In politics, perceptions are critical. Especially bad ones. Once a negative public perception takes hold, it can be near-impossible to shake. Just ask former opposition leaders like Labor’s Simon Crean, or the Liberal’s Brendan Nelson. Australian PM Anthony Albanese is finding that out the hard way, as the
David Bell David Bell, Senior Scholar at Brownstone Institute, is a public health physician and biotech consultant in global health. He is a former medical officer and scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO), Programme Head for malaria and febrile diseases at the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) in
“If the bell tolls for Israel, it won’t just toll for Israel, it will toll for all mankind,” Bob Hawke once said. It’s a sad reminder of just how far the Labor Party has slid into the moral abyss that Hawke’s moral clarity has been replaced by
In a seemingly bizarre response to the out-of-control spiral of anti-Semitism across the globe, the Biden administration has announced that its priority is… “tackling Islamophobia”. Similarly, when Jews were attacked in Caulfield, Melbourne’s Jewish heartland, Foreign Minister Penny Wong wittered about “Islamophobia”. But such responses aren’t as mysterious
Sir Mark Oliphant has long been a darling of the Australian left. Not only was he a pioneering nuclear physicist, but he was also tacitly blackballed by the Americans and the Menzies government in the 50s (call it an early form of shadowbanning). Nothing was more calculated to endear someone
Peter Allan Williams Writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines although verbalising thoughts on www.reality check.radio three days a week peterallanwilliams.substack.com Despite its upper-class and aristocratic origins in the UK and US, golf in New Zealand has for most of the
The Covid pandemic was a litmus test. Ever wondered who, should real fascism come to your country, would click their heels and salute the Dear Leader? Covid let you know. October 7 was a litmus test, too: a litmus test of basic decency. Everyone likes to brag that they would
“If you build it,” the famous line from Field of Dreams goes, “They will come.” Or, more accurately, if you put out a bowl of sugar, you’re gonna get ants. And if you put out a gargantuan, overflowing pot of taxpayer’s money, you’re going to attract every
Some years ago, the ABC featured neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell on one of its interminable “panel discussions”. ABC management purported to be so concerned by what Cottrell might say, that they put the program on a ten-second delay. Fast-forward a few years, and they’re giving “pro-Palestine” advocates a national stump
It’s been a wild couple of weeks for the rule of law in Australia. Police in NSW ignored a Muslim mob chanting “Gas the Jews”, but arrested a Jewish man trying to attend a vigil for the slaughtered of October 7. Then, while Australia’s remaining Holocaust survivors issued
Wow, you guys over the ditch thought you had landed a dud when Nanaia Mahuta finagled the Foreign Minister’s job? BFD readers, I give you Penny Wong. Wong’s plain uselessness at her job is only heightened by the fact that she is supposed to be the brains trust
Imagine if they preceded the opening of Australia’s peak science body with a mass led by a Pentecostal preacher. The collective shrieking of the chattering classes would be deafening. But, put on a bit of oogabooga mysticism, and suddenly, everyone comes over all solemn and worshipful. That’s what
Has there ever been a more useless, nasty bunch of wreckers in Australia’s parliament than the Albanese government and the Greens? The Greens at least have the poor excuse of being genetically programmed to blindly follow violent extremists, from the founding of the Green movement by ex-Nazis, to the
Australian PM Anthony Albanese clearly took to heart the adage, “Never set up an inquiry unless you know in advance what its findings will be”. After all, his so-called “Covid inquiry” was so obviously set up to be a whitewash — for instance, by excluding every action taken by state governments,
When our eldest was just a baby, we made a day trip to the spas at Hepburn Springs in central Victoria. While my wife had a massage, I played with our son by the pool. An obviously Jewish old lady next to us cooed over him and dandled him on
