Flat White

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

A tinderbox of incompetence

24 October 2023 3:00 am

For a decade, the Victorian government-owned forestry controller VicForests has been a tinderbox of incompetence looking for a match. Gifted…

Nasty weather: renewable energy poses a national security threat

24 October 2023 1:09 am

The least efficient way to handle energy is to store it. Imagine a bucket with a mosquito net for a…

We have a big problem

23 October 2023 4:00 am

The tantrum of the ‘Yes’ campaign and its supporters following their referendum loss is symptomatic of a class of people…

Crisis of soul: moral relativism and the modern university

23 October 2023 3:30 am

Alan Bloom, perhaps modern education’s greatest post-war critic, wrote presciently on Western elites’ decaying moral and intellectual fibre. Bloom’s 1987…

The madness of Net Zero

23 October 2023 3:00 am

How crazy has the world become? What we are watching is the most insane delusion faced by humankind. To believe…

The Age of Audits

23 October 2023 12:23 am

Australians are being ripped off, and they know it. The stench of bureaucratic waste has been seeping out of Canberra…

Time to punish the Big End of town?

22 October 2023 5:51 pm

Australia’s Big End of Town gambled heavily in the Voice Cup. They lost. Only the Nanny ‘State’ (Canberra) voted ‘Yes’,…

Our enemy, the government

22 October 2023 12:06 pm

The years of living with increasingly oppressive Covid restrictions and mandates is a tale of many villains complicit in tyranny…

Education vs Wisdom: referendum voting patterns come under fire

22 October 2023 1:38 am

Waleed Aly was technically correct, but perhaps discourteous, in the way he expressed the socio-economic difference seen within voting patterns…

False rape allegations aren’t so rare

21 October 2023 9:25 am

Remember how the Brittany Higgins case blew up when a juror brought into the jury room an academic paper discussing…

Letter to the editor

21 October 2023 8:49 am

Over the last two weeks, I am shocked and disappointed to see the level of support given to pro-Palestinian demonstrations…

Can my God go to court too?

20 October 2023 12:05 am

Australia’s Voice Referendum resulted in the beautiful affirmation that our nation does not see colour or heritage among its peoples.…

A true cultural turning point

19 October 2023 11:49 pm

In the week before the Voice referendum, the esteemed commentator for the Australian newspaper Paul Kelly argued if the ‘No’…

The rot of bureaucracy: it’s time to ‘go local’ on education

19 October 2023 11:15 pm

‘It takes a department to raise a child…’ Who has ever said that? Hopefully nobody, but it’s clear that this…

Why I love The Exorcist

19 October 2023 10:09 pm

Thousands of people queued up outside the theatre to witness something unique. As the line stretched around corners, the chilly…

Now the recriminations begin

19 October 2023 8:53 pm

Despite the promised week of silent mourning for the defeat of the Voice to Parliament, the recriminations and blame-to-be-laid are…

A bomb wrapped as a gift: no thanks

19 October 2023 2:24 pm

It would have detonated multiple times over a few years, as the Voice package, if accepted by Australians, shed its…

Yet another well-intentioned green folly

19 October 2023 4:30 am

In the small town of Kalkar in Northern Germany, there is an amusement park with an unusual ‘Alpine Experience’ climbing…

Ten reasons to rejoice at the Voice referendum result

19 October 2023 1:50 am

The result of the weekend’s referendum was known within an hour or so of polls closing. Australians emphatically voted against…

The Voice referendum was a tragedy

19 October 2023 1:10 am

There is nothing to celebrate about the weekend’s referendum result. My party campaigned in the March election on a colour-blind…

How secular humanism at our universities fuels antisemitism

19 October 2023 12:25 am

When students successfully graduate high school and embark on their tertiary studies, it is a time of pride in what…

New Zealand’s dance with division is not over yet

18 October 2023 4:31 pm

New Zealand’s October 14 election coincided with the Voice referendum where Australians decisively said ‘No’ to enshrining divisive race-based politics…

Five key failures that sank the Voice

18 October 2023 1:00 pm

The Voice referendum has failed. Badly. It did not secure a majority overall or in any state even though it…

Dan Andrews’ mini me: Victoria’s new Premier is worse than the last one

18 October 2023 4:30 am

It’s been less than a month since Premier Daniel Andrews abruptly ended his premiership and handed over the reins to…

The Voice of the Quiet Australians

18 October 2023 4:00 am

The so-called ‘progressive left’s’ presumption of moral superiority often leads it to assertively present the views of activists as ‘mainstream’…