Flat White

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

The F-35: where to from here?

26 June 2017 7:32 am

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

25 June 2017 3:31 pm

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

24 June 2017 5:34 pm

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

23 June 2017 4:49 pm

‘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

23 June 2017 12:07 pm

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

23 June 2017 11:01 am

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?

23 June 2017 7:31 am

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!’

22 June 2017 5:17 pm

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

22 June 2017 1:54 pm

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

22 June 2017 11:01 am

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

22 June 2017 7:03 am

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

21 June 2017 8:59 pm

The resignation of Professor David  Weisbrot from the Australian Press Council was not necessary. This relates to the controversy concerning the…

#RepublicanLivesMatter

21 June 2017 4:52 pm

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?

21 June 2017 2:22 pm

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

21 June 2017 7:30 am

The Left needs to destroy the family unit to succeed in the long-term. Over the last few years, we have…

The ultimate sin

20 June 2017 4:40 pm

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

20 June 2017 12:01 pm

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?

20 June 2017 7:43 am

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?

19 June 2017 8:09 pm

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

19 June 2017 5:11 pm

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?

18 June 2017 8:07 pm

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

18 June 2017 3:17 pm

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

17 June 2017 6:54 am

Some weeks more than others, the woolly thinking that leads to poor policy is blindingly obvious. Education policy development is…

For God or country?

16 June 2017 9:56 pm

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

16 June 2017 6:02 pm

The general atmosphere of Melbourne has changed. Innocence has been lost. Citizens feel insecure. A cloud of doom and trepidation…