Flat White

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

A month of Pride but no Australia Day

11 January 2024 4:10 pm

For months – not days – capital cities across Australia were wrapped in glitter and rainbows to service the feelings…

Matt Thistlethwaite: the man with the flag

11 January 2024 1:12 pm

The British Locomotive Act of 1865 stated: …while any locomotive is in motion, [a person] shall proceed … on foot…

Make civics education great again

11 January 2024 4:00 am

The unveiling of the 2003 Howard Government Cabinet records last week is more than just a revelation of political decisions…

Of course test cricket is dying … Western Civilisation is dying

11 January 2024 3:00 am

Reports of the death of test cricket have, for some time, been greatly exaggerated, but last week saw the kind…

Time to rethink Australia’s energy strategy

11 January 2024 1:02 am

The initial stages of cleantech in Australia were filled with enthusiasm and good intentions, steered by visionary entrepreneurs and venture…

The Royal Commission Australians deserve … this is your chance to have a say

10 January 2024 3:14 pm

When the Senate Select Committee on Covid handed down its final report in April 2022, several failures in Australia’s pandemic response…

Defence disaster

10 January 2024 1:39 am

The Australian Defence Force is a disaster at present… It is somewhat of a paper tiger with a proud and…

In pursuit of health…?

10 January 2024 12:43 am

Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘You can fool all people some of the time and some people all the time, but…

No one is indigenous to the Moon

9 January 2024 4:19 pm

The American-based Navajo Nation has raised an objection to the latest ‘space funeral’, calling for the mission to be delayed…

A splinter in life

9 January 2024 4:00 am

My feet had become so white and feminine that I committed myself to walk around barefoot as much as I…

A festival of exclusivity

9 January 2024 3:00 am

For many, it was to be a respite. An escape. A place to unwind and be among nature, music, dance,…

CSIRO: tipping the scales on cost?

9 January 2024 1:00 am

To better understand how the internet came into our lives, I recommend reading Michael Hiltzik’s Dealers of Lightning and Weaving the Web by…

One Life film review by a child of a Holocaust survivor

8 January 2024 4:30 am

The film, One Life, tells the relatively unknown, but powerful story of Nicholas Winton. Nicky is played by the brilliant Academy…

Rebutting Charles vs Rand

8 January 2024 4:00 am

I was intrigued to discover a recent piece loosely comparing Ayn Rand with His Majesty The King, and was disappointed when…

Epstein didn’t kill himself

6 January 2024 1:02 pm

After a lot of ‘will they, won’t they’ speculation, the notorious ‘Jeffrey Epstein’ documents have entered the public domain and…

‘Who’ matters

6 January 2024 2:11 am

Perhaps the only positive to come from the Israel-Hamas war and its upheavals is that it has opened up space for an…

Brewing truth: climate doomsayers’ cooked-up coffee crisis

6 January 2024 1:12 am

Every day, people across the world wake up to news about climate change affecting their lives. With the seeming randomness…

Bowen’s homemade recipe for an energy debacle

6 January 2024 12:20 am

Rewiring the nation won’t happen by rewriting history. Markets work best through light regulation and promoting competition. Government has a…

20 years since John Howard’s renewable energy policy

5 January 2024 2:25 am

It is now just over 20 years since John Howard introduced a renewable energy policy which required wind/solar-generated electricity to…

Green Day: the end of punk rock

5 January 2024 12:09 am

Green Day’s middle-aged, middle-finger to middle America shows the band known for political irreverence has become politically irrelevant. Once anti-establishment…

The real pandemic

4 January 2024 1:38 pm

We were told that Covid was a pandemic: and yet less than 1,000 died of Covid prior to the introduction…

Music and the well of human spirit

4 January 2024 2:00 am

Amongst the huge volume of online viewing options that dominate our televisions these days, occasionally there are gems that speak…

Life’s too short to battle public health puritans – I’m over it

3 January 2024 4:00 am

When I’m not compiling the Morning Double Shot email, or talking on the radio, my professional role is as a…

Clover Moore’s ‘Blak power’ New Year’s Eve fireworks (for kids?)

3 January 2024 3:55 am

The ABC has been dragged from one end of social media to the other after the appallingly political and nauseatingly…

The haunting certainties of Australian Digital ID

3 January 2024 3:30 am

Of what can we be certain regarding the two Digital ID Bills opened by our federal government to public comment…