Reg Hamilton Flat White Getty Images Reg Hamilton 17 June 2025 6:28 PM Donald Horne complained in 1964 that we were ‘derivative’ with ‘second rate’ leaders. The coming of British liberties in 1788 led to remarkably modern liberal democracies in the 1850s. Votes for all men, self-government, and the secret ballot, in the colonies ofContinue reading “Is Australia derivative?”
Category Archives: Spectator
Nationals lead fight against Net Zero
Flat White Getty Images Flat White 16 June 2025 10:01 AM Senator Matt Canavan announced over the weekend: This afternoon [June 14] the NSW Nationals Party conference voted to abandon the commitment to Net Zero and to advocate for the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. People are sick and tired of Australians having to payContinue reading “Nationals lead fight against Net Zero”
Flat White Politics
The conservative instinct We must say clearly: this is our country Jordan Abou-Zeid Getty Images Jordan Abou-Zeid 12 June 2025 1:00 AM The following is a speech given at the ACT Young Liberal Ball on the themes of youth and national identity. It is customary for Vice-Presidents during our ball to make an address onContinue reading “Flat White Politics”
Die laughing
Covid’s dark comedy rolls on Features Australia Rebecca Weisser Getty Images Rebecca Weisser 7 June 2025 9:00 AM Like a bunny boiler who refuses to die in a horror movie, the Covid jabs are back. Headlines trumpet the familiar narrative: ‘New sub-variant of Covid-19 wreaking havoc as epidemiologist encourages vaccinations amid rising infections.’ Tucked awayContinue reading “Die laughing”
Time to speak up, John and Tony
When team players need to break the vow of silence James Allan Getty Images James Allan 7 June 2025 9:00 AM What qualities make someone a good team player? In sports we all have a pretty good idea: in public, a good team player always supports his or her coach and teammates. If you thinkContinue reading “Time to speak up, John and Tony”
Australia gets poorer
Blame the political class David Flint Getty Images David Flint 31 May 2025 9:00 AM A small population on a resource-rich continent, we Australians should be significantly wealthier. Our GDP per capita, around US$65,000, should be at least 50 per cent higher. Instead, we are going backwards. In the two years to March 2024, householdsContinue reading “Australia gets poorer”
Features Australia
Aux bien pensants Soldiers are entitled to justice, too David Flint Getty Images David Flint 24 May 2025 9:00 AM In two world wars, military justice was administered in the field with a standard of efficiency and fairness that enjoyed the confidence of most Australian troops. Yet the Sydney Morning Herald, with neither a courtContinue reading “Features Australia”
Australia’s founders understood MAGA better than today’s centre-right
Dan Ryan Flat White Getty Images Dan Ryan 3 February 2025 5:50 PM The Australia Day debating season has now finally, mercifully, come to an end for another year. It is clear the right and left in this country have very different perspectives about how January 26, 1788 – the date a new British colonyContinue reading “Australia’s founders understood MAGA better than today’s centre-right”
The Northern Territory has a vital role to play in defending Australia
John Storey Getty Images John Storey 11 February 2025 1:17 PM In Australia’s latest National Defence Statement, it says that: ‘Australia faces the most complex and challenging strategic environment since the second world war.’ With recent major wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the ongoing threat to Taiwan from China, it is hardContinue reading “The Northern Territory has a vital role to play in defending Australia”
Will we follow Germany’s path to oblivion?
Ian Plimer The Spectator Australia February 8, 2025 There are long-term consequences for rabid misguided environmentalism. Take Europe, where fossil fuels, mining, industry and agriculture have been under relentless attack for decades. Major heavy industry is moving elsewhere, many German cars are now no longer made in Germany, almost all mines have closed and cowsContinue reading “Will we follow Germany’s path to oblivion?”
The DOGE-esque plan to save $90 billion
Flat White The Spectator Australia February 8, 2025 We have been asking for some Trumpian politics, and perhaps we have found it in a press conference yesterday. One Nation Senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts joined forces to announce a plot to put ‘$40 billion back into Australian pockets’. It was a crowd-pleasing batchContinue reading “The DOGE-esque plan to save $90 billion”
Australia: a land divided into tribes
Gabriël A Moens AM and Augusto Zimmermann Getty Images Gabriël A Moens AM and Augusto Zimmermann 3 February 2025 5:11 PM One knows that an election is looming when the Prime Minister criss-crosses the country and promises to dole out money – which the government may not have – to encourage people to vote forContinue reading “Australia: a land divided into tribes”
Australia goes to the Dogs, We need to shrink our governments
Dimitri Burshtein and Peter Swan The Spectator Australia 1st February 2025 And so it has come to pass. Donald J. Trump has been sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. One of his key pre-election commitments was to establish a Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a body led by billionaire Elon MuskContinue reading “Australia goes to the Dogs, We need to shrink our governments”
Of poodles and men; It’s time to jump aboard the Trump train
Kerry Wakefield The Spectator Australia 1 February 2025 Visiting some Florida friends at their home a while back, we saw a big standard poodle standing off in an alcove beside the kitchen, quivering and prancing with excitement but corralled behind a tiny white picket fence that barely came up to his forelegs. Despite his obviousContinue reading “Of poodles and men; It’s time to jump aboard the Trump train”
The name’s Melania, Melania Trump
Kara Kennedy The Spectator Australia 29 January 2025 In her favorite room of the White House, the Yellow Oval room, stands Melania, in a black Dolce & Gabbana pantsuit. She’s less Barbara Bush, more the first female James Bond. Mrs. Trump’s second official portrait appears to be a deliberate homage to the promo photograph forContinue reading “The name’s Melania, Melania Trump”
Climate schadenfreude
Judith Sloan The Spectator Australia 1st February 2025 Have you noticed that every time there is a natural disaster, the green grifters and climate true believers are wont to use the event to justify even tougher action on climate change? You know the sort of thing. While expressing sympathy for those who have died orContinue reading “Climate schadenfreude”
Importing the third world
The cost of accepting immigrants who don’t share our values is too high Ramesh ThakurFeatures Australia Getty Images Ramesh Thakur 25 January 2025 9:00 AM Import the third world, become the third world, goes a popular meme. Especially when pathologies of large-scale legal and illegal immigration are compounded by the arrivals mistreating the host countryContinue reading “Importing the third world”
Enough is enough: Australian history must be protected
Flat White Getty Images Flat White 28 January 2025 4:11 PM If a piece of Indigenous artwork or a sacred place is vandalised by an individual motivated by race, no one would hesitate to call it a hate crime. There would be outrage from politicians, a media frenzy, and half a dozen human rights bodiesContinue reading “Enough is enough: Australian history must be protected”
Australia is a shared history, not a conflict
Luke Powell Flat White Getty Images Luke Powell 25 January 2025 8:46 PM Was Australia ‘invaded’ by the British? I previously answered this question in detail in a previous article here. However, the article did not address the popular and misunderstood claim that British settlement is illegitimate because they did not recognise Aboriginal sovereignty underContinue reading “Australia is a shared history, not a conflict”
Patriotism is back from the dead – and young Australians revived it
Edward Schuller Flat White Getty Images Edward Schuller 25 January 2025 9:41 PM Youth. The innocence yet fearlessness of youth. We’ve all been there. Being completely humbled by a plain-speaking toddler, or squirming uncomfortably when a straight-shooting teenager says what everyone’s thinking. It’s often the youth that remind us of how far we’ve strayed fromContinue reading “Patriotism is back from the dead – and young Australians revived it”
Nelle's journey 