Some might think old-fashioned Manning Clark’s opening line that civilisation arrived in Australian in 1788. Still, in a land that had only seen hunter-gatherer cultures the arrival of the First Fleet was the start of settled communities on the Australian continent: buildings, bridges, villages, towns. It also brought the application of British common law to […]

Read More

Bush did what he thought was right—and on the biggest issues, what was right. Read more …

Read More

This new holiday quiz from Australian Conservative will keep you guessing. Read more …

Read More

In a few hours, George W. Bush will walk out of the Oval Office for the last time as president. As he leaves, he carries with him the near-universal opprobrium of the permanent class that inhabits our nation’s capital. Yet perhaps the most important reason for this unpopularity is the one least commented on. More […]

Read More

… Hardly a coup to boast about. It is a feat of derring-do on about the level of stealing books from libraries on busy days. Read more …

Read More

In the wake of the deception by a freelance journalist who tricked Quadrant into publishing a misleading article, I have a suggestion. Crikey columnist Margaret Simons and the freelance journalist, Katherine Wilson, could use Wilson’s forthcoming baby bonus as seed capital for a new gazette dedicated to their brand of journalistic ethics – working title Postmodern […]

Read More

One of the inevitable consequences of the placement of a bogus article in the January-February edition of Quadrant by a team associated with the online publication Crikey and its writer Margaret Simons is that, in future, we will scrutinise more closely the personal credentials of authors who submit freelance contributions to the journal. Indeed, as […]

Read More

An author calling herself ‘Sharon Gould’ has tricked Quadrant into publishing in its January-February edition an article about popular scares on biotechnology issues. ‘Gould’ now claims her article is a hoax. However, there is something funny going on here which readers should be aware of. A genuine hoax, like that of Alan Sokal and Ern […]

Read More

It was liberal Democrats, again led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today’s financial crisis. Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the […]

Read More

“Had you been listening to these [ABC] reports during the recent US elections, it would have been a complete mystery to you as to why any sane person would be considering voting for the Republican John McCain. The fact over 46 percent of US voters ended up doing so would baffle you.”

Read More