Once upon a time -- quite a few years ago, actually -- the climate was cold and the gift of a juicy loin of mammoth was the way to a cave maiden's heart. Now that things are somewhat warmer, well, things have changed.....
Time was when Australia's inner cities were hives of industry, with factories and workshops around every second corner. These days, well the factories are hipster lofts and the sound of a shift-ending whistle is seldom heard. Yes, the demolition of tariff barriers has seen the arrival of lots of cheap consumer goods, but not everyone is celebrating
Quadrant's Online cartoonist has become something of an election issue in Queensland, where the usual shriekers, howlers and scolds have taken offence at his depiction of Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk in her birthday suit.
Has the latest anti-Muslim backlash started yet? Well sit tight and the cookie-cutter keyboard ticklers at Australia's two most deplorable newspapers will tell us all about it. When all is not said and journalism left undone, regurgitating cliches is a lot easier than reporting on the real world
At some point tonight, early if the polls are on target, Victorians will learn which major party gets to set fees, fines, and taxes for the next four years. One wants to build a road tunnel that might ease the pain of the state's withering industrial base. The other will pay for whatever its union mates demand. No matter the winner, there will be 5 million losers
Remember "trickle down economics", that scornful dismissal of any and all who dared to suggest that markets do a better job of promoting prosperity than any number of bureaucrats and regulators? Well it seems there is some truth in it after all, as Zeg explains
The Rolling Stones, the world's most successful rock band, probably didn't need the help of South Australian Premier Jay Wetherill to paint the balance sheet for their current Australian tour in a lovely shade of black, but the geriatric groovers aren't averse to pocketing a $450,000 windfall courtesy of taxpayers. Mind you, South Australia marches to a different drummer. Where else does the party that collects an overwhelming majority of votes get to remain on the Opposition benches?
New South Wales goes to the polls tomorrow, with the latest polls suggesting Labor leader Luke Foley's union-assisted efforts to gain a boost by opposing privatisation of the electricity system just isn't working
A government that can't sell its budget and disappoints its friends. An Opposition that has made a virtue of ignorance. And a country brimming with potential that is going nowhere. Welcome to Australia, 2015
Like all politicians, Bill Shorten's talents for baby-kissing, hand-shaking, speech-giving and truth-tickling are on tap …
“For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice. And …
It's the oldest bureaucratic skill in the book: when confronted with budget cuts, slash the services most valued by the largest number of people -- then re-direct their anger against the government that made you implement them. Mark Scott may not know much, but that bit he has mastered
If you were grossly overweight and intent on sticking to the same eating habits for the next 15 years, would anyone take seriously your promise to get healthy in 2030? Well, one person probably would -- the genius from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
If you listen to the ABC, where no twist nor turn in the skein of current events can be allowed without a Greens gabbler being invited to the microphone, you would undoubtedly have heard the view that exploding Islamic weird beards are a problem only in that they have given Abbott & Co.,an excuse to pull on the jackboots. After recent events in Ottawa, expect that attitude to shift somewhat
Whether we need data-retention to combat terrorists is a matter on which reasonable people can disagree. What seems to occasion no discord in Australia's newsrooms, now to be exempt from having phone and email records picked over without a court order, is Australia's real enemy
Hangovers, the curse of the drinking class, generally last no more than a day or so. In Queensland, where Labor partied hard and hearty as the monumental swing against Campbell Newman & Co. was tallied, the headaches of the voters who fired up that celebration may well endure for years
It's just so cool being in thick with the caring set -- and so easy too! Print out a 'je suis Charlie' sign, punch out a couple of tweets that are heavy on the hand-wringing and then luxuriate in that special, rosy glow of moral superiority. And after that? Why not decry moves to scrap Section 18C because everyone who is smart enough to have an Arts degree knows free speech can give offence and that's, like, heavily into being unacceptable, man.
That the Greens have a problem with Barbie should come as no surprise. This is, after all, the party that believes the cow that jumped over the moon was propelled by planet-threatening flatulence, sees the Magic Pudding as a model for taxation policy and crusades for Little Boy Blue's right to present himself as Little Girl Pink. In the playground, as Zeg notes, children are not quite so, er, broad-minded.
It must be a great comfort to ABC Managing Director Mark Scott to know that …
Few things in life are entirely predictable, which is why we should all see some slight merit in the ABC under the current stewardship of Mark Scott. Come 9.30pm on Mondays, Tony Jones introduces Q&A's latest guests and it is business as it always is. The compere will interrupt conservative guests (allowing the panel includes more than one, of course) while allowing those on the left to rabbit on at great and untroubled length. Meanwhile, across the bottom of the screen, the distilled essence of Twitter's howl-'em-down groupthinkers will be on display. Zeg has glanced inside the ABC control room and the mystery of why those tweets favour one side to the exclusion of the other is no more....