Flat White

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

We must resuscitate our near-flatline economy

16 July 2020 7:01 pm

The performance of the economy was weak before COVID-19, and now it is perilously close to flat-lining. In particular, business…

China, ‘consequences’ have consequences of their own

16 July 2020 5:48 pm

The Chinese leadership, through their mouthpieces in their embassies in Canberra, London and Washington, are these days mouthing veiled and…

EXCLUSIVE: Ripping off Clinton fits the bill for flailing Albo?

16 July 2020 12:30 pm

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow. Or about how you can hold on to your job, anyway, if you happened to…

Australia can’t hit smoking targets by going cold-turkey

16 July 2020 10:30 am

Australia has tried gums, patches, sprays, high excise taxes, and plain packaging. But for the last decade, Australia has collectively…

What ‘oppressive monocultural society’ do we have to tear down?

16 July 2020 5:00 am

Hamlet summed up the problem of how to be good, “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes…

Fake fact-checkers fall flat on Michael Shellenberger’s apology for apocalyptic climate claims

15 July 2020 7:23 pm

Facebook fact-checkers have tagged veteran environmentalist Michael Shellenberger’s Forbes article as “partly false.”    The widely shared article, ‘On Behalf Of…

Revealed: the Victorian government’s hotel quarantine judicial inquiry debacle

15 July 2020 3:58 pm

Premier Andrews of Victoria announced last week a “judicial inquiry” into the hotel quarantine program which has apparently caused the…

Forget about a catchy tag for the economic corona crisis. How do we get out of it?

15 July 2020 2:00 pm

Living standards, livelihoods and business survival are at stake as the pandemic — and government responses to it — wreak…

Republicans: time to accept the truth of the matter

15 July 2020 12:05 pm

With all the focus republican lobbyists have placed on the Palace Letters – a move that has backfired considerably –…

Break-up Big Tech? It’s complicated

15 July 2020 5:00 am

There are only two unity tickets in United States politics at present.  These are distrust of China and distrust of…

Australia’s problematic arts culture

14 July 2020 7:12 pm

The ideological closed shop that is Australia’s creative classes isn’t really a secret even if the artists themselves insist on…

There’s no magic bullet in the Palace Letters, yet republicans have shot their conspiracy theories to pieces

14 July 2020 4:57 pm

It is surely ironical that on Bastille Day 2020, the faces of Australia’s fake republicans should be so liberally smeared…

Extinction Rebellion’s shameful cultural appropriation

14 July 2020 3:30 pm

Extinction Rebellion are boasting about their latest little piece of absurdist street theatre, a protest outside Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s…

Sport should unite us, so why are its pampered pooh-bahs using it as a tool of division?

14 July 2020 1:40 pm

Australians go to the footy to get away from politics and watch and enjoy the footy. Elitist sports administrators would…

Turkey continues its backward march

14 July 2020 11:00 am

Being born in Australia to Greek and Cypriot born parents, I was raised to forget the nationalistic differences of past…

Um, slebs… about those adopted Asian and African kids

14 July 2020 5:00 am

The “cancel culture” chaotic mob mentality continues its journey throughout the Western World yet I cannot help but wonder why it has not yet turned on Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron and other Hollywood…

Masterchef Canberra

13 July 2020 7:34 pm

If you are in the souffle business and you keep delivering broken crackers, no amount of increase in ingredients and…

Oh my God, I’ve offended the ancient Mayans!

13 July 2020 4:45 pm

Just when you think the world can’t get madder, it does. The SMAge (where else?) reports: Actor and writer Michelle…

Does David Copperfield work at the Bureau of Meteorology?

13 July 2020 2:18 pm

On January 13, 1939, The Sydney Morning Herald reported: ‘Based on officially recorded maximum temperatures ….. the registration of 124…

Do you want woke with that?

13 July 2020 11:01 am

Such is the dominance of political correctness and cultural-left ideology that society is now awash with virtue signalling and kowtowing…

We need cancel culture herd immunity

13 July 2020 5:00 am

I’ve always disliked the phrase “I told you so”. It reeks of bitterness wrapped in arrogance, especially when coming from…

Revealed: the true hottest day ever recorded in Australia

12 July 2020 2:48 pm

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology deleted what was long regarded as the hottest day ever recorded in Australia, Bourke’s 125°F…

Standing for Hong Kong

12 July 2020 2:30 pm

First, they came for the Tibetans, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Tibetan. Then they…

Eden-Monaro: how dare #Cobargo residents think for themselves?

12 July 2020 12:30 pm

It’s been a week since the Eden-Monaro by-election. The outcome has been overshadowed by the mounting coronavirus crisis, but one…

We need industrial relations reform for post coronavirus recovery

12 July 2020 5:00 am

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced there will be an overhaul of Australia’s industrial relations laws. He wants business groups…