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
Australian PM Scott Morrison has been flying high for the past year – but he’s in sudden danger of being brought crashing back to earth after one of his upper house MPs abruptly resigned from the Liberal party. MP for Hughes, Craig Kelly, has been targeted as a “maverick” by
As the war between the Australian government and Facebook drags on, signs are growing that the Big Tech titan has badly miscalculated. Aside from the horror publicity for Facebook, the Australian government immediately retaliated by pulling all government advertising on the platform. Now private companies are following the government’s
It’s often said of the left that if they didn’t have double-standards, they wouldn’t have any. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is easily the furthest-left state leader in Australia. Naturally, he’s got double-standards in spades. This is, after all, the premier who did nothing when thousands of
The Morrison government has notched up a significant win in reaching a deal with Facebook over its world-first Big Tech news laws. The Australian government will be seen to have taken on a multinational titan and won. That’s the first global bully dealt with. There’s still Australia’s
Damn, just when I was enjoying it. Facebook has announced that it will restore Australian news pages within days. The social media giant has reached a deal with the Morrison government over Australia’s world-leading laws to regulate Big Tech. So who blinked? Well, both parties have given ground. This
It’s a story that will probably be familiar to BFD readers: yet another indigenous corporation involved in a major tourism development is mired in accusations of nepotism and corruption, while local indigenous communities continue to struggle. Only, this time it’s in Northern Australia: the renowned Kakadu National Park,
The diminished crowd at this year’s Australian Open final in Melbourne may not be exactly representative of public opinion in Victoria, but the crowd reaction at the trophy presentation might spell trouble for both the Federal and Victorian governments. For the Victorian government, it might be seen as a
Here in Tasmania, professional Aboriginal agitators are going all-in on their latest campaign: to “hand back” “stolen” Aboriginal petroglyphs in Tasmanian museums. Never mind that, as one local Aboriginal man said, the museums actually saved the artworks from almost certain destruction. His preference, he said, was for the artefacts to
