The bumping-of-the-elbows ritual, as demonstrated daily by members of the political class, is a comical ritual that, as with the COVID panicdemic which spawned it, popped up like toadstools in a meadow after a rainy night. Yet even though the chance of catching the virus in Australia is minimal, we tug the forelock and go along with it

If the convenient device of making serious but uncorroborated allegations against public figures were to become commonplace, it would become possible to wreck the life, livelihood and reputation of any person. Those now howling for an inquiry into a night in the life of a 17-year-old Christian Porter know this and don't care

President Biden says his Executive Orders are aimed at unifying the country after the divisiveness and confrontations of the Trump era. There is ample evidence, however, that these Orders, rather than unifying the country, will only inflame the Trump constituency

For too long now, laws have eroded free speech in Australia, and the indigenous Voice would see that liberty further constrained. Of the numerous objections that can and should be raised, the prospect of a nation divided into those who can air claims and those who will find it in their best interest to remain mute is perhaps the most insidious consequence