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Australiarss

Leading article Australia

False messiah

Can Kevin Rudd lead the Labor party to the Promised Land of milk, honey and only relatively minor swings against it at the federal election? Clearly, his most fervent disciples… Read more

Check the facts

‘#vomit’ is how Mia Freedman concluded a tweet she sent to her 44,376 followers on 10 October. It attacked an article Paul Sheehan wrote admonishing the Prime Minister for playing… Read more

Six o’clock swill

It has been such a great party, you’d be mad not to enjoy every last minute of it. A $300 billion bash that would make Jay Gatsby wince. But now,… Read more

Gonski or Conski?

It comes as no real surprise that the words ‘con’ and ‘fiddle’ are being bandied around when it comes to the revised Department of Education figures the government is using… Read more

Diary Australia

Diary

Chris Wallace

12 June 2013

‘That’s Uncle Tom,’ the young Chinese student says to his European pal, pointing at the… Read more

Cory Bernardi

7 June 2013

My last Spectator Australia diary was filed shortly after a tour of the Colosseum in… Read more

Tom Switzer

29 May 2013

Washington, D.C. Five years. If a week, as Harold Wilson once observed, is a long time… Read more

Australian Notes

15 June 2013

From Poor Peter’s Almanack: nothing will happen. Unlike Lady Macbeth, Julia Gillard shows no sign… Read more

8 June 2013

John Howard had one of the best lines in the ABC’s documentary Whitlam: The Power… Read more

1 June 2013

The crowds queued up in their hundreds at the Sydney Writers’ Festival on a day… Read more

25 May 2013

It was Tony Abbott’s best speech yet. I have remarked more than once on this… Read more

Space invaders

15 June 2013

Yesterday morning 10,000 Chinese soldiers arrived in Bateman’s Bay, NSW, claiming they were asylum-seekers. They were ferried to the beach during the night from six naval vessels anchored off shore.… Read more

A gift for friendship

15 June 2013

Beauty was important to Christopher Pearson. He hated the ugliness of much of modernity. His two homes were full of precious books, art and antiques collected over a lifetime. The… Read more

Spect_Kill_Monarchy-AP

Off with his head

8 June 2013

No doubt Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II heaved a sigh of relief as news came through that the reign of the House of Windsor over Australia is now safe for… Read more

Zero tolerance? Morally bankrupt

8 June 2013

It is a basic principle of justice that a wrongdoer should not receive a punishment that is out of proportion to their moral culpability. So, when working out a jail… Read more

Latham

27 October 2012

The great breakthrough in Rebecca Weisser’s life has been the invention of fire. It’s not easy living in a darkened cave while editing the Australian’s opinion page and Cut and… Read more

Brown by Dallimore

15 June 2013

It now looks as if the asylum-seekers issue will dominate the coming election. Recent events have touched a raw nerve with the Australian people, who must now be thinking that… Read more

Across the isle

Across the aisle

15 June 2013

Twenty-three years ago, the British political thriller House of Cards gave the world the now-classic line: ‘You might very well think that, I couldn’t possibly comment.’ There are very few… Read more

The end of separatism

15 June 2013

In Black & White: Australians All At The Crossroads Editors: Rhonda Craven, Anthony Dillon, Nigel Parbury Connor Court, $29.95, pp 428 ISBN 9781922168511 There are two significant events taking place… Read more

Tony Abbott

One-sided story

25 May 2013

Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott By David Marr Black Inc, $19.95, pp 208 ISBN 978186355980 If there is anything the Left love more than talking lovingly about itself,… Read more

Terra nullius

11 May 2013
Flinders: The Man Who Mapped Australia Rob Mundle

Hachette, pp.386, $49.99, ISBN: 9780733628504

For many people these days, exploration means peeking into some of the more unusual corners of the internet. This massive book goes some way to correcting that idea, reminding us… Read more

The lady means business

4 May 2013

Gina Rinehart: The Untold Story of the Richest Woman in the World By Adele Ferguson PanMacmillan, $34.99, pp 490 ISBN 9781742610979 This massive but unauthorised biography of Gina Rinehart —… Read more