Flat White

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

Pat Dodson’s sense and sensitivity

10 August 2017 4:32 pm

A refreshing note of practicality, even sanity, was injected into the sound and fury of the same-sex marriage debate this…

Energy policy: the meatgrinder of the poor

10 August 2017 7:37 am

The outstanding success of the South Australian government of giving their people the highest power prices in the world is…

Big government’s war on young Australians

9 August 2017 4:34 pm

The major parties, unions and the bureaucracy have declared economic war on young people which threatens to create an invisible…

A politically incorrect three-point plan for government

9 August 2017 7:16 am

Same-sex marriage off the agenda? Here is my politically incorrect list of what any right-of-centre political party in Australia needs…

Christian Leaders oppose assisted dying, The Age plays shocked

8 August 2017 7:51 pm

The Open Letter from Christian Leaders to Premier Daniel Andrews on assisted dying has drawn criticism from ‘the usual suspects’.…

When campus claims of sex abuse meet politics

8 August 2017 4:09 pm

For nearly thirty years I served as a university college head in four different institutions.  Before that I was myself…

The republican suicide squad

8 August 2017 1:05 pm

When Bill Shorten gave the keynote address the Australian Republican Movement annual dinner last month, Peter Fitzsimons gushed at how…

United in idiocy

8 August 2017 7:09 am

The two major political parties may well be goofing around playing a tag game of dumb and dumber at the…

The Dean Smith Five

7 August 2017 7:21 am

Watching Liberal senator Dean Smith on the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday morning, I was impressed by the quiet and dignified…

What would Menzies make of marriage equality?

6 August 2017 7:39 am

What would Sir Robert Menzies have made of attempts to conscript his name to the cause of redefining marriage in…

Somewhere in Sri Lanka, someone is making something.

5 August 2017 4:02 pm

Researching history with the hope that your research will eventually turn itself into a book can take you places. It’s…

The Age’s big week

5 August 2017 9:00 am

It’s been a big week for Fairfax Media and The Age — a big week in their decline. First there…

The left can’t meme

4 August 2017 12:08 pm

Having grown up in the 1980s and 1990s I remember a time when popular culture mocked the right wing stiff.…

Bureaucrats play God, break Caesar’s law

4 August 2017 7:25 am

Education Department officials in Queensland have decided that primary school students can’t talk about Christianity or even give Christmas cards…

Happy holidays with the Byron Bay bed tax

3 August 2017 8:36 pm

While much of the nation confronts an incessant meth problem, our major political parties struggle with a different kind of…

The left’s exotic Venezuelan romance meets reality

3 August 2017 6:00 pm

In London’s posh South Kensington ‪on Sunday afternoon I witnessed anti and pro-Venezuelan government protests form outside the Venezuelan embassy.…

Faith, family, violence and the ABC’s smears

3 August 2017 7:27 am

I grew up in a family that was, as they say, less than ideal. Not only was it a long…

Why is our national broadcaster bagging our national day?

2 August 2017 8:57 pm

What’s wrong with the headline below from the clickbait-farm-come-Game-of-Thrones-recap-service formerly known as the Fairfax press (hint — the title to…

Waleed Aly: now nailing Australia in America

2 August 2017 7:38 pm

I miss the regular nailing. No, this is not a line I just saw on a Tinder profile. It’s an…

Malcolm Turnbull is either condoning bad behaviour or has lost control

2 August 2017 4:24 pm

How can Malcolm Turnbull lack the ability to pull his own MPs into line when it’s needed? If you’ve got…

Time to rethink tax reform

2 August 2017 1:35 pm

Tax reform is an important area of public policy and one in which neither major party can hold its head…

“Shocking statistics” or propaganda?

2 August 2017 7:27 am

Supposedly “shocking” stats have been released about sexual assault on Australian university campuses. The Human Rights Commission’s nationwide university sexual…

Since when was same-sex marriage a local government concern?

1 August 2017 6:10 pm

Woollahra Council in Sydney’s eastern suburbs is the latest to join a growing chorus of local councils around Australia to…

“An excuse to celebrate maleness”

1 August 2017 2:07 pm

Some have already called it a strong contender for the most stupid tweet of the year: That’s quite a call…

Won’t somebody please think of the children!

1 August 2017 12:00 pm

Most of us have memories of walking to school. It was a small step towards independence on the long journey…