Opinion

Even Peter van Onselen seems unable to find anything nice to say about Bill Shorten. Indeed, the next kind word we hear is likely to be the faux praise of party comrades intoning his political epitaph

Those who thought it more important to have a black president than a competent one were entirely untroubled by the prospect that a cliche-sprouting "community organiser" might be found wanting in a crisis. Vladimir Putin suffered no such delusions

And if the ABC's Editor In Chief actually believes his contradictory assertions that some stories need to be reported from a different perspective than others -- he was talking about climate change -- the Estimates panel was not alone in being deluded

These breathless reports about the planet never being hotter, take them with a truckload of salt. How can anyone place the slightest credence in claims being advanced by people who fail to grasp, or refuse to grasp, the simple truth about trend lines and temperature

Almost a quarter of a century has passed since Lithuania threw off its Soviet shackles and embraced a vibrant and robust democracy. At a time when liberty often seems under permanent threat, there is comfort in knowing that freedom's tide is not always and everywhere on the ebb

Launch a massive campaign against CO2 and global warming, as John Kerry last week urged Indonesia to do, and you had better be in full command of the facts. As with previous and costly follies, that evidence is lacking

What comes put of the oven depends on what goes in. Like a certain national broadcaster, the nation's leading military baker brooks no criticism of the unpalatable fare it whips up

Adam Bandt's petty, petulant and factually challenged assault on the wealth and good works of Gina Rinehart suggests he has achieved the impossible: an empty vessel brimming with the toxins of jealousy

Ever get the impression that the ABC's perspective on news and current events happens to mesh rather neatly with a certain small but noisy subset of the population? Zeg certainly sees things that way

What the Swiss rejected at the ballot box was not immigration as such. What they voted against is the notion that their government must bow before Brussels and surrender the right to determine who takes up residence in Switzerland, for how long and under what circumstances

Western marriage laws evolved to protect women from predatory and dishonest men. Until recently, authorities have done little to prosecute those who justify under-age marriages and child-trafficking in the name of their creeds and traditions

It came to me in a dream: The same extraterrestrials who polished their English skills by monitoring the ABC on their long, intergalactic journey to Earth are now in charge of the national broadcaster. No wonder they still can't grasp the world the rest of us inhabit

If universities were free to run their own shows, liberated from Commonwealth controls and expectations, we would see a return to basics in teaching. It is a simple remedy -- one that fills the tertiary sector's managerial class with undiluted horror

Human Rights Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane recently lectured his countrymen about the 'darker, even violent, side of our humanity'. A high flier in the grievance industry would say that -- but why is he being supported by the Australian/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, whose Colin Rubenstein should know better

That the ABC has been making mischief in regard to Australia's relations with Indonesia is beyond doubt. What still needs to be explained is the apparent indifference of Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to reforming the national broadcaster

They were all there for the Perth Writers' Festival -- Ross Garnaut, Scott Ludlum of the Greens, the ubiquitous David Marr and an audience of fretful warmists fearful of what outrage Denialist In Chief Tony Abbott might perpetrate next. Not to worry, everyone had a lovely time steeped in self-righteous mutual esteem

The Health Minister seeks to preserved the best of what we have and make better use stretched resources. His ideological enemies aim to strangle this essential debate at birth. They must not be allowed to prevail