In the lead-up to the last Victorian state election, unions, especially the United Firefighters Union, were premier Daniel Andrews’s especially loyal boot-boys. It was all a neat little quid pro quo, of course: Andrews had bullied the state’s revered volunteer firefighter organisation, the Country Fire Authority, into submitting
National is calling on the Government to open the trans-Tasman bubble with Australia to give our desperate tourism sector a much-needed boost and reunite Kiwis with family and friends across the ditch. “New Zealand and Australia have both done well to reduce the threat of Covid-19,” Leader of the Opposition
When I wrote, some time ago, that “the left is promoting paedophilia (again)”, even I had the nagging sense that I was being more than a bit foil-hat conspiratorial. Surely no one could be far gone enough to actually try and normalise such a hideous crime as child abuse? Sadly,
One of the big cultural differences between Australia and America is our manner of expressing patriotism. Australians have never been big on the whole brass-band pageantry of American “good old Stars‘n’Stripes forever” public patriotism. Similarly, we don’t go in much for the ostentatious American-style “thank-you-for-your-service” public veneration
Contrary to the gibbering conspiracy theories of the left, the “Murdoch press” in Australia offers far more diversity of opinion than any right-on lefty publication. The Australian regularly features the likes of pontificating old commo Phillip Adams and strident feminist Nikki Gemmell. Name one conservative regular at the ABC or
The Australian left are in full Stalin mode, with a dash of Salem 1692. Australian politics is now being run by anonymous denunciations, show trials and witch-hunts. The rule of law and due process have been consigned to the dustbin of history as a screaming mob of left-wing politicians and
The Greens sure have a problematic relationship with facts. This is, after all, the party whose star senator (which is a short enough list, given the Greens’ tiny representation) thought that a television drama was a documentary. The Greens have also made demonstrably false claims about everything from duck hunting
As Mark Steyn wrote, “the air-brush is mightier than the sword”. Steyn was referring to the Canadian press and its valiant efforts to erase any sort of clue that might have twigged their readers that there was something a little bit jihad-y going on in Paris. Two Muslim terrorists became
When it comes to not being fooled by the media, an important principle is to never believe without evidence an article that claims “a study shows”. There are two important reasons for not taking such a claim at face value: firstly, the media spin studies to fit their prejudices (for
Listening to Labor leader Anthony Albanese pontificating about the unsubstantiated – and strongly denied – rape allegations against Attorney-General Christian Porter, it was hard to fight down the gut-wrenching nausea. The stinking hypocrisy from not just Albanese and nearly every single politician on the opposition benches is exceeded only by that of
Is it any wonder that many men now say they’d rather be accused of murder than rape? Even after Columbia student Paul Nungesser was explicitly cleared of rape allegations, the campaign to ruin his life continued. His false accuser indeed became a fêted minor celebrity. Even after Cardinal George
It looks like Mexico isn’t sending its best to Australia and New Zealand. No, I’m not talking about newbie politicians trying to get strings pulled to queue jump MIQ. Mexico’s latest exports to the Antipodes are even less desirable than a shifty list MP. Mexican drug cartels
In a show of shrewish squawking that seems strangely at odds with her endless prattle about “kindness”, Jacinda Ardern has repeatedly publicly berated her Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, on policy differences ranging from climate change to deporting NZ-born crims from Australia. It is the latter that has inspired Ardern’s
As the visceral crowd reaction at the Australian Open final showed, Australians are less than enthusiastic about the COVID-19 vaccine. This is significant because Australia is normally a high vaccine-uptake country – although that perhaps depends on the perceived threat. Vaccination rates for tuberculosis, measles, etc. are over 90%, but only
