Flat White

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

What would happen if church schools closed?

12 February 2018 8:02 am

I’m told, on good authority, that bed-time stories in the house of some school principals include a retelling, in hushed…

Baby blues

11 February 2018 7:52 pm

This is a story about a senior media figure and a younger woman who discovered, perhaps to her dismay, that…

Pardoning the Breaker is unpardonable

11 February 2018 3:55 pm

There is an awful lot of ignorance about the English-born mercenary Henry Harbord Morant. Morant was executed for murder in…

Richard Di Natale turns pestersome popinjay

11 February 2018 7:54 am

The Greek historian, Thucydides, who lived through the Peloponnesian wars, wrote that: “The bravest are surely those who have the…

Screwing the crew

10 February 2018 4:26 pm

If politics is, as some maintain, Hollywood for ugly people, then lots of ugly people are having lots and lots…

The Green-left’s war against Jim Molan

9 February 2018 7:53 pm

The Greens are a party without principle or common sense. They’ve proved their lack of seriousness by their attack this…

Barnaby Joyce and the return of the scarlet letter

9 February 2018 5:00 pm

With all the grubby reporting of a private matter between two consenting adults, the media pack, led by the Daily…

Ten non-religious reasons against euthanasia

9 February 2018 7:59 am

I have, in awe, seen a husband caring for his young wife—and their four children—in the last months of her…

Tanks on the streets

8 February 2018 8:09 pm

Trump sure as hell knows how to stir up the left: President Trump has asked the Pentagon to explore holding “a celebration”…

The rule of law also applies to law processes

8 February 2018 2:30 pm

George Brandis’s parting shot in his valedictory speech to the parliament over his concern that ‘attacks upon the institutions of…

Is honour killing a “peopleslaughter”?

8 February 2018 11:05 am

Oh Canada! Your Celebrity-in-Chief, Prime Minister Justin Castro, er, Trudeau, continues to deliver. Mostly laughs, though often you don’t know…

No, you’re not transphobic

8 February 2018 8:01 am

Whatever your views are on transgender issues, chances are, you’re not transphobic. Real transphobia involves irrational behaviour and denies trans…

Why not a flat tax?

7 February 2018 8:11 am

Progressive taxation has been the default position of both major parties in Australia for decades, to the point where the…

Euthanasia and elder abuse

6 February 2018 1:30 pm

A friendly senior doctor from a large hospital, Chris, told me he thought the introduction of euthanasia is inevitable –…

Private schools aren’t only for the rich

6 February 2018 7:49 am

Every time data is released about enrolment numbers in public and private schools, it’s closely followed by a chorus of…

Life imitates Harry Potter

5 February 2018 8:07 pm

It’s not just that no one talks about government debt anymore – no one thinks about it either: It was another…

The polls bell for thee, Malcolm

5 February 2018 5:09 pm

The Prime Minister is deeply unpopular with much of the Liberal Party base, pundits keep telling us, yet he is…

Lucy Gichuhi will be a boon to the party of Menzies

5 February 2018 1:19 pm

In a 1943 wartime broadcast on social security, Robert Menzies told the country that “there are amazing possibilities in every…

The “offended” are merely being challenged

5 February 2018 9:25 am

When discussing matters of free speech and offence, it is first necessary to draw a distinction between what is hate…

Is Lyle Shelton our Jacob Rees-Mogg?

4 February 2018 8:07 pm

So, Lyle Shelton has decided to become the federal communications director for the Australian Conservatives, and not, as The Sydney…

The three most important stories in Australia this morning

4 February 2018 5:09 pm

According to the ABC, these were the three top news stories when your correspondent logged on this morning: It’s amazing…

Ex-govvie furniture – quality checked

2 February 2018 5:28 pm

Canberrans are used to buying ‘ex-govvie’, from houses (not much on the market now) to pre-used chairs, desks, PCs, whiteboards and filing…

The AMA’s double standard on standards

2 February 2018 12:30 pm

The Australian Medical Association is a very curious beastie. It is like a three-year-old child.  It only hears what it…

Stop funding schools, start funding students

2 February 2018 8:04 am

For some time now, debate over educational funding has revolved around the Australian Labor Party promising schools more money, and…

Jordan Peterson’s psycho-religious heresy

1 February 2018 5:46 pm

Cathy Newman’s train wreck of an interview with Jordan Peterson could well be one of the defining moments in how…