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
Mona And Those ‘Rich Old White Males’
“… the people who go on the most about freedom of expression and it’s my right to say this and my right to say that are usually old rich white men who parade under the term libertarian …
… this is actually all about the free market. This is why I am bringing in the rich old white men … It’s about who has money and we’ve come to a stage where freedom of expression is bought by money. It’s the market. I don’t have $6000 to go and spend on an ad. I don’t have rich—you know, rich, old, white men who are racist who are going to provide the money for this.”
—Mona Eltahawy, Q&A, March 31, 2014, in response to the government’s proposed changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act
Like the award-winning Egyptian-American columnist and international public speaker Mona Eltahawy, I am not especially rich. Nor am I old, or particularly “white”, or a man. Despite these crippling disadvantages, I have had many opportunities to express my political views,…
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
