Remember Helen Clark’s “incredibly benign strategic environment” zinger? Oh, how we all laughed. If only we were laughing about Helen’s spiritual offspring, Jacinda Ardern, and her similarly clueless foreign policy witterings. As Australian journalist Nick Cater writes, if Ardern’s recent speech on China is a genuine expression
Anyone who thinks Australia is set for a bright new dawn in China relations, with the election of Anthony “Mr 32%” Albanese, is kidding themselves. China is carrying right on with its bullying ways. The only difference is that now they’ve got the government they paid for — one which
Lawrence W. Reed fee.org Lawrence W. Reed is FEE’s President Emeritus, Humphreys Family Senior Fellow, and Ron Manners Global Ambassador for Liberty, having served for nearly 11 years as FEE’s president (2008-2019). He is author of the 2020 book, Was Jesus a Socialist? as well as
Don Brash bassettbrashandhide.com Don Brash was Reserve Bank Governor from 1988 to 2002, and National Party Leader from 2003 to 2006 The Prime Minister’s recent visit to Washington, during which she seemed to have signed New Zealand up as a strongly pro-US outpost in the South Pacific
One of William Blake’s most insightful rhyming couplets is: A truth that’s told with bad intent, beats all the lies you can invent. Jacinda Ardern is an arch-liar, despite promising never to tell a lie in politics (which turned out to be just her first political lie)
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which – George Orwell, Animal Farm As the unforgettable conclusion of Orwell’s great anti-communist satire shows, no matter what they tell
As Jacinda Ardern continues to try and dance along a barbed-wire fence with a leg in each paddock, the rip in her undies is getting harder to hide. Ardern and her Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta have spent the last few years playing an increasingly threadbare game of bowing first
Would we ever tolerate the open bullying, brutalisation and intimidation being perpetrated on Australian soil by a foreign power, if it was anyone else but China? Has our national soul been so corrupted by Beijing’s money that we simply allow a genocidal dictatorship to do as it pleases in
Former PM Tony Abbott once challenged the ABC to decide just whose side they’re on. As Abbott observed, “A lot of people feel at the moment that the ABC instinctively takes everyone’s side but Australia’s”. Abbott was referring, at the time, to the ABC’s reflexive siding
Louis T. March mercatornet.com Louis T. March has a background in government, business and philanthropy. A former talk show host, author and public speaker, he is a dedicated student of history and genealogy. Louis lives with his family in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. One of history’s
So, it turns out that standing up to genocidal tyrants doesn’t endear your country to the “pacifist intelligentsia”. Australia’s combative relationship with China and plans to purchase nuclear submarines have helped pushed it nine spots down the Global Peace Index, an annual assessment of nations’ pacifist records. This
Mandatory vaccination, face masks and social distancing is enforced by Ardern’s volunteer army manning the doors of supermarkets and large retailers. I know they believe they are keeping everyone safe because that’s what they tell me. But what if the dictatorial Ardern Government is doing the same thing
In its first few weeks of government Albanese’s Labor have managed to comprehensively bollix nearly everything. Nearly. There’s been one glaring and pleasingly surprising exception: so far – so far – Labor have passed their first China test somewhat impressively. The surprise is even bigger, given that Albanese appointed notorious
Eight years ago, almost to the day, the average Chinese person on the street decided to start investing in the sharemarket. It didn’t end well. The Shanghai Index went from 2000 points up to over 5000 points a year later, followed by a spectacular crash where the market index
Alexander Gillespie University of Waikato Alexander Gillespie works primarily in international law, with specialties in international environmental and the laws of war/international humanitarian law. This week’s White House meeting between Jacinda Ardern and Joe Biden reflected a world undergoing rapid change. But of all the shared challenges discussed,
In the decades since World War Two you will have noticed the endless sanctimony from the left regarding America. One seemingly endless criticism has been about the supposed “American Imperialism”. Perhaps you yourself have swallowed that one whole too. Whenever America seeks to assist in preventing innocent people being subjugated
