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-
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
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
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
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
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’
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%
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
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’
