While whales might appreciate the ban on single-use grocery bags, supermarket chains have greater reason to rejoice. Not only will they shed the cost of catering to their customers' convenience, they can posture beneath a halo of conspicuous virtue. Alas, an unmentioned aspect of their gains is an increased risk of bacterial infections
As LP Hartley observed in the opening sentence of The Go-Between, 'the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.' Indeed, they do and did, but as the ABC's latest Annabel Crabb production demonstrates, the national broadcaster will be forever the same -- until, that is, someone fixes it
The national broadcaster's boss this week fronted Melbourne's Press Club, where she meekly endured a hectoring by underling Jon Faine that can only confirm how far the ABC has moved beyond both shame and supervision. Then came our Tony Thomas with his ABC-approved filthy mouth...
The proselytisation of postmodernist theory, according to Jordan Peterson, is less an emancipatory project than intellectual charlatanry and the relinquishment of individual responsibility. If a truth is validated by its teller's enemies, the Canadian academic is right on the money
Another woman is dead at the hands of an alleged rapist and, once again, those who should know better blame toxic masculinity and the way boys are raised. While this guff obscures the sins of a turn-'em-loose bench, it won't dissuade a single criminal. Pepper spray and electro-shockers just might
To maintain our right not to be assaulted and perhaps killed we all, as individuals -- men and, yes, women -- must keep our wits about us. This is such a straightforward proposition it shouldn't need to be explained, least of all to the Premier of a state whose courts regularly turn monsters loose
Private media organisations must defer to consumers and advertisers, while politicians and bureaucracies answer to voters. Independent statutory agencies, such as the ABC, know no such masters. This opens the door to staff capture and, as the national broadcaster demonstrates, makes bias inevitable
The architects and current beneficiaries of Australia's addled energy policies won't admit it, but the Paris climate accord is disintegrating. The US has bailed, Canada grows wobbly and Japan opens coal-fired plants. Meanwhile, our leaders remain resolute -- resolutely blind, that is
In the culture wars our conservative governments are batting for, and paying, the other side. Though it always ends in their own masochistic humiliation, they never consider a cultural policy which would remove the Left's stranglehold, patronage and dominion over the taxpayers' arts dollar
ANU's rejection of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation has made it, in the words of one commentator, 'a laughingstock'. To that appraisal add a toxic and shameless hypocrisy which sees that university and others eagerly accept cash for 'Islamic centres' where Western ideals are actively opposed
The Commonwealth legislative system which came into effect in 2012 ostensibly to control the live export of our animals operates as a sham, and the Department which has administered and continues to administer the system has long known as much
When the topic is race, the media concentrates on fripperies, such as Hollywood gripes that black actors aren't being nominated for enough. Meanwhile, the racist murders of white South Africans by black thugs is deemed too sensitive to note, let alone protest
Somehow, despite its $1.2 billion-a-year penury, the ABC sent Sarah Ferguson and crew on a globe-girdling jaunt to pursue Donald Trump's alleged 'collusion' with Moscow. That James Clapper is one of the national broadcaster's go-to informants suggests truth will be a scarce commodity
Conservatives express a view, a traditional view, and are accused of 'hate speech' , which means someone with a megaphone has taken offence. People lose incomes and careers, get bullied and are declared pariahs, so is it any wonder so many embrace plastic principles as their vocation
One thing young people are very unlikely to learn—not from our education system anyway—is that no simple concept can ever hope to explain all of human history, or even most of it. Denied this insight, the notion that history has been determined by class struggles is an easy sell
James Cook University will most likely continue to sweep allegations of shoddy research under the carpet, seemingly oblivious that its reputation for serious, credible scientific inquiry is going into the dustpan at the same time. The Governing Council not only should intervene, it must
When Peter Minter banned Quadrant's poets from his magazine's pages on the grounds that they had published in what he likened to a Nazi journal, the curious might have wondered just what sort of verse he actually favours. Here's a hint
Readers can form their own judgement as to whether this first-person account would count in Andrew Bolt’s challenge to Robert Manne to “name ten” Aborigines stolen purely for racial reasons
PM Stephen Harper has three election victories under his belt and, from a conservative point of view, not much to show for them. Being nice to political enemies is all very well and good, but it leaves your supporters less than impressed
If "Indigenous culture" is to be recognised in Australia's Constitution it is vital to understand what the term means. Rap songs and break dancing, perhaps?
Without impartial justice, the UK puts at risk a foundation of any free society. Indeed, official policy has already removed the chocks and encouraged that descent to gather pace. Regardless of Tommy Robinson's past, I am very worried by his imprisonment. So should we all
The human race is going backwards, Trump being the last flicker of bright light before the candle goes out. Unless you share the cock-eyed optimism to which I am prone, it's a demographic certainty public policy can never shed the Leftist memes that shape it. Still, I live in hope. Make Australia great again!
Patrick O'Brian's books bear favourable comparison with Proust, their digressions into matters other than naval warfare of the Napoleonic era being nothing less than delights. Never immersed yourself in the author's world of wood, tar and canvas? What a pity
Officially, Professor Peter Ridd was axed from James Cook University for allegedly mocking of its reputation as a home to serious scholars and research -- a handy way to avoid addressing his very specific charge that Reef scientists are playing fast and loose with facts
The ADF public relations flaks have been making merry with Brigadier Susan Coyle's appointment as the first female to command a brigade, which for some might conjure images of a blood-and-guts fighting femme. Good luck to her, but do bear in mind that this isn't an old timer's idea of a brigade
They Marched in March -- the usual suspects in all their serried shades of anger and incoherence -- because, well, it would have made even less sense to bemoan the fact that Tony Abbott and the Coalition won an election last September by April-ing in April. Zeg is fearful of such antics' impact on the easily impressed.
At the University of Wollongong there is so much diversity to honour, especially when Christians are demanding all the attention with their mangers and tinsel, that staff have been sent a chirpy reminder that Christmas is about much more than the Messiah
Climate change is torching Australia, according to the likes of Tim Flannery and his fellow warmists at the Bureau of Meteorology. If only the money now spent on computer projections and big-ticket fire fighting gear could go toward fuel reduction
A New Zealand court has rejected the argument that one can claim asylum from the alleged ravages of climate change. For the plaintiff, it is back to teeming Kiribati, where the real problem is a booming population
A cash-strapped America no longer has the resources to continue as the world’s policeman, as its craven capitulation to Tehran makes clear. For Australia the message is chilling
Australian voters are not being told the truth about the proposal for constitutional recognition of indigenous people. The goal of Aboriginal political activists today is to gain ‘sovereignty’ and create a black state, equivalent to the existing states. Its territory, comprising all land defined as native title, will soon amount to more than 60% of the whole Australian continent.
As Keith Windschuttle observes in his new book -- available via the link below -- constitutional recognition would be its launching pad.
Just who and what is the ABC's core audience? Zeg has a pretty good idea.
Peter Ryan has long been one of Australia’s favourite writers of essays and newspaper columns. His …
Australian voters are not being told the truth about the proposal for constitutional recognition of indigenous people. The goal of Aboriginal political activists today is to gain ‘sovereignty’ and create a black state, equivalent to the existing states. Its territory, comprising all land defined as native title, will soon amount to more than 60 per cent of the whole Australian continent. Constitutional recognition, if passed, would be its ‘launching pad’. Recognition will not make our nation complete; it will divide us permanently.
