In one of those unhappy coincidences, NSW and New Zealand each made abortion legal on the same day. The media's conduct has been beneath contempt, which is hardly a surprise, but that of alleged conservatives, especially in Macquarie Street, has been far, far worse

For the modern corporation diversity is both woke grandstanding and business strategy. The metastasising political correctness this entails will continue to embed, spread and poison, all the while diminishing our freedoms in ways that, not so long ago, were the sole privilege of the State

The emergent nationalist strain of Trumpist conservativism is not merely unaligned with economically liberal conservatism but antithetical to it. Here not so much. Why would one expect Liberal Party wets, who now dominate the party, to cheer for those conservatives who oppose the progressive, globalist, diversity-obsessed to-do list?

There is no denying the former PM was targeted by a loosely connected archipelago of haters allied in their shared desire to see him gone. Whatever his enemies' goals or the different tacks their campaigns took, a bunch of political pygmies won and the nation lost

Anyone is free to slag off at Christian views, just as Israel Folau is -- make that 'should be' -- free to publish his list of sinners on the path to perdition. Yes, it's a free-speech issue which his defenders are correct to stress, but why do some feel the need to qualify their support by simultaneously deriding his views and advocacy?

The tyranny of the majority is perhaps the worst despotism of all, for it finds a home under the cover of liberal democracy. It's encroachments are legion and expanding, evident in the diktats of our woke corporations and a pearl-clutching intolerance that will endure only politically correct words, deeds and thoughts

Governments, most in any case, do want to do the right thing. They like to be liked for tackling what they and others, including voters, see as problems to be corrected through policy, edict and enforcement, believing the various arms of the state can engineer solutions. They are fools for thinking so

Now that victory's first flush has passed, do we have a government that will end the AHRC's mischief, oblige the ABC to observe its charter, reform universities and restore proper learning to our schools? For conservatives it is, or should be, a target-rich political landscape. Are you, Mr Morrison, prepared to open fire?

The Australian Conservatives' appeal boiled down to being little more than a vehicle for voters cranky with the Liberals to express that anger and then, having made their point, see their preferences flow back to the Coalition. An observer might reasonably ask of such a minor party, 'What is the point of you?'