Flat White

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

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…

The hangover after the ball

16 June 2017 2:18 pm

It was Paul Keating who said that if you needed a friend in Canberra you should get a dog. Malcolm…

High tax: the pillar of what civilisation?

16 June 2017 11:44 am

“Progressive” think tank Per Capita recently released the results of their annual tax survey. It turns out that 51.5 per…

Safe school days

16 June 2017 7:29 am

Once upon a time, schools were for teaching things like reading, and writing, and arithmetic. Today, schools teach reading, writing,…

Goodbye to all that

15 June 2017 8:59 pm

The Age made a song and dance today about the departure of their political editor Michael Gordon. And rightly, too.…

Elder abuse: it’s real

15 June 2017 6:50 pm

Today, June 15, is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. Timed to coincide with this international day, the Australian Law Reform…

Trumpism, post-Trump

15 June 2017 4:28 pm

BOSTON, UNITED STATES — Professor David Flint made a statement in the last print issue which I’d like to tease…

Manus: a ten point plan to recover our honour, our borders and our country

15 June 2017 2:16 pm

The Turnbull government has gone to water over the claim by about 1900 Manus Island detainees. It could have and…

No Hils, you’re no Wonder Woman

15 June 2017 11:04 am

Hillary Clinton has learned nothing from losing the election. She’s still living life in one of two modes. She’s either…

Values matter in politics

15 June 2017 7:28 am

One statistic is essential to understanding the shock British election result: the turnout by people aged 18 to 24. Since 1992 only…

Why just tinker with refugee rorts?

14 June 2017 12:05 pm

This week Canberra is buzzing. It’s the last sitting fortnight before the long winter break, the week when important bits…

St Pauls can do better…

14 June 2017 7:06 am

I usually leave the sincere and polite explanations of why Daisy Cousens is confused to the wonderfully articulate Michael Davis.…

Somebody please show feminists the glass trapdoor

13 June 2017 4:31 pm

I’ve heard it all now. Literally, all. Moaning about the “glass ceiling” reached deafening dizzy heights after Clinton’s collapse. Today…

When racism’s not racism

13 June 2017 2:02 pm

Excuse me. I always though Wonder Woman came from the Amazon island of Themyscira. Apparently not. She’s Jewish. Israeli. And…