Flat White

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

Shorten’s sop to the Left: a bung for the bureaucrats of the UN

25 January 2019 8:39 am

You may have missed it in the Christmas rush, but opposition leader Bill Shorten proposes to quadruple taxpayer handouts to the United…

The Gospel according to Lady Gaga

24 January 2019 4:32 pm

Theologians come in all sorts of strange packages nowadays. No more bearded old guys in stuffy booklined offices it seems.…

Cricket needs a counter-reformation

24 January 2019 1:07 pm

The recent scandals and poor performance of Australia’s national team will quicken the quest for practical solutions. But the deeper…

The Aboriginal industry: a new religion?

24 January 2019 7:54 am

Religion is an inescapable concept – everybody has a religion. Everybody has a basic set of assumptions about metaphysics, epistemology…

Wait a day, then comment

23 January 2019 7:27 pm

The mainstream media – let alone social media – are so good at generating instant outrage that I now have…

Sorry kids, but no socialism for you

23 January 2019 4:11 pm

Views that Australia will turn into a utopia under socialism are wildly uninformed, and John Quiggin’s already infamous Guardian piece…

Time to legalise mother’s other little helpers

23 January 2019 1:36 pm

One really must wonder what they smoke up there in New South Wales. The State Government, fresh off wondering whether…

Time to take a second look at that Gillette ad?

23 January 2019 7:46 am

If the purpose of advertising is to get as much publicity as possible, then Gillette hit on a winner last…

Monster fires: another gift from the greens

22 January 2019 4:37 pm

Carbon dioxide must be an almighty gas – it gets blamed for almost every human disaster. Now we have the…

What’s woke this week?

22 January 2019 11:49 am

Another week, more wearisome woke worthiness. This week has been a cracker for woke watchers, with everything from toxic masculinity…

The amazing self-defeating Liberal Party

22 January 2019 7:50 am

What are they thinking? The New South Wales Liberal government’s Five Million Trees initiative is a complete waste of taxpayer…

Peter Costello: smirk back in langour

21 January 2019 8:26 pm

Nostalgia has strange powers. With Kelly O’Dwyer pulling the pin on her federal parliamentary career and vacating the previously ultra-safe…

What if Trump doesn’t blink?

21 January 2019 6:31 pm

While Donald Trump is offering the possibility of a deal, both sides remain largely entrenched in their original positions as…

Hatred of men is being normalised

21 January 2019 4:07 pm

It’s always a joy to read the wonderfully inclusive coverage in The Saturday Age — except when it isn’t. This…

Labor’s woman problem

21 January 2019 12:00 pm

Their ABC and Nine’s dead tree division (and dying limbs), The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, have done their…

The left’s next stop on the long march through the institutions: the Australian War Memorial?

21 January 2019 7:39 am

The Australian War Memorial, arguably the nation’s most important cultural institution, has been unfairly targeted by cultural revisionists. Most recently…

No meat and two veg?

20 January 2019 7:01 pm

As the social mediaverse keeps discussing pros and cons of Gillette’s new ad, here comes PETA with the creepiest possible…

When the Australian sounds like the Australia Institute, watch out

20 January 2019 1:37 pm

Just last week, The Australian’s economics editor – a one-time leader writer for the Spec Oz, Adam Creighton — published…

‘Pick a side’, says Clem Ford. She means ‘Join mine – or else’

18 January 2019 4:12 pm

“Pick a side,” writes feminist cult leader exhibitionist, Clementine Ford. What she means is pick my side, because if you…

Transgender athletes: cheats and sophists

18 January 2019 7:57 am

The problem with trying to accommodate every individual’s feelings and desires is that biological realities must eventually be ignored. To…

Foreign aid where everyone wins

17 January 2019 2:07 pm

What are our obligations to the global community? Most Anglo-western countries have generous foreign aid programs that compulsorily ‘share’ wealth…

The best a SJW can get

17 January 2019 8:08 am

This week, Gillette jumped into bed with #MeToo and radical feminism.  Yet it seems the only people getting screwed are…

Bin Marie Kondo, not your memories

16 January 2019 6:09 pm

Marie Kondo and her ideology of ridding yourself of possessions, has caught the world by storm. Yet, rather than bringing…

It’s not Huawei or the highway

16 January 2019 12:54 pm

China is herding over a million Turkic Uyghurs in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) into camps while Beijing simultaneously campaigns against Christmas…

Leadership beyond politics, rarely found in republics

16 January 2019 7:39 am

The oldest office in the land has just changed hands, with barely a ripple on the surface. Acting on the…