Flat White
Divide et impera: the end of pluralism
Pluralism – or the ‘doctrine of multiplicity’ – tends to go hand-in-hand with liberal democracy. Based on the concept of…
A big fat problem
For a country crippled by obesity, it’s not hard to see where Australia might be getting it wrong. Aside from…
The iron triangle of energy realism
Possibly the most powerful argument against the quest for Net Zero can be briefly stated using the Iron Triangle of…
Climate change: short on proof, drowning in nonsense
The environmentalist creed in context Environmentalism, more particularly its prevalent global warming strain, dominates politics. It is the fourth such…
Moira Deeming: former ‘Labor Party Princess’
Just when you think all hope is lost for the Victorian Liberal Party to ever regain its conservative political roots,…
Us and them: how the media seeks to divide
What did Julie Bishop really mean when she identified politicians as being members of the ‘political class’? It was rare,…
Indian diary
Eight weeks all up. Two of them on the well-trodden tourist path of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, but none of…
How to fix the teaching crisis: ban mobile phones, absolutely and completely
Thirty years ago I was teaching in a high school when a student brought in a very early mobile phone.…
The climate change debate: lessons from evolutionary psychology
One of the many perplexities of life is how some new scientific discoveries and insights quickly find their way into…
Live not by lies – climate edition
I used to correspond with Cardinal Pell. He was the only cleric in Australia who took a stand against the…
Worth fighting for
Germany could never have won the first world war. She was opposed by Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia, and eventually…
Hate speech or free speech? Balancing religious sensitivities with liberty
The New Zealand government’s most recent failed attempt to enact hate speech laws shows just how difficult it is to…
Is it time to defund public education?
For quite some time, I have been concerned about the attack upon private schools, and in particular, those who are…
The anti-anti-racism movement?
It is something of a rare delight to write positively about race relations in recent years. As such, these stories…
Caught between three scams: ‘a delicate environmental conundrum’
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Mike Foley tells us that 20 per cent of development applications relating to proposals ‘threatening koala habitat’…
Racist Labor?
Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently told an audience at King’s College in London that we should hear uncomfortable stories rather…
The lost generation: a global assault on children and young people
Last week, Australia’s children’s commissioner, Anne Hollonds, spoke passionately about the myriad impacts children and young people had endured due…
Can teaching be politically neutral?
Are people involved in a spiritual enterprise when they think, and therefore, when they teach? This might seem a far-fetched…
But, is it safe?
Older readers may remember a TV show on the ABC in the 1970s called The Inventors. It was a bit…
Democracy or minocracy?
If democracy is defined by majority rule, Australia is not a democracy; it’s a minocracy. The current Labor government attracted…
Oh dear! Vic Libs disenfranchise their own members
The Victorian division of the Liberal Party has done it again. Instead of going into the April 1, Aston by-election…
A Church without a purpose will be no Church at all
The Church of England, it seems, is hellbent on destroying itself from the inside out. Of the many objectionable suggestions…
Who will bat for the battler?
‘It’s not a house… it’s a home…’ Darryl Kerrigan, The Castle. It was the mid-1990s, economically, the hard times induced by…
Backsliding on Democracy: New Zealand knows it well
Australia beware, rent-seeking is a term you may have to look up if your life path has yet to cross…
Alan Jones: what is the real Perrottet government about?
On many occasions, I have sought to alert voters in New South Wales to the extraordinary and reckless economic management…
