The heroes of our nationhood were not resistance leaders or freedom fighters, but politicians and statesmen, most now forgotten or only half-remembered. Their creation is an achievement worth celebrating

The widespread suspicion is that Daniel Andrews' pledge to stage the now-cancelled Commonwealth Games in a number of scattered regional centres was a cynical ploy to buy marginal-seat votes in the bush. This perception of a pig in a poke, compounded by the Premier's talent for lying even when he doesn't have to, is an embarrassment not just for Victoria but for all Australia

Let me say a few words in support of emus -- dromaius novaehollandiae in the argot of zoologists -- the forgotten ‘other’ of the bookends on our nation’s coat of arms. Once of equal standing with the kangaroo in our symbology, our largest ratite has been unjustly denied the limelight by her hopping partner

The uncomfortable truth my friend, a fellow retired academic, and I were obliged to admit is that we old guys failed to recognise the danger of post-modernist philosophies until they had well and truly taken root. If only we had been moved to go on the offensive in defence of reason, logic and history, the world we know today might not have descended to its current dire state