According to Geoffrey Robertson, the most notable Australian item in the British Museum is the Gweagal Shield, which he maintains was 'plundered' at Botany Bay by James Cook, whom he also holds responsible the 'bullet hole' at its centre. Neither shield nor hole is anything of the kind

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When Julia Gillard was Minister for Education in the Rudd government in 2008 she appointed a committee to rewrite the national schools curriculum from primary school to Year 10. When the curriculum’s compulsory Aboriginal content was published it became a controversial issue. The Coalition opposition under Tony Abbott called it “political correctness run riot” and […]

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There is no Aboriginal line of descent in any of Bruce Pascoe’s forebears, so it is not only his history in 'Dark Emu' that is bogus, but also his public biography. He should return his Indigenous Writers Prize and any other award given him for his claim to be an Aborigine. And he should apologise to his readers for deceiving them

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Following the rejection in August by the Victorian Appeal Court of Cardinal George Pell’s appeal against his conviction for historic sex abuse of two under-age choirboys after a Sunday Solemn Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, in December 1996, his legal advisers have now sought leave to appeal to the High Court. There are two […]

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the ban on climbing Uluru is simply one more example of the political strategy invented by urban intellectuals and bureaucrats who have tried to impose on the site a culture that exists only in their own romantic political fantasies

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UPDATED: The scenario laid out by George Pell’s accuser and accepted by the Victorian Appeal Court simply could not have happened. There was no time available in the priests’ sacristy for six minutes of sexual abuse to take place

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  The impression we gained from reading the transcript of [the choirboy’s] cross-examination reinforced the impression we had gained from watching the recording of him giving evidence. Nothing about his answers under cross-examination suggested that he was concocting, or embellishing, or “fantasising”. On the contrary, both the content of what he said and the way […]

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A close examination of the transcripts of evidence against George Pell shows the choirboy’s description of the site of the events was seriously mistaken, leaving his testimony devoid of credible corroboration. And at the core of his testimony was a contradiction that defies belief

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In the last two weeks of July, two former Chief Justices of the High Court, Murray Gleeson and Robert French, came out publicly to endorse the concept of a “Voice” in parliament for Australia’s Aboriginal population. Both agreed that a national advisory board, with a membership composed of people of indigenous descent, was needed for […]

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In the George Pell appeal, discrepancies and uncertainties in the evidence of Pell’s sole accuser were treated as proof of his courage and credibility under duress. But pro-Pell witnesses with their own uncertainties found the court dismissed everything they said

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