Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
The party that dares not speak its name
At 11 am on May 23, parked near Safeway just off Puckle Street, Moonee Ponds, was a Toyota van covered in signage. This was not just any van, nor just any signage. It was the propaganda pantechnicon of Bill Shorten, federal minister for employment and workplace relations and financial services and superannuation.
Bill is the member for Maribyrnong, and the sloganeered van is a natty and mobile device to freely advertise himself in one of Moonee Ponds’ main thoroughfares.
The driver was chatting to passers-by and handing out political flyers.
Now Bill Shorten is not just your common-or-garden Cabinet minister. From 2005-08 he was Victorian State President of the Australian Labor Party, he was on the national ALP executive until 2011, and is a former national secretary of the Australian Workers Union.
He played a leading role in ousting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in favour of Julia Gillard, and 18 months later Gillard rewarded him with a promotion to Cabinet. Just for interest, and…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins
