Flat White

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

Sorry Scott, but the GST fight isn’t over

19 July 2018 3:06 pm

It is a safe rule of thumb to assume that whenever a minister or a bureaucrat says “no one will…

Show me the honey shot

19 July 2018 1:03 pm

Those fighting this imaginary battle for women’s rights really need to sit down for a chat to discuss strategy. Their…

The enduring appeal of African gangs

19 July 2018 8:06 am

There are some political issues that have a peculiar ability to remain topical over many news cycles, interest slowly waning…

Pro-choice or pro-privileged, middle-class, hysterical women?

18 July 2018 5:25 pm

Queensland’s white, privileged ALP Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk emerge from her very working class electorate of Inala, to tell one of…

Well, this is trans-parently ridiculous

18 July 2018 12:12 pm

Goddammit, she’s buckled. Scarlett Johansson has pulled out of her role as a transgender character in upcoming movie Rub and…

Sustainability: it’s not climate science

18 July 2018 8:07 am

For a couple of decades now, climate-change has been more than a scientific theory. It is a political battlefield. Each…

Dear Mr President, just STFU

17 July 2018 5:33 pm

Mr President, please get your head out of the bear cage. Stop stroking the beast. This is outrageous: Yes, the…

Performance review time

17 July 2018 1:09 pm

It’s end of year performance review time in corporate Australia. Oh, what boundless joy now falls upon us! White collar…

The imaginary man

17 July 2018 7:48 am

You may have noticed the recent Weekend Australian Magazine piece former US President, Barack Obama. The article, by Gabriel Debenedetti,…

It’s ok, but a matter of pride?

16 July 2018 5:52 pm

Twenty-three-year-old Canadian alt-right celebrity (now that’s something) Lauren Southern has arrived in Australia wearing an “It’s ok to be white”…

Could this be the end of Roe vs Wade?

16 July 2018 12:04 pm

Well, President Trump continues to defy his critics’ dire predictions of economic catastrophe and political Armageddon. First, there is the…

Why comments should be free again

16 July 2018 7:57 am

‘Comment is free,’ The Guardian’s opinion page still proudly declares, quoting C P Scott, a former editor of the newspaper.…

Belling the cat on electricity

15 July 2018 10:34 am

In an inversion of the social hierarchy of Yes Minister, it would appear that Australia has at least one courageous…

Grounded realities

13 July 2018 3:18 pm

‘Social democratic parties have a problem selling opportunity and hope, while conservatives easily sell fear and trepidation’. I am paraphrasing…

Australian troops fear Afghan lawsuits

13 July 2018 10:18 am

Thousands of Australian military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are at risk of being dragged through the courts…

Time to call out misandry in the media

13 July 2018 7:43 am

To believe that misandry is any better than misogyny is to have no concept of equality. So, who wants to…

From a home of the enlightenment to one of its greatest products

12 July 2018 7:39 pm

There are few better places in the world for a Scotsman to spend to spend a three-month Sabbatical than Sydney.…

A quick quiz you can’t win

12 July 2018 6:21 pm

Who are these people? Without giving the quiz game away, here are some characteristics of people who belong to a…

Judge Brett Kavanaugh v Your ABC

12 July 2018 3:14 pm

If you thought American politics was a passionate and emotive affair, President Trump’s appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the United…

I’m transgender – and proudly conservative

12 July 2018 12:20 pm

I’m a transwoman, and this is my #walkaway story. I grew up in a conservative Catholic, Labor-voting family in South-Western…

“A curfew for men”, you say? A few questions…

12 July 2018 8:43 am

Pretty much the entire population in Australia has had enough of the man bashing. They’ve had enough of the boiling…

Free speech Kiwi roadkill

11 July 2018 9:35 pm

It was frighteningly authoritarian when the Mayor of Auckland and former Kiwi Labour leader, Phil Goff, decreed by tweet on…

Fine dining with Lettuce and Lavender

11 July 2018 5:21 pm

Lettuce and Lavender wanted their friends to see their new home nestled amongst the tall gums at the base of…

Edmund Burke down under

11 July 2018 1:11 pm

Accepting the Edmund Burke Award in November 2016, John Howard paid homage to the eighteenth century Anglo-Irish statesman, remarking that…

Build our boys, guard our girls

11 July 2018 10:15 am

As a high school youth pastor, I recently sat my boys down and we discussed Christian teaching as it related…