Women work , own property, vote, pursue their educations, and choose with whom and how often they have children -- developments cemented in the West only over the past century or so. The consequences of women being selfish in the way men have always been selfish are yet to be seen
An historian of the left is on a fishing expedition to secure early access to any correspondence that passed between Yarralumla and the Palace during the period of crisis the Whitlam government inflicted on the nation in November 1975. What she won't find is a smoking gun
The Australian has largely resisted the smothering green/left orthodoxy that banished all dissenting perspectives from the Fairfax rags and ABC. When age or ailment sees Rupert Murdoch's guiding hand lifted from his paper's helm, don't expect things to stay that way. The Weekend Review is the sad preview
China's grim determination to claim the South China Sea as its private lake needs an incident to demonstrate Beijing's resolve. The US is problematic, given its undoubted willingness to respond, but the British warships Boris Johnson is dispatching, well they will make the perfect targets
Lucid, revealing, brief and to the point, Robert Murray's "Labor and Santamaria" is a book for lovers of Australian political history to savour and, as the author intends, to once again contemplate the man who, almost two decades after his death, remains the object of both adoration and bile
My local Liberal member backs same-sex marriage, which I oppose, and won't be getting my vote, although that is not my reason to preference him last. No, the unpardonablet flaw is being a simpering acolyte of our Labor-lite Prime Minister. Were he gay, that would be the nicest thing about him
The full force of 'cultural appropriation' came down upon Elizabeth Durack when the story of her Aboriginal alter ego emerged much sooner than she would have wished. It was who and what the artist was that mattered to her attackers, not the wonderful works themselves
Australia’s system of government is that of a parliamentary democracy under the Crown and is …
Temperatures refuse to rise, exterminate polar bears, melt the icecaps, engulf coastal cities or make Tim Flannery seem rational. Not that there isn't company in the upper ranks of ratbaggery. Meet Professor Matthew Liao, who yearns to bio-engineer smaller, drug-ready humans
Lulled by the charms of rational nationalism, which include the growth and global spread of prosperity, the progressive mind fails to spot its twin in the shadows, irrational nationalism. The besetting sin is ignorance of the dark side, a weakness that catches liberals asleep at the wheel every time.
If the only justification for sky-high immigration is it’s “good for the economy”, it is a policy fundamentally flawed. Judged through the prism of existing citizens' interests, there is no economic case that can justify the transformative changes current policies are inflicting
Oblivious to Gaia's needs and rights, old people have long burdened society with their selfish expectation of a warm and toasty, carbon-spewing radiator by the rocking chair. Finally, in Victoria's proposal to legalise assisted suicide, we see the first step towards addressing this societal curse
Unlike its British counterpart, Australia's national broadcaster insists that a right to privacy shields salary disclosure for the likes of Tony Jones, Barrie Cassidy, Jon Faine and all the well-heeled rest, not to mention their ABC partners, spouses and lovemates living well on the taxpayer dollar. Still, there are clues...
They Marched in March -- the usual suspects in all their serried shades of anger and incoherence -- because, well, it would have made even less sense to bemoan the fact that Tony Abbott and the Coalition won an election last September by April-ing in April. Zeg is fearful of such antics' impact on the easily impressed.
At the University of Wollongong there is so much diversity to honour, especially when Christians are demanding all the attention with their mangers and tinsel, that staff have been sent a chirpy reminder that Christmas is about much more than the Messiah
Climate change is torching Australia, according to the likes of Tim Flannery and his fellow warmists at the Bureau of Meteorology. If only the money now spent on computer projections and big-ticket fire fighting gear could go toward fuel reduction
A New Zealand court has rejected the argument that one can claim asylum from the alleged ravages of climate change. For the plaintiff, it is back to teeming Kiribati, where the real problem is a booming population
A cash-strapped America no longer has the resources to continue as the world’s policeman, as its craven capitulation to Tehran makes clear. For Australia the message is chilling
The Liberal from West Austral has mooted a private member’s bill legalising homosexual marriage, apparently because the Lindt café's manager was murdered while being without benefit of clergy. The purpose of such a bill is to deny the Australian public any say in the matter
For reasons that have again failed to excite the curiosity of the responsible minister, the national broadcaster seems to bear a persistent animus toward Christianity. Yet, in their attitudes towards women in general and domestic violence in particular, the followers of Jesus set the gold standard
Margaret Court opposed same-sex marriage and was lambasted as a bigot, with calls for the stadium bearing her name to be re-christened. Will those so quick to denounce an elderly lady ever notice that the AFL is in bed with two of the most gay-hating nations on the planet?
The contest is unequal. Those who believe in nothing beyond this mortal coil are no match for those inspired by religious faith. The battle could be engaged, maybe, if the diminishing Christian alter ego of Western secularity were muscular. Unfortunately, from its leaders down, appeasement predominates
Sixteen years after September 11, the latest attacks in London, Manchester and the Melbourne suburb of Brighton might just be awakening a dormant fury. When even the ABC finds itself using "Islam" and "terrorism" in the same sentence, there is hope reality is finally making itself felt
When Peter Minter banned Quadrant's poets from his magazine's pages on the grounds that they had published in what he likened to a Nazi journal, the curious might have wondered just what sort of verse he actually favours. Here's a hint
Readers can form their own judgement as to whether this first-person account would count in Andrew Bolt’s challenge to Robert Manne to “name ten” Aborigines stolen purely for racial reasons
PM Stephen Harper has three election victories under his belt and, from a conservative point of view, not much to show for them. Being nice to political enemies is all very well and good, but it leaves your supporters less than impressed
If "Indigenous culture" is to be recognised in Australia's Constitution it is vital to understand what the term means. Rap songs and break dancing, perhaps?
If a slick video and the IPCC's latest inaccurate and untruthful arguments are the best it can do to demonstrate a dangerous warming problem, its advice should be ignored and funding withdrawn
Ross Fitzgerald in the latest Spectator on the Prime Minister's serial ineptitude and the importance of Tony Abbott's diagnosis of his party's ills and the restorative prescription he offers:
Apart from the fact that his regicide of Abbott was a massive blunder, Turnbull should never have adopted Labor’s Gonski schools policy. He shouldn’t have abandoned his predecessor’s pledge not to make adverse changes to superannuation. He shouldn’t have alienated business with a bank tax. It shouldn’t have taken him so long to discover that national security is not just the first task of government but important political equity for the Coalition. He shouldn’t have run an election campaign on a vacuous slogan and ignored Labor’s weaknesses on power prices, border protection and union control.
The entire column can be read via the link below.
Australian voters are not being told the truth about the proposal for constitutional recognition of indigenous people. The goal of Aboriginal political activists today is to gain ‘sovereignty’ and create a black state, equivalent to the existing states. Its territory, comprising all land defined as native title, will soon amount to more than 60% of the whole Australian continent.
As Keith Windschuttle observes in his new book -- available via the link below -- constitutional recognition would be its launching pad.
Given recent resignations in Canberra and an ongoing quest to identify senators and MPs who are citizens of other nations, the list below might be worth keeping handy:
Belgium (1)
Sen Hon Mathias Hubert Paul Cormann
Canada (1)
Sen Larissa Joy Waters
Egypt (1)
Ms Anne Aly
Germany (1)
Sen Hon Eric Abetz
Greece (1)
Ms Maria Vamvakinou
Iran (1)
Sen Sam Dastyari
India (1)
Sen Malcolm Ieuan Roberts
Italy (1)
Mr Antonio (Tony) Zappia
Malaysia (1)
Sen Hon Penny Ying-Yen Wong
New Zealand (2)
Sen Derryn Nigel Hinch
Sen Scott Ludlam
Nigeria (1)
Hon Sussan Penelope Ley
Singapore (2)
Mr Ian Reginald Goodenough
Sen Peter Stuart Whish-Wilson
United Kingdom (10)
Hon Anthony John Abbott
Sen Hon Douglas Niven Cameron
Hon Paul William Fletcher
Sen Alexander McEachian Gallacher
Sen Nicholas (Nick) James McKim
Mr Brian Keith Mitchell
Hon Brendan Patrick O'Connor
Sen Hon Nigel Gregory Scullion
Mr Joshua (Josh) Hamilton Wilson
Ms Rebekha Che Sharkie
Not that there is anything in any way unprecedented about questions concerning the citizenship of elected representatives and their fitness to serve. Follow the link below for some questions put to a politician from the era of Australia's birth.
From the second decade of his twenty years as literary editor of Quadrant, Les Murray here presents a selection of the best verse he published between 2001 and 2010.
Peter Ryan has long been one of Australia’s favourite writers of essays and newspaper columns. His …
