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
Commissioner Trigg’s Subjective Gaze
Keep your friends close but your enemies closer. I couldn’t help thinking of Michael Corleone (aka Al Pacino) when Andrew Bolt challenged Tim Wilson, a guest on the columnist’s TV show, to respond to Gillian Triggs’ comments on the detention of asylum-seeker children. Wilson simply was not going to bucket Ms Triggs. Another conservative nobbled by his sense of propriety and the requirements of his office? I assume that has happened to a number of conservatives appointed to the ABC board.
I have extracted two comments from Ms Triggs’ recent appearance on 7.30 to illustrate, I think, that she conflates her role as president of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) with a partisan view of the world.
SARAH FERGUSON: Now, last night on this program, the minister said that your claims about the levels of sickness and mental distress of children in detention centres and on Christmas Island were sensational and wrong. What’s your response to that?
GILLIAN TRIGGS: Well, my response is to…
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
