Alan Gold 
Choking apart
It’s only when you live for a time in a city like Jakarta or Mumbai or Shanghai that you realise what a callow, simple-minded and naïve bunch the Australian Greens… Read more
Countdown to Waterloo
October’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is make-or-break time for Gillard the world leader Admitting a weakness might be a sign of maturity in most of us, but in… Read more
Democracy… my way
He has the relentless energy of the Duracell bunny, the street smarts of a graffiti artist, the swagger of a barrow boy, the craft of a backroom politician and the… Read more
Australian Books: From data to wisdom
Climate Change Denial — Heads In The Sand By Haydn Washington and John Cook Earthscan, $34.95, pp 174 ISBN 9781849713368 It has become an axiom of the climate change debate… Read more
Who’s responsible?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was six when his father Leopold paraded the musical prodigy before the crowned heads of Europe, ruining both the boy’s health and childhood. Today, we would censure… Read more
And you thought Bob Brown was scary
The Green’s party room in Canberra is normally a place inhabited by tree-hugging, bike-riding, industry-hating and quaintly inconsequential zealots where there’s a lot of smoke but very little fire. All… Read more
Our problem with boomerang foreign aid
Too much of Australia’s well-intentioned billions comes straight back to us as consultants’ fees Australia’s reputation in the world community rests in large measure on its generosity as a donor… Read more
Australian Books: Imperfect crime
Australian BOOKS The Simple Death By Michael Duffy Allen & Unwin, pp 409, $29.99 ISBN 9781742375526 Fiction is at its most exciting and educative when it forges a path into… Read more
When the inner city thinks globally
As a suburb, the inner-Sydney community of Marrickville contains an eclectic mixture of nationalities, lots of restaurants and very little fresh air. And now, thanks to ten local councillors, its… Read more
Some dark corners must stay that way
When Charles Dickens wrote Little Dorrit, he created the Circumlocution Office, a Whitehall government office dedicated to preventing information being given to the public. This office was ‘the most important… Read more
The Antipodean union jihad against the Jewish state
By unfairly attacking Israel, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark could be positioning herself for the UN’s top job, says Alan Gold Helen Clark is known to harbour feelings… Read more
Trust me, I’m a reporter
‘Citizen journalism’ is threatening good old-fashioned media ethics, warns Alan Gold, and the news consumer is the loser It used to takes months for a career to be destroyed. Today,… Read more
History lesson
A half-century has passed between the first performance of Alan Seymour’s The One Day of the Year and the publication of What’s Wrong With Anzac?, but the 50-year gap only… Read more
For all those left behind
One way in which a society can be judged is by the compassion it extends towards those men and women involved in the defence of the nation and who return… Read more
Memo to the ex-men: the party’s over
When a president, prime minister or premier moves voluntarily or otherwise from a position of supreme power to the status of a discard, the frustrations of powerlessness must be overwhelming.… Read more
What’s wrong with ‘Aussie born and bred’?
The purpose of this week’s Australia Day was to draw Australians closer together in the pride and pleasure of the country. Shops sported flags in their windows and merchandise was… Read more
Balancing the climate change equation
The ructions in the ranks of the Liberal party this week have far more to do with the political than the global environment. They are about fears that a tsunami… Read more
Is this the beginning of the end for the nanny state?
Australia’s High Court this week cast a stone into the muddy pond of bureaucracy, one which could sink the rampant officialdom in which so many of us are drowning. The… Read more
The booby prize
The Sydney Peace Prize is misnamed and anti-Western, says Alan Gold — just look at this year’s winner An increasingly large number of cities are now offering peace prizes. It… Read more
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