The pandemic has hit our children even harder than we thought Max Pemberton Features Max Pemberton 9 September 2023 9:00 AM Shortly after the first Covid lockdown ended, doctors began to notice something so strange that at first they struggled to explain it. There appeared to be a sudden rise in the number of childrenContinue reading “TikTok is giving our children Tourette’s”
Category Archives: All things Australian
Bruce Dowding, Australian Hero of the Resistance
Ross Fitzgerald This biography of Melbourne-born secret agent Bruce Dowding is a fascinating portrait of a remarkable young Australian whose story was previously unknown to me. Secret Agent, Unsung Hero is co-authored by Dowding’s nephew, lawyer and former West Australian ALP Premier Peter Dowding, and wide-ranging author Dr Ken Spillman. As it happens, Ken was a student of mine.Continue reading “Bruce Dowding, Australian Hero of the Resistance”
Aussie Life
Aussie life Tony Letford [Getty Images] Tony Letford 2 September 2023 9:00 AM Six years ago the ABC posted an article online about William Crowther, a prominent 19th-century Tasmanian politician, a statue of whom had stood in a Hobart park for 133 years. From that time, the statue’s fate was probably sealed, (‘Tasmania’s difficult history:Continue reading “Aussie Life”
Child soldiers in the culture war
Bella d’Abrera Café Culture [Getty Images] Bella d’Abrera 4 September 2023 5:25 PM As we move closer and closer to the referendum, stories are emerging from our schools that should make any parent demand an audience with the principal. A couple of weeks ago it came to light that a class of pre-schoolers, barely outContinue reading “Child soldiers in the culture war”
The expensive illness in Australia’s elite schools
A decadent managerial culture has sunk its unwelcome claws into Australian private schooling Benjamin Crocker Getty Images Benjamin Crocker 12 August 2023 6:00 AM There is a disquiet in our elite private schools, and a growing army of would-be therapists have failed to calm it. A cursory look through newspaper education pages tells a sorryContinue reading “The expensive illness in Australia’s elite schools”
A tribute to the lost art of letter writing
Robin Ashenden World Credit: iStock Robin Ashenden 4 September 2023 12:00 AM There are many good reasons, we’re constantly told, for millennials and Generation Z to resent their elders. What they can barely imagine, we took for granted: affordable housing, state-paid education, free dentistry and slow, misspent youths on unemployment benefit. But there is anotherContinue reading “A tribute to the lost art of letter writing”
Snowy 2.0? Give Us a Break!
Vic Jurskis Flat White Photo from author Vic Jurskis 31 August 2023 5:00 AM I’m very proud of my heritage as a first-generation Australian. I also celebrate our world record, enduring ancient culture and the particular skills associated with it. Surveyor General Mitchell more than once acknowledged the supremacy of those skills over his ownContinue reading “Snowy 2.0? Give Us a Break!”
The golden goose causes great harm
David Gardner The Spectator Australia 28 August 2023 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are made up of many different and distinct groups, each with their own culture, customs, language, and laws. They are among the world’s oldest surviving cultures – cultures that continue to be expressed in dynamic and contemporary ways. In the early 1800s,Continue reading “The golden goose causes great harm”
Opening the gates
Ideas for an even greater country Gina Rinehart Features Australia Getty Images Gina Rinehart 26 August 2023 9:00 AM My father throughout his whole life was a huge lover of the bush and of our country, and made himself unpopular at times, standing up for what he could see was in the nation’s best interests.Continue reading “Opening the gates”
The Life and Times of Captain James Cook
Captain James Cook FRS (7 November 1728[NB 1] – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific,Continue reading “The Life and Times of Captain James Cook”
Indigenous’ claims: Hey white fella/sheila, we’re not all from ‘Gullabul Land’
Date: August 14, 2023Author: Editor, cairnsnews 21 Comments By TONY MOBILIFONITISIT seems poor old Bruce Pascoe isn’t the only Aussie getting caught out in the scam by some prominent people to “identify” as indigenous, based on some hunch about a distant auntie having a connection to some distant alleged great, great, Black Fella grandad/auntie duringContinue reading “Indigenous’ claims: Hey white fella/sheila, we’re not all from ‘Gullabul Land’”
Australia
It’s Equality, not DNA, That Makes an Australian Ron Pike What makes me Australian? First, I was born here and that makes me indigenous to Australia, just like those loudly claiming that their genetic heritage, no matter how small, should bestow considerations and advantages not available to the rest of us. Spurn that urge toContinue reading “Australia”
1907 Photo. It was all clear a long time ago!l
Aborigines
The Aborigines Lost in Translation Tony Thomas The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s wokerati want me to use Aboriginal words in my everyday discourse. They’d like me to say at dinner parties that I grew up in Boorloo (formerly called “Perth”), moved to the press gallery in Ngunnawal Country (“Canberra”) and finally settled down in Naarm (formerlyContinue reading “Aborigines”
Degrees of failure: the great university rip-off
Is university still worth it? Ross Clark Features Ross Clark 19 August 2023 9:00 AM Imagine that, just as Britain was closing down for the first Covid lockdown in the spring of 2020, you were 18 years old and had received an offer from the university of your choice, subject to good exam results. TheContinue reading “Degrees of failure: the great university rip-off”
Reconciliation: what the heck is it?
Peter O’Brien Getty Images Peter O’Brien 10 August 2023 5:30 AM There are a number of opaque memes that now corrupt the debate surrounding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. We just accept them without thinking about what they mean. Probably the most dangerous is the concept of ‘stolen generations’. Another is symbolic ‘constitutional recognition’, whichContinue reading “Reconciliation: what the heck is it?”
Views on the voice
Sky News host Andrew Bolt says Australians have been misled about the Voice to Parliament, and the “real agenda” was exposed today “in a brawl” between people advising Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “This could be the day the Voice was broken, destroyed, even though Albanese’s launched a whole a whole week to promote this deContinue reading “Views on the voice”
Albanese is not even a good liar about the 26 page Uluru statement of reparations
Date: August 6, 2023Author: Editor, cairnsnews 20 Comments PM Albanese consistently claims the Uluru Elitist Statement from the Heart upon which the Voice referendum is based is only one page when it is actually 26 pages of demands, reparations and Aboriginal cultural diversity designed for Australians to hand over sovereignty to just 3 per centContinue reading “Albanese is not even a good liar about the 26 page Uluru statement of reparations”
Indigenous people need leaders who listen, not an Indigenous voice to parliament
Anthony Dillon The Australian August 4, 2023 People with some understanding of what the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament is about – and many do not – seem to be strongly polarised. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can be a sign of conviction. However, social media is an arena where thisContinue reading “Indigenous people need leaders who listen, not an Indigenous voice to parliament”
There are none so blind
The solution to indigenous disadvantage is being wilfully ignored Maurice Newman Features Australia Getty Images Maurice Newman 5 August 2023 9:00 AM Overseas visitors flying for the first time into Sydney on Qantas will be told they are setting down on Gadigal land. When they go downtown, prestigious building lobbies and bus shelter posters willContinue reading “There are none so blind”
Nelle's journey 