What I can't grasp about reporters who cover politics is why and how they decide which topics justify aggressive, relentless and much needed questioning, as opposed to those subjects which inspire nothing more than compliant stenography. Compare and contrast, for example, the dogged quizzing of Katy Gallagher in regard to matters prurient with the head-nodding acceptance of Energy Minister Chris Bowen's fairy tales about the viability of renewables

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It seems white guys are to blame for all the world's ills, no brownie points being awarded for achievements that range from democracy itself to formerly cheap electricity and the presumption of innocence. Where did we fail? That’s an easy one – we’ve been too tolerant to defend key institutions and values with a vigour that matches those who would tear them down. We played by the rules, whereas those who seek to destroy write their own. We’ve been stupid to let them

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Last week's ruling against Ben Roberts-Smith and his claim of defamation poses a question not yet addressed. What of his superiors? As Australia endorses the 'Yamashita Standard' holding superiors responsible for their subordinates' actions, the current speculation about the VC winner facing a criminal trial suggests those much higher in the chain of command must also face a reckoning

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In years past, you turned up at Circular Quay with the kids, walked around The Rocks and uttered 'ooh-aahs' at the pretty images projected onto the Opera House. How could such a plebeian experience satisfy the yens and yearnings of Sydney's oh-so-woke elite? Obviously, it couldn't, which explains why 2023's festival is a brightly lit adoration of Aborigines, gaydom, the environment and 'curated' $99 cheese boxes

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Wouldn’t you think, were you a disciple of the climate pseudo-religion, that you would do all in your power to avoid planetary annihilation? Perhaps even contemplate the embrace of nuclear energy? Maybe not if your real goal was to stuff the human race; and, say, a quarter or more the global population

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Narendra Modi will receive a rapturous welcome to Sydney, the cheering crowds begging to differ with activist academics who will tell you that he has made India a tyrannical fascist dictatorship. Check the facts, and you'll find that India is the freest country this side of Poland -- and the freest in the world with anything like its GDP per capita of just $2600

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Voice 'representatives' -- erroneously labelled because there will be no electoral roll and no voting -- will act only in the interests of a tiny, ill-defined minority. Ill-defined? Sure is. Would it 'make representations' on behalf of all 812,728 Australians who identified as indigenous in the last census ? Don't be silly! Should the referendum get up it will be the Aborigine Industry embedded in the Constitution

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The Prime Minister was sincere about 'acting on climate', sincere about 'fighting Tories' and sincere about the Voice, but there's no evidence he has ever thought through these or any other issues. There’s no overarching narrative, no great project, only ever the fashionable cause upper-middle-class inner city punters want him to care about. It's the way midwits think -- to the extent they can and do

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Much of what might be considered as 'the right' were unabashed defenders of globalisation, seeing it it as reducing poverty in developing countries, driving trade and the creation of new cross-border industries. Ironically, it is now the right, loosely defined, that opposes globalism as an attack on national and individual sovereignty, while the new left loves it for the same reason

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I'll admit that, at one point, I favoured nuclear energy. No longer. For some countries fine, but certainly not for Australia, not with our abundance of coal and gas. Arguing for nuclear cedes the preposterous premise that we face a climate crisis when the imminent reckoning is with the consequences of decades of addled energy policies

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