In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Ban the Burqa stunts
Pauline Hanson walked into the Senate yesterday all covered up, which no doubt improved the aesthetics of the place, but…
Corporations don’t have views on same-sex marriage, people do
After the news that Australia will proceed with a postal plebiscite on same sex marriage, Qantas, a long time supporter…
Funeral crashers: how antifa became the new Westboro Baptist Church
No, liberals, the ends do not justify the means. There is no vindication for violence, despite your cause. The heartbreaking…
A message to Victorians on euthanasia
Liz Carr is a UK actor, comedian and disability rights activist perhaps best known as forensic examiner Clarissa Mullery in…
What a burqua!
Just when you thought Canberra couldn’t turn into more of a circus, Pauline Hanson turned it into a fancy-dress party.…
In defense of the same-sex marriage plebiscite (or the next best option)
The late great Harvard professor John Rawls famously said that a diversity of opinions on issues relating to morality, religion,…
The great plain packaging swindle
Newly released government data has confirmed that more people smoke in Australia than they did in 2013. This is despite…
Barnaby, the beat-up — and the blunder
Since when have Australian-born citizens with one foreign-born parent but permanently resident here been automatically obligated to the laws of…
Rainbow repression
In a gutsy move, Sky News anchor and Daily Telegraph columnist Caroline Marcus has penned an article unapologetically denouncing the…
Throw another flag on the barbie
For once, Malcolm Turnbull appears to be in tune with the nation. He spoke up this morning to criticise a…
North and South
The events at Charlottesville, Virginia, occur in the context of rapid changes in the South. Having just travelled through sections…
The Age: proud to be a global joke
It’s official. The Age is an international joke. And no. I’m not talking about that “Is this the most Melbourne…
Do they just want it all to be over?
Late this afternoon, the Turnbull government lost a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, 61 to 69.…
It ain’t choice, Joyce
In 1995, I was there when, one question time, John Howard’s reinvigorated opposition so niggled prime minister Paul Keating that…
Behind Bill
David Marr appropriately titled his Quarterly Essay on Bill Shorten, ‘Faction Man’, for the Labor leader was shaped by the…
God is good but mammon pays the rent
I am a small business. Things are not exactly great and the world isn’t flush with funds and every dollar…
Their ABC on Barnaby’s bother: biased and banal
So, how’s the ABC responding to Barnaby Joyce’s little spot of bother? With all the class that you’d expect. Its…
Leadership means real promises on real policy
Bill Shorten probably can’t believe his luck. The Liberal Party has spent the entire Winter break and the first week…
Australia’s deindustrialisation
High energy prices are causing Australia to deindustrialise. Earlier this month mining giant Glencore’s chief Peter Freyberg’s called for the…
I believe the children are our future?
What do German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon,…
Their ABC: entirely unaccountable
It is a thesis of Media Watch Dog that no one really runs the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Not the chairman…
Chinese whispers overs North Korea
Australia could – and should – play a vital if silent role in the (literally) frightful face off between the…
Driving Christianity from the public square
Children are once again being used in an aggressive Green/Left campaign aimed at imposing a hard line secular orthodoxy, contrary…
Domestic violence: more money, wrong priorities
The sturdy snowball of the feminist driven domestic violence industry is accumulating more and more layers of funding. What a…
Their ABC dumps impartiality with gay abandon
This morning The Australian reported ABC staff had been warned to zip it over marriage equality: ABC News Editorial Policy…