In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
Pat Dodson’s sense and sensitivity
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
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
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
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
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
For nearly thirty years I served as a university college head in four different institutions. Before that I was myself…
The republican suicide squad
When Bill Shorten gave the keynote address the Australian Republican Movement annual dinner last month, Peter Fitzsimons gushed at how…
United in idiocy
The two major political parties may well be goofing around playing a tag game of dumb and dumber at the…
The Dean Smith Five
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?
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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
Tax reform is an important area of public policy and one in which neither major party can hold its head…
“Shocking statistics” or propaganda?
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?
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”
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!
Most of us have memories of walking to school. It was a small step towards independence on the long journey…