Flat White

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

Workers lose from One Nation weakness

22 February 2018 7:25 am

One Nation positions itself as pro-Australia but the party’s opposition to company tax cuts shows it is short-sighted and weak…

Haven’t we paid Hillary enough already?

21 February 2018 6:28 pm

Sleep easy, Queenslanders. You’re already laden with ferals protesting Adani. Tasmania, you’re the birthplace of the Greens. Our sympathies. Western…

The fallout from Poland’s misguided Holocaust law

21 February 2018 3:25 pm

My grandfather made the lifesaving decision to leave Poland for Australia shortly before World War II broke out. However, for…

Why do feminists hate femininity?

21 February 2018 7:40 am

It’s only February, and already the wheels of the online confected outrage cycle are well and truly turning. In an…

Liberty and America’s gun culture

20 February 2018 8:01 pm

Freedom is not an unalloyed good. It allows people both to flourish and to make mistakes. Freedom, then, can never…

Sex and the capital city

20 February 2018 5:10 pm

From the large headings, multiple columns and country themed caricatures appearing in newspapers spread across kitchen benches and shaken out…

Danger: America dreaming.

20 February 2018 2:23 pm

The other day The Wall Street Journal carried an op-ed praising America’s immigration project written by two academics, Tellis and…

I dare an ABC journo to check just one fact of global warming

20 February 2018 7:52 am

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (our ABC) – the main source of news and information for Australia’s ruling elite – often…

What was that about a gun, Senator Di Natale

19 February 2018 8:37 pm

Greens leader Richard Di Natale and his faithful amanuenses at the ABC and Fairfax Media have been hyperventilating since George Christensen’s harmless, if…

What about the right not to strike?

19 February 2018 1:27 pm

It seems the lines have been drawn for 2018 as Sally McManus and the ACTU declare there is a war…

Ten religious reasons why Barnaby Joyce should resign

19 February 2018 8:36 am

I like Barnaby Joyce. And I honestly pray for him, his estranged wife Natalie, their children, and his new partner…

“Wetness in the third engine”

18 February 2018 6:03 pm

It is not widely known, but the Therapeutic Drugs Administration has approved the release to the general public of a…

Morality drones

18 February 2018 11:11 am

The young receptionist in her Minister’s office was momentarily taken aback. The PM’s office? God, it’s heavy. And something rattles.…

Yassmin’s Islamic amnesia

16 February 2018 11:03 am

Like so many Australians, I have come to the conclusion that Yassmin Abdel-Magied is maybe not quite in touch with…

Against ethical veganism

16 February 2018 7:48 am

Ethical veganism, which is commonly motivated by the minimisation of animal suffering or injury (an ideology which is often linked…

The sorry sorry business

15 February 2018 7:37 am

In December 1970 the then Chancellor of West Germany, Willy Brandt, while on a visit to Poland went down on…

Conservatively speaking: an exclusive interview with Cory Bernardi

14 February 2018 1:00 pm

Reminding Canberrans and visitors alike that Parliament House is not actually part of Australia but a strange sort of parallel…

Barnaby must go

14 February 2018 8:48 am

Like a lot of other observers of politics, I am convinced that Barnaby Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister, should go.…

Magda’s “mandroid” madness

14 February 2018 7:29 am

Remember when they said last year that if we re-defined marriage then nothing was going to change? Well, from one…

Shock, horror: there’s humping on the Hill

13 February 2018 8:46 pm

Sometimes you need to take a step back from the rapid, racing political commentary and chuckle at the bogus make-believe…

Conservatives as conservationists

13 February 2018 2:00 pm

There appears to be a general consensus among self-described conservatives that environmental protection should be placed way down any list…

Tanya, what “sexist double standards”?

13 February 2018 7:46 am

All over the world, every minute of every day, men have affairs. Women, strangely enough, also have affairs. And so…

Whether it’s Barney or Barbara, we’re the bad guys again

12 February 2018 8:07 pm

How did news of Barnaby Joyce’s shambolic personal life, dodgy boss behaviour, and the Canberra media contingent’s ongoing collective sidestep…

Trumping Obama

12 February 2018 4:29 pm

From Fox News: Campus Reform’s Cabot Phillips talked to students at New York City’s John Jay College, reading them quotes…

Even a magic nanny would struggle with childcare policy

12 February 2018 1:00 pm

The threat by childcare union, United Voice, to strike next month over low wages reflects a bizarre belief that government…