Derek Parker 
One-sided story
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
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
Hunting for bogeymen
Somewhere along the line, belief in climate change became something like a religion, complete with high priests and searches for heretics. Clive Hamilton, although a senior academic, appears to be… Read more
Talk is cheap
The Rise of the Fifth Estate: Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics By Greg Jericho Scribe, $29.95, pp 313 ISBN 9781921844935 The amount of virtual ink spilled by Australia’s… Read more
The bland leading the bland
A Premier’s State By Steve Bracks with Ellen Whinnett MUP, $34.99, pp 296 ISBN 9780522860795 One always approaches the memoir of a retired politician with a certain trepidation: such books… Read more
Unreal city
It would be nice to say that most Australians have a love-hate relationship with Canberra, both as a place and a concept, but that is only half right. Outside the… Read more
The difference one man can make
When good intentions meet hard facts on the ground, good intentions usually lose. This is essentially the truth of the long and sad story of Aboriginal politics and policy in… Read more
Invisible man
Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East By Benjamin Law Black Inc, $29.95, pp 288 ISBN 9781863955768 Given the tight-lipped sanctimoniousness of some advocates of same-sex marriage in Australia, one could… Read more
The good fight
Uncommon Soldier By Chris Masters Allen & Unwin, $49.99, pp. 400 ISBN 9781741759716 In military matters, separating fact from fiction and reality from legend is a difficult task. These days,… Read more
The best of intentions
Despite the importance of Melbourne in Australia’s politics, commerce and development, there has been surprisingly little written about its early history. Most people who live in Melbourne have probably never… Read more
Woman trouble - The Spectator Australia
A couple of minutes on Google is enough to disprove the allegations that Tony Abbott is a misogynist. So why haven’t the journalists of the Press Gallery done it? As… Read more
Blast from the past
Not many men wear three-piece suits anymore; they look distinctly old-fashioned. But Bob Katter does, and there he is, on the front of this book, complete with the famous hat,… Read more
Heading for the abyss
After years of being outplayed and outmanoeuvred, those in the ALP who think of themselves as electoral tacticians have finally realised what has been clear for a long time: that… Read more
The odd couple
This book is based on a good idea: climate change activist Anna Rose, in the making of an ABC television program, takes Nick Minchin, former Finance Minister in the Howard… Read more
Life without Labor?
Under pressure on every front, Australia’s oldest party is on its last legs The dust from the Queensland election might have settled, but there is a lingering sense that something… Read more
People management
Bigger or Better? Australia’s Population Debate By Ian Lowe University of Queensland Press, $34.95, pp 208 ISBN 978072239090 Australians have always had strong — if not always coherent — opinions… Read more
Australian Books: A missed moment
The Australian Moment: How We Were Made For These Times By George Megalogenis Penguin, $32.95, pp 395 ISBN 9780670075218 Given that most Australian journalists have a timeframe of 48 hours… Read more
Australian Books: The mixture as before
The Good, The Bad & the Unlikely By Mungo MacCallum Black Inc, $29.95, pp 231, ISBN 9781863955539 There was a time when Mungo MacCallum wrote interesting and entertaining books. That… Read more
Australian Books: Exits and entrances
On Shakespeare By John Bell Allen & Unwin, $39.99, pp 414 ISBN 9781742371931 It was Alexandre Dumas who said that Shakespeare, after God, created the most. Reading this fascinating book,… Read more
Sea sickness
The first shots have been fired in the annual battle between Japanese whaling ships and the militant anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, with activists forcing their way onto a Japanese… Read more
Latest blogs
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- Drummer Lee Rigby Douglas Murray
- Eight Golden Rules for Tragedy Tweeting Freddy Gray
- Government behaving badly over ‘quietly aborted’ lobbying reform Iain Anderson
