Joe Biden delivers his own eulogy
eSafety Commissioner no longer pretending to hide political bias
Much has been made of Julie Inman Grant’s totalitarian tendencies to crackdown on Australians’ free speech under the guise of…
Is Kamala Harris’ future burdened by her past?
Integrity goes to character. Does Kamala Harris pass this test? It is a key question now she is the Democrats’…
Yellow cake road – why Dutton’s nuclear plan is an ‘okay’ idea
‘The future of our country is incredibly important, we need to have a plan…’ Peter Dutton, June 19, 2024 And…
Minor parties can save the West
‘Blame Farage for the Tory wipe-out!’ Or so went the rather limp voices in the UK, grasping for excuses following…
Come on boys, be flexible
To be a working parent with pre-schoolers is a challenge. I write this as the mother of two girls –…
Can Elon Musk solve world hunger?
When Elon Musk made his multi-billion dollar bid for Twitter (now known as ‘X’), some rather silly things were said.…
How Australia began democracy
Nothing bad happened before Australian colonisation in 1788, or good after it. Apart from a modern first-world economy and democracy,…
Restoring the presumption of innocence
For a nation that used to pride itself on hosting festivals of ‘dangerous ideas’, there has certainly been a ridiculous…
A pilot plant for Net Zero
Both solar and wind energy have fatal flaws – solar stops when the sun goes down or if a cloud…
Green feels chop over Labor deals
Last month, 15 timber harvesting operations were suspended by the NSW timber industry controller Forestry Corporation. The Environment Protection Authority…
Trump will change the (energy) world
The film VICE traces the rise of Dick Cheney to the position of US Vice President under the administration of…
Hate speech or censorship? Queensland to give more power to activists
What began as a worthy goal to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace has been hijacked by activists seeking to…
Something rotten in the state of Victoria
One of my first responsibilities upon becoming Workplace Relations Minister two decades ago was to introduce a Bill to regulate…
Pathway to net zero: one way or two?
Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy announcement and the Albanese government’s response to it are dominating the news, but no one has…
Bowen’s renewables superdud
When will the Albanese government stop banging on about Australia becoming a renewable energy superpower? Of course, B1 is a…
Business/Assassination, etc
The bullet that whacked Donald Trump’s right ear was by no means the first shot in the hotting-up revolt against…
The mysterious case of the shooting of Donald Trump
The Trump shooting already looks set to disappear down the same rabbit hole as the JFK and RFK assassinations, Epstein’s…
Green hydrogen pipe dreams
‘Green hydrogen is not dead,’ insisted Chris Bowen, Australia’s benighted Minister for Energy and Climate Change as the news broke…
Vance advances Trump
The phoenix-like rise of a bleeding Trump, with a fist-bumping chorus of ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’, signalled the triumph of Trumpism…
The unpainted canvas of American life
One of the most extraordinary phenomenons of recent political history is the Democratic party’s ability to present itself as the…
John Healey’s ‘joint declaration’ with Germany is pure waffle
The new cabinet cannot be accused of laziness. John Healey, secretary of state for defence, has just been on a…
Joe Biden delivers his own eulogy
Joe Biden delivered a eulogy for his presidency and his political career from the Oval Office Wednesday evening. It was…
Netanyahu’s speech to Congress won’t achieve much
Nearly ten months after Israel’s worst day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made history far away in Washington DC when he…
Jordan Peterson isn’t what he was
What on earth has happened to Jordan Peterson’s interviewing style? His latest video, which features Elon Musk, lasts for two…
Kiwi life
New Zealand in crisis Given the destruction the previous Labour government inflicted on this country, and the damage caused by…
New Zealand’s carbon sequestration problem
Ongoing concern about climate change has fuelled debate about the part carbon sequestration might play in reducing New Zealand’s net…
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…
What Labour could learn from Australia and New Zealand
Rescued from the Comanches
Isn’t it extraordinary how the new-style, super-arty balletic circus has transformed the old child-delighting world of Heffalumps and daring young…
‘Damned spot’ of blood keeps appearing
People have always fiddled with Shakespeare. Nahum Tate did not give King Lear a happy ending because he was a…
A masterful magnificence
Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? culminates the great stretch of American drama that runs from Tennessee Williams’ The…
No hint of vanity
The new documentary I Am: Celine Dion which just started on Amazon Prime Video and in cinemas begins with Maria…
The new alliances dedicated to destroying democracy
After staging a failed coup and going to prison, the Venezuelan army officer Hugo Chavez ran to be president in…
Doomed to immortality: The Book of Elsewhere, by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, reviewed
One of the first things I was taught in literary theory was to look for supposed rhetorical rather than logical…
Mother of mysteries: Rosarita, by Anita Desai, reviewed
There are other reasons beyond shortage of time (the acclaimed Indian novelist Anita Desai has just turned 87) to write…
The power of the brown American diva
‘Please don’t let this be a scolding!’ I thought as I moved past this book’s tempting title to read the…
‘I am haunted by waters’: Norman Maclean and his lyrical ‘little blue book’
Although in his later years Norman Maclean was renowned for his nuanced and often lyrical autobiographical novella A River Runs…
Born in the USA: how Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album bridged the American political divide
In 1977, in the wake of the death of the king of rock’n’roll, the American journalist and music critic Lester…
No laughing matter: The Material, by Camille Bordas, reviewed
There are a lot of reasons why something is funny. It’s hard for everyone to agree on those reasons. And…
The futility of ever hoping to give peace a chance
‘War – what is it good for?’ asked Edwin Starr on his 1970 single of the same name, before answering…