Flat White

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

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…

What makes a state?

1 August 2017 7:47 am

The New York Post’s recent write-up on the budget allocations of the Palestinian Authority makes for disturbing if not wholly…

Why the Andrews euthanasia bill is all about suicide

31 July 2017 8:00 pm

It’s difficult to talk about suicide. There won’t be a person reading this who hasn’t been touched by a suicide…

Wage inequality: us vs the bureaucrats

31 July 2017 4:38 pm

Note to Labour: One reason why the income gap widens in times of slow economic growth, I suggest, is surely…

Why January 26 matters

31 July 2017 7:30 am

Symbolism and imagery are important for a nation. They are important as focal points where our history vividly comes to…

Would another Arab state be any different?

29 July 2017 12:04 pm

In the latest act of rank hypocrisy from Labor, this weekend the NSW and Queensland branches of the Labor Party…

The future of learning and the independent scholar

29 July 2017 9:05 am

When the British historian, Christopher Dawson, received the Christian Culture Award in 1951 from a Canadian university, he called his…

No, Premier, we will not get out of the way

28 July 2017 5:42 pm

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has formally accepted the recommendations of the Ministerial Advisory Panel that he set up in December…

Inside the Hillary book

28 July 2017 3:00 pm

Exciting news for fans of the president who never was, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Yep. The inevitable has happened. She’s got…

Importing China’s poison

28 July 2017 7:27 am

There is an engineering company in Brisbane with about 30 employees which used to do a lot of work in…

Everyone hates political correctness: official

27 July 2017 4:02 pm

A swag of media outlets have run a yarn along the lines “Older Australians say political correctness is running society”…

I’m an atheist and against euthanasia

27 July 2017 1:34 pm

Some prominent Australians who favour a change in the law on assisted dying seem so anxious to implement it that…

No, men are not more of a threat than terrorists

27 July 2017 7:28 am

When does a “comment” piece stop being comment and become a short work of fiction? The answer lies in the…

The (new) God Delusion

26 July 2017 5:33 pm

Richard Dawkins has discovered that it’s trendy to be an atheist – but only if you are an exclusively Christian…

Gillian Triggs: the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth

26 July 2017 1:01 pm

In today’s Australian Chris Kenny has a wholly accurate piece on Gillian Triggs. Kenny sets out the ways in which Triggs…

A brown coal plan that’s worse than Finkel?

26 July 2017 7:23 am

The Victorian Government’s new Statement on Future Uses of Brown Coal, released earlier this month, is further proof that there…