Flat White

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

Gillard: “Six men a day taking their own lives.” Now ask yourself why…

29 June 2017 3:59 pm

The Guardian Australia has published an extract from Julia Gillard’s John Curtin prime ministerial library’s anniversary lecture. Stay with me… She…

Libertarianism is the new heavy metal

29 June 2017 1:44 pm

If you are one of those people who raised an eyebrow about my election to the Western Australian Legislative Council,…

Bernardi fails national economic test

29 June 2017 7:44 am

Senator Cory Bernardi, as the leader of Australian Conservatives, has failed his first critical national economic test. A fortnight ago, Bernardi issued his weekly ‘common sense’…

A lesson for Down Under on right to die laws

28 June 2017 8:18 pm

Dr Boudewijn Chabot is a retired Dutch psychiatrist and psychotherapist. In 1993 he was charged with having assisted in the…

Abbott’s right about being more right

28 June 2017 10:19 am

I wrote recently that the sensible centre in Australian politics is dead. Labor is off with the populist pixies and…

Public health dogmatists putting millions at risk

28 June 2017 7:36 am

The current House of Representatives inquiry into the legalisation of personal vaporisers should be welcomed and not criticised, as tedious,…

The end of the Liberal Party?

27 June 2017 3:57 pm

This morning in Brisbane, Tony Abbott launched his campaign for the return to the prime ministership and to win the…

Ignore the preschool panic

27 June 2017 1:37 pm

You might forgive parents reading the Sydney Morning Herald this week for thinking they’d better abandon their skinny latte and…

The black hands of Liberalism

27 June 2017 11:29 am

Somewhere near Liberal Party HQ the comrades of the Black Hand gathered to discuss their next move in the overthrow…

The Liberal left master class

27 June 2017 7:14 am

The important thing to remember about Christopher Pyne is that he was once a highly factional Young Liberal. The rot…

Labor’s education dreams: all Gonski

26 June 2017 8:41 pm

Sometime around 2.00 am Friday morning sleep-bleary parliamentarians gave a Gonski and allowed the government’s Gonski 2.0 education bill to…

The curse of the Black Hand

26 June 2017 10:59 am

How appropriate Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne was speaking to a Liberal left faction group called the Black Hand when…

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…