Flat White
Greenpeace: criminal rabble or charity?
Why does a “charity” that promotes criminal behaviour still enjoy tax-deductible status? Early on May 29, Greenpeace activists illegally trespassed…
Islamist broken windows
When Rudolph Giuliani was mayor of New York City, he took an approach to criminology called “Broken Windows”, generating respect…
Euthanasia: toxic messages feeding fear
I wrote recently about a play that ran in Melbourne called The Magnolia Tree and how the notion of being…
May made Malcolm’s mistakes
Prime Minister May’s election campaign succeeded in the near impossible through turning a projected 100 plus seat majority into minority…
Honey Badgers make me cringe
I want to believe. I really, really do. I want to believe that all this post-conservative ‘New Right’ stuff. I…
Malcolm and May: separated at birth?
July 2, 2016. Stable government. Fourteen seats lost. A majority of one. June 8, 2017. Strong, stable leadership in the…
Australia through Waleed Aly’s distorted lens
Just how many careers can Melbourne academic and media celebrity Waleed Aly cram into his day? Waleed, we now know, because his tag…
Six ways you’ve ruined your newspaper
From your favourite chipwrapper and mine. Vital news that demonstrates the importance of independent, quality media. Vital news that demonstrates…
An attack on Andrew Bolt — and all believers in free speech
I know Andrew Bolt moderately. For a time I appeared on The Bolt Report. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting…
The climate policy “discussion” sham
Hastily conceived panel discussions are seldom a good idea, yet that’s precisely what the Brookings Institute rushed into following President…
We are the boiling frog
The growing influence of the state throughout the western world, buttressed by technological development and a crisis of confidence in…
School funding: time to cut out the middleman
A few days ago, I received the latest edition of the ‘The Butler Bulletin’ in the mail from my local…
The first Brexit
In coming days the world will watch the UK elections and ponder the result. And following on, inevitably, people will think…
As an Australian Muslim I am sick of the lack of leadership from our clerics
The radicalisation of Muslims is the bastard child of Islam. The elephant in the room we refuse to talk about.…
Another day, another stuff-up from The Age
Ask yourself. You’re an editor at what still likes to think of itself as a paper of record in a…
Violence. Blame. Can we make our minds up please?
Hands up, who’s confused? What is our national response to violence meant to be? We have a real problem with…
Time for Muslims to get angry
The only plausible emotion at this point is anger. Anger towards those who have sought to silence this problem for…
Gillian Triggs: the final farewell
“I can’t believe it, Tim. Only five years into the job and my tenure as President of the Australian Human…
Nothing to do with … something
Another week, another terrorist attack. And the hills of social media are alive with the sounds of often well meaning…
Margaret Court and new lows for public discourse
There is nothing particularly remarkable or amazing about Margaret Court’s comments on same-sex attraction or whatever. She offers absolutely no…
You are not allowed to debate male privilege – full stop
You are not allowed to debate the existence of male privilege. At least that’s according to Fairfax Daily Life columnist, Ruby Hamad.…
The health department head compounds his sins
Embattled Health Department head, Martin Bowles’s, Senate estimates performance last week is a gift that keeps on giving. As we…
Pipe down, Hollywood
2012: Famed self-deprecating, ‘red-neck’, Republican comedian Jeff Foxworthy tries to reignite his slowly waning career by posing for a photo-shoot,…
Taking temperatures
It started with a palm to the forehead. Then the glass thermometer, the one in the metal case with the…
Killing the university
In March, the University of Melbourne Student Union ran an “intersectional and student-led workshop around the ways in which privilege and unconscious bias…
