Practical conservatives should confront the Toff-Tory strawman used to demean and dismiss every argument against the soft-Left agenda. Reinstating the rank of Queen’s Counsel only makes that more difficult

Where conservatives cite history and precedent, the left peddles emotion and feel-good abstractions in media-packaged slogans and sound bytes. In the battle of ideas, it is beyond time to counter that advantage

They hail each other's virtue and talk of "reform" while sliding from job to job in taxpayer-funded NGOs, universities, newsrooms and a politicised bureaucracy, but don't be fooled. What they crave most of all is power

Greens leader Christine Milne doesn't like coal, the people who dig it up or the profits they make. So why doesn't she take up that moral megaphone of hers and renounce the portion of her salary drawn from that and other iniquitous industries?

Like generals who insist on fighting the last war, rather the latest and very different conflict, our politicians' ongoing embrace of spin and sloganeering testifies to their contempt for the electorate, which repays that disdain with interest

Politicians have to declare their loyalties and vested interests. It’s about time reporters did likewise