Flat White

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

The elephants in the polling booth: infrastructure and immigration

6 March 2019 7:24 am

With the New South Wales state election now just a few weeks away, all the respective parties are out there…

What’s woke this week?

5 March 2019 6:09 pm

It’s been another big week for woke, especially in the literary world (and I use that term loosely). We’ve seen…

Why Twitter brings out my worst

5 March 2019 3:24 pm

As a full-time freelance writer – having transitioned from law practice at midlife, accursed with all the selfish, self-doubting sensibilities…

Surfers snake Bight oil facts and jobs

5 March 2019 11:40 am

Move over, Adani. There’s a new group of protesters in town, and they are as fanatical as the zealots using…

American Socialism and the coming Great Leap Backwards

5 March 2019 7:29 am

It was never going to be the case, even under the most perfect Marxist Communism, that the proletariat would rule…

Philosoph Van has done it again

4 March 2019 7:02 pm

Jordan Peterson’s appearance on the ABC’s leftist echo chamber, Q&A, was quite the ratings hit recently. But one of the…

Deny democracy, feed the fringe

4 March 2019 3:29 pm

Just a few days ago we awoke to the news that firebrand British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had finally caved…

Blood sisters, dirt brothers and other brand new inanities

4 March 2019 11:48 am

I’ve often tried to challenge myself to come up with a scenario that so-called ‘progressives’ might invent that is just…

Julie Bishop and the wars of succession

4 March 2019 7:35 am

While Julie Bishop is retiring from politics at the next election, the recriminations and regrets that have been flowing through…

What do Justice Kavanaugh, Cardinal Pell and this man have in common?

3 March 2019 1:10 pm

The following note was sent to me on Saturday, March 2, 2019, by a man whose life has been damaged…

Charity? Balls!

1 March 2019 1:00 pm

Last year, Australians gave more than $12.5 billion to charity. This sum reflects millions of individual acts of goodwill that…

Men, now you too can breastfeed!

1 March 2019 7:37 am

Just before you think that this is such a good April Fool’s joke that I’m getting in a month early,…

Princess PC versus the colonisation of the curriculum

28 February 2019 6:58 pm

Were you aware that the curriculum of our universities has been colonized? Apparently this is a serious problem and we…

Why won’t the left recognise global progress on poverty?

28 February 2019 3:00 pm

Is the declining rate of global poverty simply a neoliberal lie, spread by the likes of Bill Gates? According to…

Feminist fighters love their boys – as weapons

28 February 2019 12:43 pm

Author, presenter and former Kevin Rudd press secretary Jamila Rizvi penned a column for The Age on Friday about the…

An epistle to Van Badham: there is no such thing as Marxist Christianity

28 February 2019 8:04 am

Oxymorons abound, such as ‘Arab unity,’ or ‘leftist logic’. But one obvious candidate which just will not go away is…

Fearless Girl, shameless stunt

27 February 2019 6:35 pm

A replica of the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the world of statuary, Kristin Visbal’s Fearless Girl, has been installed in Melbourne’s…

When gender activism masquerades as good HR

27 February 2019 2:25 pm

The university thought police have developed a new tool to ensure their students think correctly. Clubs at the University of…

She’s tackled everything, but can Ita tame the ABC?

27 February 2019 10:47 am

In the halcyon days of magazines in Sydney in the seventies, one name was spoken with admiration tinged with –admit…

What’s woke this week

27 February 2019 7:26 am

In the woke-honoured tradition of ‘If it ain’t woke, then fix it’ the usual suspects were woking up a storm…

As a survivor of child sexual abuse, I just feel sad

26 February 2019 2:41 pm

As a survivor of child sexual abuse, abuse that occurred within a religious institution supported by Australian churches, the verdict…

Energy policy: the $72 billion fair dinkum disaster

26 February 2019 12:03 pm

Energy and climate change policy in Australia and other western democracies is now, along with immigration and its associated fear…

Statistics, like gender, are now fluid too?

26 February 2019 7:32 am

My son came home from his private church school the other day and made a startling declaration. “Dad, do you…

Bugger the Newspoll, ScoMo can win

25 February 2019 5:00 pm

Shortly after the 2016 federal election, Christopher Pyne declared, “That’s our sixth victory out of eight in the last 20…

Much ado about muffin means it’s time to talk minimum wages

25 February 2019 1:27 pm

So the CEO of Muffin Break has discovered over the weekend that there’s muffin so offensive to millennials on social…