Mary The Australian Labor Party’s solution to the difficulties first homeowners face getting into the market has rightly been criticised on a number of fronts. The scheme has all the appearances of having been thought up on the run by people with little real-world experience. Questions have been raised
On his first week back on the campaign trail after catching Covid, Anthony Albanese has stumbled yet again, fluffing questions from journalists. This time, though, it wasn’t a “gotcha” on economic figures, it was a Dorothy Dixer on one of Labor’s signature policies. Trying to capitalise on its
As BFD readers will surely be aware, I’m no fan of the Solomon Islands government and its security pact with China. But, if nothing else, the whole affair serves to throw a harsh light on the rank hypocrisy of the media-political rhetoric over the Ukraine war. It also shows
How’d’ya like them apples, Jacinda? After five years of politely enduring constant sniping and cattiness from his New Zealand counterpart, Australian PM Scott Morrison has lobbed a big ol’ return serve right across the Tasman. You think things are bad in Australia, Morrison says? Just be thankful you’
Will the real Anthony Albanese please step forward? The hardscrabble lad from the housing commission? The red-ragging radical in the Billy Bragg t-shirt? Or the newly-minted, slimmed-down, soberly suit-n-tie “fiscally conservative moderate who rejects wokeness”? The opposition leader is not nicknamed “Each-Way Albo” for nothing. The Anthony Albanese who was
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.
