A fight for the future of women’s rights
The land that time (but not the government) forgot
Australia’s vaccine regulator, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), is still determinedly operating a virus theme park which…
Victorians have no idea
When it comes to Indigenous matters, it seems Victorians and their Members of Parliament, have no idea what is happening…
Vale David Martin Jones
It is with the deepest sadness that I advise readers of The Spectator Australia of the tragic passing of David Martin…
A fight for the future of women’s rights
I landed at Sydney airport last week at the exact time that Sall Grover was being cross examined in the…
Women need protection
In light of the violent tragedy that unfolded in Bondi, it is imperative that we look seriously at crime, opportunity,…
The Albanese government is our biggest national security threat
The bold display of Iranian military drones over the holy city of Jerusalem symbolises the weakness of the Albanese government.…
Over the cliff we go
George Orwell wrote 1984 and Animal Farm in 1949 and 1945 respectively, a time when the future – our present – seemed such…
A government of the bureaucrats, by the bureaucrats, and for the bureaucrats
When describing democracy, former American President Abraham Lincoln in his famous Gettysburg Address in 1863, said it was a ‘government…
Will the Lehrmann verdict end trial by media?
The Bruce Lehrmann-Brittany Higgins saga reached its conclusion this week with Federal Court Justice Michael Lee handing down his judgment…
Albanese’s Net Zero protectionism
Mr Albanese is announcing a new protectionism with the government driving a ‘new competition’ approach centred on a Net Zero…
Neutrality as a weapon to destroy religious freedom
The recently released report of the Law Reform Commission, entitled Maximising the Realisation of Human Rights: Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination…
The Voice zombie lumbers on in South Australia
It just can’t be killed, this Zombie thing called The Voice. In South Australia, despite two in every three citizens…
Brown study
Like many conservatives, I am profoundly unhappy about the appointment of Ms Sam Mostyn as Governor-General of Australia. In fact,…
Our greatest philosopher
Yes, I know, starting a column by talking briefly about one of the world’s great philosophers is a bit odd.…
Time to give ‘hate speech’ the flick
Can we delete the term ‘hate speech’ from the debate over the role of the law in what people can…
Into the lion’s den
I’ve never thought of myself as a rapist. I’m certainly no Lothario – at least I wasn’t back in my…
Alas for free trade
An Israeli-owned ship crammed with 17,000 cattle and sheep from Australia upset animal-rights campaigners when in January it refused to…
Is cash still king?
I always carry a bit of cash; probably not as much as I did in the past. I’m not ‘doing…
Big bang fallout
Hands up those who think the reputation of commercial television Network Ten has been enhanced by the judgment in the…
Mullahs on missiles
As Israelis bunkered down in their bomb shelters last Saturday, even the grim prospect of approaching Iranian cruise missiles couldn’t…
Inflation is down again – but don’t expect interest rates to follow suit
Interest rate cuts are beginning to look like a mirage: the closer we seem to get to them the more…
Why is the mayor of Tehran welcome in Brussels but not Nigel Farage?
‘How do you think this looks to the rest of the world?’ asked Nigel Farage as police attempted to shut…
Police probe Rayner over multiple allegations
Another day, another development in the curious case of Angela Rayner’s tax affairs. Mr S last week reported that Rayner…
JK Rowling has exposed the weak spot in the SNP’s misogyny law
When will the Scottish government get on with the day job? Hot on the heels of his controversial Hate Crime…
Why New Zealand is cracking down on immigration
The government of New Zealand this week tightened the country’s working visa rules in order to stem historically high numbers…
Why is New Zealand’s deputy PM rowing with Chumbawamba?
In their musical heyday, the English anarchist punk band Chumbawamba enjoyed a reputation for having an irreverent attitude towards those…
New Zealand’s imperial judiciary
If you cast your eyes across the Tasman right now, you can see the beginnings of an imperial judiciary, the…
Subversion within New Zealand
Recently querying why New Zealand governments make annual January pilgrimages to the Maori Pa at Ratana, to celebrate the birth…
The music of their eloquence
It was a tweet by the novelist Joyce Carol Oates that warned us PBS, the American public broadcaster, had done…
Why one-man plays are all the rage
Well, it’s nice to feel on trend. The Today programme this morning carried an item on the popularity of one-man…
Somersaulting beauty of the songmaker
It’s uncanny sometimes how it works. There we were last Saturday in Hamer Hall to hear what Stephen Layton from…
A lithe brilliance
It figures that Australians should write great plays about sport because we are exceptionally – some people would say excessively…
Mediterranean Gothic: The Sleepwalkers, by Scarlett Thomas, reviewed
Scarlett Thomas likes islands: either literal sea-girt territories or closed enclaves where this wickedly inventive novelist practises her richly enjoyable…
We must never lose the treasured Orkneys
When, last summer, a group of Orcadians declared they’d like to leave the UK and join Norway, it became clear…
There’s nothing shameful about hypochondria
The hypochondriac is the butt of jokes. Even his butt is the butt of jokes. A story doing the rounds…
Adrift on the Canadian frontier: The Voyageur, by Paul Carlucci, reviewed
At the core of Paul Carlucci’s debut novel is a protracted medical experiment conducted by one human on another. Set…
English civil law has become a luxury good beyond the reach of most of us
In March 2020, Charlotte Leslie, a former Conservative MP, and widely regarded as a thoughtful, friendly woman, had her life…
Are we finally beginning to understand gravity?
The question of why things fall has puzzled our species since we crawled out from the darkness of our primitive…
Eighty years on, the planning of Operation Neptune remains awesome
In December last year, the last surviving D-Day veteran of my old regiment, the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, died peacefully in…
Harping on the music of our ancestors
It’s one thing to sit in a comfortable armchair and see the world in a grain of sand. It’s quite…