Rob Manwaring Charlie Lees Flinders University Grant Duncan Massey University Dr Rob Manwaring is an Associate Professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. Charles Lees is a Professor of Government in the College of Business, Government and Law (CBGL), Flinders University (2017 – ), as well as a Visiting Professorial Fellow
Would you buy a house knowing that the government will own nearly half of it? And that, should you have the luck to suddenly increase your income above a certain amount, you could be forced to sell? How would you feel, knowing that the gimlet eye of the state will
When Twitter launched, its tagline was “Tell us what you really think”. Which is an exhortation that a great many public figures have taken them up on — and lived to regret. Because, when a great many people, from celebrities to politicians, apparently tell us what they really think, it can
As Orwell wrote, in The Principles of Newspeak, the purpose of the language so called was “to make all other modes of thought impossible”. As Orwell had earlier explained, in Politics and the English Language, the relationship of language and thought is a mutual feedback loop. Thoughts shape language, and
The legacy media desperately need their dwindling audiences to be locked into a constant cycle of confected outrage. There’s nothing exactly new about media beat-ups, of course. What’s new, in the clickbait age, is the frenzied intensity. The legacy media are increasingly locked into the tiniest world imaginable
Margaret Somerville mercatornet.com Margaret Somerville AM, DSG, FRSC, DCL is Professor of Bioethics at the University of Notre Dame Australia School of Medicine (Sydney campus). She is also Samuel Gale Professor of Law Emerita, Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Medicine, and Founding Director of the Centre for Medicine,
Isn’t it funny how Covid ended? Talk about not with a bang, but a whimper. Australian governments at all levels have been quietly dismantling their onerous Covid restrictions and mandates. Even the Hermit King of Western Australia and the Dictator of Dandrewstan have almost stealthily wound back some of
The interim findings of the Victorian anti-corruption investigation are very bad news for that state’s Labor government. So bad, in fact, that “Dictator Dan” isn’t even pretending not to remember being compelled to testify — he’s just refusing to talk about it. Premier Daniel Andrews has refused to
Like 2019, this election is Labor’s to lose — and they look to be going the right way about doing so. New polling shows that Labor are still well ahead, but the momentum is with Prime Minister Scott Morrison. With opposition leader Anthony Albanese still in self-isolation and sidelined from
If you’re worried that Western countries are rapidly establishing a Chinese-style Social Credit System, why, you’re just a nutbag, right-wing conspiracy theorist, and probably racist. Don’t believe your lyin’ eyes that that’s exactly what we’re seeing unfold right in front of us: the ABC are
As Australia found this week, money can buy many things, but it can’t buy loyalty. At least, not from the grasping, tin-pot panjandrums of micro-nations, whose only political compass is, “gimme, gimme, gimme”. Australia has increasingly focused its $4 billion per annum foreign aid budget in the South Pacific.
As the controversy over trans rights trampling women’s rights continues, the media-political left are making their allegiances clear: sorry, girls, you lose. Women — real women — your only option is to shut up and know your place. Independent NSW MP Alex Greenwich has called for an end to the “culture
As J. K. Rowling has drily observed, transgender activists might better persuade us that they’re not a threat to women, by not actually threatening women so often. Like any woman who speaks publicly against transgender ideology, Rowling has been subject to a barrage of death threats, including having her
There ought to be few illusions that PM Scott Morrison is fighting the 2022 election against the odds. While Morrison should not be underestimated as a campaigner — and so far, he has scarcely set a foot wrong — he has apparently spent the last three years doing everything he could to
I need to pay more attention to minor party announcements, because I had no idea One Nation launched their Tasmanian campaign at Launceston’s Tailrace Centre last week – with none other than the Great Lady herself hosting. Make no mistake, I loathed Pauline Hanson when she first exploded on the
As we near the end of the second week of the Australian election campaign, events are taking a turn for the dramatic again. Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has been forced off the campaign trail by Covid, Labor’s China ties are coming back to bite, and PM Scott Morrison has
