British economist John Maynard Keynes is claimed to have said: “When events change, I change my mind; what do you do?” Or it may have been American economist Paul Samuelson. Or maybe neither of the above. But there is plausibility in the idea, whatever its source. Sure, this saying often has been evoked by individuals [...]
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese was interviewed by ABC Radio National presenter Fran Kelly on April 27 in the wake of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s address to the Australian Christian Churches national conference on the Gold Coast a week earlier. The speech was not released by the Prime Minister’s office but a video of the event [...]
The word around sections of the political commentariat is that the Coalition government in general and Scott Morrison in particular have a women problem. Meaning that the Morrison government is losing support among female voters to such an extent that, if continued, could lead to defeat in the next election, which is due by May [...]
Foreign Minister Marise Payne’s visit to New Zealand this week came at a time of increasing disagreement between the two nations on a range of issues. But a viewer who watched the soft interview of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern by ABC TV News Breakfast presenters Lisa Millar and Michael Rowland on Tuesday would [...]
It’s a phenomenon of our time that some men and women who receive an honorary doctorate from one of Australia’s tertiary institutions say something likely to attain media attention. And so it came to pass on Monday when Christopher Pyne, the former Liberal Party member for Sturt in Adelaide –—and a one-time defence minister — [...]
In the wake of Easter, it was “sneering secularist Tuesday” at Crikey this week. The newsletter (editor-in-chief Peter Fray) ran an article by Adelaide-based journalist Tory Shepherd titled “Saints preserve us: what Pell’s Easter homily gets wrong about the holiday”. The reference was to Cardinal George Pell’s article “Reflection and belief in the quiet Eternal [...]
Last Sunday, ABC TV Insiders presenter David Speers told viewers that neither Scott Morrison nor the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Women Marise Payne had agreed to be interviewed for the program. Victorian Liberal Party backbenchers Katie Allen (MP for Higgins) and senator Sarah Henderson stepped up to the task and performed very well. But [...]
Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating is reported to have declared that if you want a friend in politics get a dog. There are few real friendships in politics since nearly everyone is competing to become prime minister or opposition leader or hold cabinet or shadow cabinet positions. Friendship is one thing. Loyalty is another. [...]
There is nothing new about the left’s “long march through the institutions”, which presents today as the cancel culture. It was around at least the 1960s when political conservatives found it difficult to state their views on university campuses and elsewhere. It’s just that, in six decades, the march has travelled a long way. The term [...]
In days of old, when most journalists were reporters, a degree of scepticism prevailed with respect to claims by individuals. Nowadays, the increasing number of journalists who regard themselves as activists has led to a situation where large sections of the media believe what they want to believe — and campaign accordingly. Take CNN presenter Don Lemon, who is [...]