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
Governments That Govern … or Don’t
It gets a bit tiresome hearing commentators talk of how New Zealand’s centre-right government has managed (albeit incredibly slowly) to achieve a surplus. ‘Wow, look at that how a centre-right government just gets on with fixing the budget mess left by its Labour [Kiwi spelling] predecessor!’, they mutter. ‘Geez, wouldn’t it be nice to have a conservative government in Australia that just implemented conservative spending cuts, rather than lefty tax hikes?’, they moan.
Well, leave aside the fact that what Prime Minister John Key heads is by no means my idea of a vigorous centre-right government, and notice instead the obvious difference between government in Australia and government in New Zealand (and those in Canada and the United Kingdom, for that matter).
The founders of our Constitution looked around at what was on offer and opted over a century ago to copy the US model when it came to federalism and bicameralism. They explicitly shunned the Canadian…
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
