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 Man Who Made Tennis What It Is
My brother, Peter, has completed a wonderful book[i] on the history of “the pro champions” of tennis – those top players who were the best in the world from the 1930s to the late 1960s, but who were denied entry to the major championships and the Davis Cup … because they were professional sportsmen. The stories in the book are a poignant reminder of a lost but unlamented era in world sport.
One of the greatest of the tennis pros was the Californian Jack Kramer (above). He is remembered by Australian tennis fans more as a promoter than a player, because he managed the pro tour for many years at a time when Australian champions like Frank Sedgman, Ken McGregor, Ken Rosewall and Lew Hoad turned pro. Kramer was vilified by the Australian media because he was seen to be weakening the Australian hold on tennis supremacy.
In retrospect this view highlights the ludicrous nature of tennis in those days: the best players 
in the world were not competing, other than against each…
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
