In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
The F-35: where to from here?
Our Government has told us that the RAAF’s F-35 fleet of 72 aircraft will cost us $16,000 million. Setting aside…
Pauline Hanson and the boy in the cage
Pauline Hanson set several cats among flocks of pigeons with her recent comment on autistic children in classrooms. Canberrans were…
The roots of the new Cold War
The decision by President Trump to bomb the Syrian military airfield that launched chemical weapons against Syrian civilians in April…
Senator’s inspirational first speech savages welfare traps
‘I remember the first time we found welfare money in our bank account shortly after our arrival in Australia,’ South Australian Senator Lucy…
Gonski 2.0: contrary motion
One of the more annoying exercises when preparing for piano exams was the ‘contrary motion’ scale. The student prepares a…
New record set for tax hike
This must be a new record for the speed of a tax hike. On Monday 19 June, the federal parliament passed legislation implementing the major bank levy.…
Is that tax policy or slapstick comedy?
The relationship between taxpayers and government should be symbiotic – to the mutual benefit of each party. This is certainly…
If it was anyone else, they’d be screaming ‘Racist!’
A new arrival from Africa is scared by a vacuum cleaner. Ha bloody ha. It might have made a gag once…
Hello Triggs-lite, goodbye free speech
It’s clear now that the Coalition government is not only uninterested in the idea of restructuring the bureaucracy, but it also is not even interested…
The anti-Australian Ambassador
When our government officially sends Australian abroad to represent and “sell” our country abroad, would it be nice if the…
Dear ‘woe is me’ women brigade, pipe down
From the way leftist media is carrying on, you would think the tax on tampons is two million dollars each month. The Project earlier…
Politicians and political activists cannot sit in judgement
The resignation of Professor David Weisbrot from the Australian Press Council was not necessary. This relates to the controversy concerning the…
#RepublicanLivesMatter
BOSTON, UNITED STATES – Last March I wrote an article about Trump Derangement Syndrome: ‘the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal…
Is it really all smiles for NSW?
Alarm bells should ring when treasurers resort to hyperbole to describe their budget achievements. With Paul Keating in the late…
Why the left fights the family
The Left needs to destroy the family unit to succeed in the long-term. Over the last few years, we have…
The ultimate sin
Vientiane, the capital of Laos, Communist in government, Buddhist in culture has somehow managed to retain layers of pre-Buddhist animism,…
Citizenship: our values are not up for sale
I’ve boycotted ABC’s Q&A program for a number of years, and tuning in at the end of last night’s episode…
What will they Finkel next?
The greatest contribution the Finkel Review makes to Australian public policy may, in fact, be a new verb. From June 2017, to ‘finkel’…
Who’s Little Collin?
Note it down. June 19, 2017. The day the Melbourne Age died of shame. Or should have, if it had…
Misery pundits: why I don’t get modern queer politics
When I was 19, I headed up my University’s ‘Queer Collective’. It was a regional campus and not exactly a…
What sells better? Empowerment or victimhood?
What sells better? Empowerment or victimhood? That garbage pail known as the Melbourne Age couldn’t make up its mind, so…
Black, white, yellow and Red
Uh-oh! Red Symons has really put his foot in it, hasn’t he? Or has he? Maybe his behaviour while speaking…
Woolly thinking won’t help with education
Some weeks more than others, the woolly thinking that leads to poor policy is blindingly obvious. Education policy development is…
For God or country?
A few months ago I mused on this page whether the UK had shifted to the point where a faithful Christian could…
We need more than concrete barriers to protect us from terrorism
The general atmosphere of Melbourne has changed. Innocence has been lost. Citizens feel insecure. A cloud of doom and trepidation…