In a stunning move that will inevitably have dire repercussions for the Indigenous Voice referendum, Western Australia is overturning its contentious Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. Not amending — completely repealing. WA Premier Roger Cook has apologised for the unintentional “stress, confusion, and division” caused by controversial Indigenous heritage laws in the
In hindsight, was the public campaign against smoking a colossal mistake? This is not to dispute the manifest benefits of the massive decline in smoking, of course. From the precipitous decline in smoking-related diseases to the blessed relief of sitting through a restaurant meal or a pub gig without coming
Shane Drumgold has bowed to the inevitable and quit as Director of Public Prosecutions for the ACT. The extraordinary fall from grace for the top legal official comes in the wake of the Soffronoff Inquiry, which Drumgold himself requested. The inquiry made damning findings of misconduct against him. Drumgold, however,
The Climate Cult are getting crazier and more dangerous by the day. Not content with gluing themselves to roads, attacking priceless artworks or defacing war memorials, their latest tactic is targeting the homes of law-abiding citizens. The latest such attack was a home invasion inflicted on a West Australian mining
As I wrote recently, “a week in Australian politics just can’t go by without a fresh absurdity from Brittany Higgins”. Well, it’s been a banner week, this week. From revelations of Higgins’ claim to be Aboriginal, to the release of the bombshell Sofronoff inquiry into the prosecution of
Michael Cook Michael Cook is editor of Mercator. mercatornet.com If The Voice means anything, it means improving the lot of Australia’s Aboriginal people. There is a life expectancy gap of 20 years. They have some of the worst incarceration rates in the world. Life in some outback towns
The long-anticipated Sofronoff inquiry has been released – and it’s as explosive as anticipated. The inquiry into the conduct of ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold during the Brittany Higgins scandal and subsequent rape trial of Bruce Lehrmann has found a laundry list of appalling behaviour by the Canberra Director of
Kurt Mahlburg Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young adult pastor.
The Albanese government has been consistently criticised for trying to keep detail of its proposed “Indigenous Voice” from voters. Which, when we’re voting to change the Constitution, is just not good enough. Such a momentous change demands an informed vote. That’s the last thing the government obviously wants.
As I recently asked, how long before it’s illegal to be Christian in Australia? Here in Tasmania in particular, orthodox Christian teaching is being increasingly circumscribed by a vindictively litigious rainbow lobby. Whatever the Bible says, the permanently peeved pooverati are determined to ban it. Among recent incidents, a
Almost as often as we’re bludgeoned with the insulting virtue-signalling of “Welcome to Country”, Australians are also plastered with fatuous platitudes about the supposed “world’s oldest living culture”. This is a load of patronising bollocks, of course. If the claim is that it’s a continuation of a
“Truth telling” is supposedly at the core of the “Uluru statement”, the foundational document of the “Indigenous Voice” referendum. There’s precious little truth to be had from its proponents, though. And the mendacity goes far, far beyond PM Anthony Albanese’s and Minister Linda Burney’s constant prevarifications and
It’s the same old cycle that’s been going on for almost as long as Australia’s been a nation: catastrophic bushfires result in an official inquiry. That inquiry invariably recommends that state authorities engage in vigorous fuel-reduction activity (i.e. controlled burning) during the winter months, to stop
As Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett so woefully demonstrated, it’s one thing to shout right-on slogans in catchy pop songs, quite another to deliver effective policy-making in the real world. The same could be said for Yothu Yindi’s 1991 hit, Treaty. Infectious dance-floor fodder, certainly. But as a
In an ominous sign for premier Dan Andrews, Victorian cross-benchers have unanimously backed a parliamentary inquiry into his government’s scrapping of the 2026 Commonwealth Games. These are the same cross-benchers who were rusted solidly onto “Dictator Dan” right through the pandemic. Now they’ve joined the opposition in demanded
The current parlous state of the Liberal-National coalition parties in Australia has the mainstream media and the green-left (a tautology: I apologise) cock-a-whoop. “This is the end of the Tories!”, they crow. Certainly, it may seem that way — at least, if you ignore 100 years of Australian election results — and
