In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Budget 2017: placing politics over principle always fails
When I signed up as a member of my university’s Liberal club, it was for good reason. It was 2011…
Where’s a drug test for hypocrisy when you need one?
I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning, and Twitter always is pungent with its bitter almond aroma. Today…
Why we need a Theresa May
Theresa May is doing counter-populism right. The Tories have just released their manifesto for the June election, and it has every strength the Liberals’ depressing,…
Why are feminists being allowed to hijack domestic violence funding?
A report just released this week shines a shocking, fierce and heartbreaking light on where domestic violence thrives in Australia. The statistics make difficult reading – and…
What happens next in Jakarta?
Midnight in Jakarta but shops are still open, people meeting up and I’m sitting at a pavement café with three…
Budget 2017: pseudopulism fails to sway the polls
Theresa May is headed for a triple-digit majority in parliament, just two years after the Tories cobbled together a government…
We need to talk about Julie…
There is a news picture of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop that sticks in my mind. Bishop, lithe, agile (that word again!)…
Budget 2017: energy policy’s gushing wounds won’t be fixed with a mop and bucket
If you had a wound that was gushing blood onto the floor and your doctor prescribed a mop and bucket,…
Triggser warning
The Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs has finally found freedom of speech she would like to defend – Yassmin…
Can we please let kids be kids… for once?
Just when I thought Daniel Andrew’s socialist government’s mind-boggling insanity in Victoria couldn’t get any worse, we’re now hearing reports…
When political correctness matters more than common sense
“Welcome to the New South Wales education system,” said Liberal Legislative Councillor Peter Phelps, “where students can be told ‘it’s OK…
Budget 2017: a housing policy shambles
The housing measures in the 2017 Budget present a great case study in how expectations can be mismanaged. The government…
Trump and Comey: the G-Man goes
BOSTON, United States — Even if the president and his staff are completely innocent of collusion with Russia, Trump’s done…
Budget 2017: the Inigo Montoya game
During the Treasurer’s Budget speech, some of my friends like to play the Budget Bingo, downing a shot for an…
Rejoice, rejoice: Fairfax are back
Rejoice, yes rejoice, all good people. The strike at Fairfax is over. The journos we so missed are back at…
Budget 2017: Medicare – not even Labor lite
So the economic narrative of the Turnbull Government has come to this. A ‘tax and spend’ Budget that is more…
Budget 2017: bank levy is just a populist revenue grab
So much can be said about the 2017-18 federal budget — little of it complimentary — it’s hard to know…
Silencing dissent over abortion
Well-informed Flat White readers will be aware of the two abortion bills before the NSW Parliament, and the remarkable petitioning effort against it…
Budget 2017: more unfunded promises and hypocrisy on school spending
One of the delicious ironies of politics is the tendency for one side to admonish the other side for doing…
Budget 2017: politically clever, but…
I’ve been lamenting that for too long we’ve had no sensible centre in Australian politics, effectively ceding the political debate…
Budget 2017: an invitation to vote Labor
Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull have been far too clever by half with year’s budget. Yes, they’ve moved to blunt…
Your ABC: pissing away your taxes
Have a look at how much money the ABC gets in tonight’s budget, but before you do have a look…
Budget 2017: budget for nothing from the budget tonight
Language constantly evolves to match the evolving society. Words get old and become obsolete, new words come in to enrich…
Budget 2017: trashing the Liberal legacy on Catholic schools
Sometimes former Labor leaders become libertarians. This is how we’ve started the week, with Mark Latham joining the Liberal Democrats…
Budget 2017: the Medical Research Future Fund must go
The federal budget comes out this evening and, in what can heart-warmingly be described as a bipartisan tradition, the ‘heroes’…