Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
The Missing Voice of the Country Party
Billy McMahon was an unprepossessing prime minister until his defeat by an ALP headed by Gough Whitlam in 1972. He was slight of build, had a high voice, and when he inspected the Australian troops stationed in Malaysia he turned up in a dark-pink knitted safari suit. “Here comes Billy in drag,” remarked the correspondent of the Age, Alan Barnes.
The leader of the other half of the Coalition government, Doug Anthony, was an impressive farmer and a fine upstanding Country Party member. Supporters would slap him on the back and tell him that he should be prime minister instead of Billy. So he changed his party’s name to the National Party, and set it on an unfortunate course for which the nation, the bush, the Liberals, Senator Bridget McKenzie and the Prime Minister Scott Morrison are paying a price today.
The Nationals said goodbye to the bush and became a party of small business in country towns. Until she stood down at the last election, my wife, Pru Goward, was the…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins
