In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Assisted dying: theory and practice
Last week three people died together in what is being called a ‘triple suicide pact’ in a resort island at…
The answer isn’t Liberal
Let’s pretend for just a moment that Tony Abbott is the right-wing hardliner everyone says he is. Let’s pretend he’s not as…
Christopher, admission to the winner’s circle has a price
There is no family Christmas, no school reunion more dysfunctional than the Liberal Party’s annual Federal Council. Every June, MPs, their staffers…
Gillard: “Six men a day taking their own lives.” Now ask yourself why…
The Guardian Australia has published an extract from Julia Gillard’s John Curtin prime ministerial library’s anniversary lecture. Stay with me… She…
Libertarianism is the new heavy metal
If you are one of those people who raised an eyebrow about my election to the Western Australian Legislative Council,…
Bernardi fails national economic test
Senator Cory Bernardi, as the leader of Australian Conservatives, has failed his first critical national economic test. A fortnight ago, Bernardi issued his weekly ‘common sense’…
A lesson for Down Under on right to die laws
Dr Boudewijn Chabot is a retired Dutch psychiatrist and psychotherapist. In 1993 he was charged with having assisted in the…
Abbott’s right about being more right
I wrote recently that the sensible centre in Australian politics is dead. Labor is off with the populist pixies and…
Public health dogmatists putting millions at risk
The current House of Representatives inquiry into the legalisation of personal vaporisers should be welcomed and not criticised, as tedious,…
The end of the Liberal Party?
This morning in Brisbane, Tony Abbott launched his campaign for the return to the prime ministership and to win the…
Ignore the preschool panic
You might forgive parents reading the Sydney Morning Herald this week for thinking they’d better abandon their skinny latte and…
The black hands of Liberalism
Somewhere near Liberal Party HQ the comrades of the Black Hand gathered to discuss their next move in the overthrow…
The Liberal left master class
The important thing to remember about Christopher Pyne is that he was once a highly factional Young Liberal. The rot…
Labor’s education dreams: all Gonski
Sometime around 2.00 am Friday morning sleep-bleary parliamentarians gave a Gonski and allowed the government’s Gonski 2.0 education bill to…
The curse of the Black Hand
How appropriate Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne was speaking to a Liberal left faction group called the Black Hand when…
The F-35: where to from here?
Our Government has told us that the RAAF’s F-35 fleet of 72 aircraft will cost us $16,000 million. Setting aside…
Pauline Hanson and the boy in the cage
Pauline Hanson set several cats among flocks of pigeons with her recent comment on autistic children in classrooms. Canberrans were…
The roots of the new Cold War
The decision by President Trump to bomb the Syrian military airfield that launched chemical weapons against Syrian civilians in April…
Senator’s inspirational first speech savages welfare traps
‘I remember the first time we found welfare money in our bank account shortly after our arrival in Australia,’ South Australian Senator Lucy…
Gonski 2.0: contrary motion
One of the more annoying exercises when preparing for piano exams was the ‘contrary motion’ scale. The student prepares a…
New record set for tax hike
This must be a new record for the speed of a tax hike. On Monday 19 June, the federal parliament passed legislation implementing the major bank levy.…
Is that tax policy or slapstick comedy?
The relationship between taxpayers and government should be symbiotic – to the mutual benefit of each party. This is certainly…
If it was anyone else, they’d be screaming ‘Racist!’
A new arrival from Africa is scared by a vacuum cleaner. Ha bloody ha. It might have made a gag once…
Hello Triggs-lite, goodbye free speech
It’s clear now that the Coalition government is not only uninterested in the idea of restructuring the bureaucracy, but it also is not even interested…
The anti-Australian Ambassador
When our government officially sends Australian abroad to represent and “sell” our country abroad, would it be nice if the…