woman, or child is free. Writing this sentence, according to…
Superannuation reform requires more than putting lipstick on a pig
H.L. Mencken once wrote that “for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong”. But when…
Great Barrier Reef platitudes: more dangerous than sharks
It has always been the case that the individual is expected to conform and that there is hierarchy within myths.…
What you didn’t hear at the Press Club last week
Last week Wang Xining, China’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Canberra, addressed the National Press Club, a speech widely reported…
Forget the Wuhan flu, the Chi Comm virus is a bigger threat to our way of life
Over the last six months, we have witnessed an unprecedented global outbreak of politicians and journalists declaring how much they…
Corona crisis-mongering is scaring our kids to death
Enough with playing politics with people’s lives and gambling with mental health. The majority of the country may well have…
Justice delayed and delayed – then delayed by coronavirus
One of the “much loved and respected“ inmates of Hobart’s Risdon women’s prison, Sue Neill-Fraser, has had to keep deferring her hope…
Why is it ‘critique’ when leftists cut close to the bone – and cause for outrage if it comes from the right
It’s no secret, that I generally prefer news commentary I see on Sky News, in the Daily Telegraph, The Australian, and Quadrant—and naturally, I find The Spectator very informative. The reason…
Trump’s RNC speech: the great middle America gamble
The Orange Man is cheating. He’s Teleprompter Trump but we want Rally Trump crazy that will play badly on middle…
Appointing Tony Abbott to the Board of Trade is an inspired move by Boris
Whatever one thinks of the reported appointment by Boris Johnson of Tony Abbott as a Co-President of the Board of…
Coronavirus: a look at the numbers that matter
If there is one thing that has been missing from the public discussion on Covid-19 it’s a meaningful interpretation of the numbers. Day by day…
Why bother with real change when a Facebook like will do?
Have you ever wondered how different the world would be if the passengers on Rosa Parks’ bus had iPhones? Probably…
Bette Midler: the malicious model of a modern ‘progressive’
Hollywood legend Bette Midler has become the embodiment of everything she professes to hate. The actress who has spent the…
Larissa Water’s gender politics versus fair Family Court outcomes
“The important thing is not to stop questioning,” said Albert Einstein. Can we please apply this simple logic to the…
Minimising Covid-19 pain
The current Covid-19 worldwide pandemic is causing a huge amount of pain. In some countries only moderate pain, in others…