iapps
The Wayne Principle
Nothing’s certain in politics, and if you don’t believe me, ask President Al Gore. But there may be an emerging exception to the rule: the man from Nambour, Wayne Swan.… Read more
29 September 2012
For many readers, The Spectator Australia is like The Real Housewives of Orange County. Only the front bits are worth touching. After diving into Friday’s letterbox and piercing the Speccie’s… Read more
The demonising of Cory
Like most students, I had a part-time job while I was at the ANU, although mine was slightly unusual. Throughout the long, balmy summer of 1977 I worked in a… Read more
Good work, Penny
It’s not unusual for political or business leaders to hog the limelight and take credit for the work done by those who toil away beneath them. So it was pleasing… Read more
29 September 2012
The anti-Israel lecture chosen to kick off the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in the Sydney Opera House last weekend was a significant event. About 2,000 enthusiastic Sydneysiders rolled up on… Read more
Diary Australia: 29 September 2012
Prague My wife Jenny and I are in this great city again after 16 years for the 2012 General Meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society. The last such meeting was… Read more
I was a victim of Tony’s feminist ideology
It was Tony Abbot’s fault that I just missed out on being elected as a delegate to the 1998 constitutional convention. The reason was Tony’s obsession with women’s rights. He… Read more
Disappearing ink
About a month ago, a London-based friend noticed my name on a long list of journalists taking voluntary redundancy and asked if I would write about it for his blog.… Read more
A dangerous idea
On the weekend of 28-30 September, the Festival of Dangerous ideas returns to Sydney. Last year, in these pages, I lampooned the event as ‘The Festival Of Well-Worn Lefty Ideas… Read more
22 September 2012
It would be unrealistic to ignore the recent attacks on Tony Abbott. They were extreme and personal, had nothing to do with policy, were bizarre in dredging up events of… Read more
Diary Australia: 22 September 2012
It seems to have been my lot this past week to be defending Tony Abbott’s integrity, or at least his non-violence. This is an odd role for a journalist to… Read more
The poison of intolerance
Last weekend Australians opened their bleary eyes on a sunny spring morning to the startling image of a boy holding aloft a placard calling for the beheading of those who… Read more
Value judgement
How strange is all the fuss about that single incident in David Marr’s Quarterly Essay about Tony Abbott, ‘Political Animal’. According to Barbara Ramjan, who beat Abbott in a student… Read more
22 September 2012
Two great scandals and two furious calls for heavy censorship. One is about a trashy video on Islam. It’s so bad that if there had been a call for protesters… Read more
A legacy of distinction
Enter an Australian bookshop — if you can still find one — and I will wager that once you get to the small non-fiction section, tucked somewhere behind the vampire… Read more
No knock-out punch
Listening to Emma Alberici interview David Marr on his new Quarterly Essay, the casual listener would have been forgiven for thinking Bob Santamaria was about to rise from the grave… Read more
15 September 2012
Tony Abbott made one condition when agreeing to talk at length with David Marr about his Quarterly Essay ‘Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott’. Marr could use any information… Read more
Can we dump s18C now
I’m one of the most pro-Israel people to earn a living in an Australian university. I see a democracy surrounded by non-democracies, though some are improving on that score. I… Read more
Diary Australia: 15 September 2012
Vladivostok THE last time I came to Vladivostok, I couldn’t. That may sound a little Irish, but in 1974 foreigners and hundreds of classes of Soviet citizens could not enter… Read more
No pollution solution
The good news is that Julia didn’t lie after all. When she said, ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead’, she was, in her own unique… Read more
Latest blogs
- Revive the Snooper’s Charter? It’s already obsolete David Blackburn
- Jesse Norman interview: Edmund Burke, our chief of men JP O'Malley
- Lee Rigby named as victim of Woolwich attack Sebastian Payne
- The friendless Help-to-Buy scheme Isabel Hardman
- Nothing to do with Islam? Douglas Murray
- Why it’s not the 1990s all over again for the Tories James Forsyth
- You’re going to lose. It is only you against many. Alex Massie
