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
Unrelaxed and Uncomfortable
Six weeks before July’s federal election, in a shopping plaza in suburban Australia, a Liberal candidate intercepted a middle-aged woman as she carried her modest purchases towards the carpark. Would she care for a shopping-list pad with the candidate’s smiling face and the Liberal Party logo printed at the top? The customer politely declined but took the opportunity to speak her mind. Why was the party she had supported at every election since 1996 trying to grab a slice of her retirement savings?
This was not Mosman, Toorak or Peppermint Grove, and the woman displayed no sartorial signs of conspicuous wealth. This was hardly the kind of constituency where the rule changes were supposed to bite.
“Would you mind saying what line of work you’re in?” the candidate ventured.
“Public transport,” replied the woman. “I drive buses. And in the evenings I help out at an aged care home.”
Pencils lingered uncertainly over ballot papers in the federal election as the…
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
