Last week's ruling against Ben Roberts-Smith and his claim of defamation poses a question not yet addressed. What of his superiors? As Australia endorses the 'Yamashita Standard' holding superiors responsible for their subordinates' actions, the current speculation about the VC winner facing a criminal trial suggests those much higher in the chain of command must also face a reckoning

This week marks another year since waves of Diggers left their Gallipoli trenches and were immediately cut down by Turkish machine guns, a scene best known from the climactic moments of Peter Weir's 1981 film. That, however, is fiction. The truth about the attack, the slaughter and the heroism, is even more horrifying

The deficiencies and absurdities of the French Barracuda submarines we are buying -- useless, toxic and dangerous to all Australians, not just those who crew them -- can boast only one outstanding feature: they sail ever onward into their red-ink abyss with no one in authority having the will or wits to scuttle them

It seems Australian adults cannot be given the facts and then trusted to make decisions concerning what risks they are willing to take.  We have 25 million-plus people, which means that 0.1 per cent of the total population has tested positive for COVID-19 and 0.0036 per cent has died. Yet on bended knee we surrender our liberties

It is almost impossible to find a credible analyst or writer willing to laud the unlamented Turnbull government’s decision to splash unknown billions on a mythical French submarine. In fact it is impossible to find anyone outside the Canberra bubble or not on the submarine-building payroll who praises this farce, although potential enemies must be very well pleased indeed

Revising history is not a new phenomenon; it is as […]

Were it not for Peter O’Brien’s comprehensive analysis of Dark Emu, this faux history would enter the mainstream uncontested. Now, with the whole cloth of Bruce Pascoe's fantasies being draped over the minds of schoolchildren and the ABC championing his compendium of nonsense, there is a refutation for those who still believe truth matters

Summer is coming and, unless we're very lucky, blackouts too, which is only to be expected in light -- or lack of it -- of the greater demand for electricity from a diminished base-load generating capacity. How bad could it get? If my experience in the benighted hellhole of Dubai is any guide, very bad indeed

The ISIS leader was a brutal, homicidal lunatic who followed and applied the doctrines of an extremely vicious branch of Sunni Islam. As there are several million fellow believers it is beyond credence to hope this barbaric cult will end with his death. It won't. There are many more adherents in need of killing