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
Toothless Jackals of the Selectively Curious Press
When watching Sky News last Monday evening I saw a reporter frantically chasing Katy Gallagher across an airport plying her with accusative questions. Tell us why you’re lying, why don’t yah? Well, he didn’t put it quite in those terms, but that was the flavour. And he wouldn’t be fobbed off. He was persistent. I thought, this sums up the modern-day press. When the story is wrapped around prurient matters and who-knew-what-when, they are all over it. Did or didn’t Ms Gallagher mislead the Senate? Did she and another “mean girl” know more beforehand than they are letting on?
I’m interested, I suppose, in a second-order sort of way. That’s not to say the truth should not be teased or bludgeoned out. It’s simply a question of priorities. Call me news snob if you like, but some events are much more important than others. Currently, for instance, Chris Bowen is obsessively and messianically setting a course to bring Australia to ruination and he is doing so before…
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
