The Conversation and the ABC demean public debate

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On any empirical analysis, Australia is one of the most stable democracies in the Western world. Moreover, it suffers none of the current political tensions that ­afflict its closest allies, Britain and the US, under the leadership of Boris Johnson and Donald J. Trump respectively. Even so, a degree of hyperbole prevails in the land…

Opposition realises it’s the conservative vote that counts

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It’s a brave Labor Party parliamentarian and self-declared “progressive” who admits to being “on the same side of an argument as Alan Jones” — on occasions at least. But that’s what Clare O’Neil, the Labor MP for Hotham in southeast Melbourne, told the John Curtin Research Centre on Thursday. O’Neil has not embraced the fan…

40 years on, welcome signs of a more constructive Aunty

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At the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster, it appears to be a case of in with the new, out with the old and bury the dead. Ita Buttrose, who became ABC chairwoman in February, is a distinct improvement on her predecessors James Spigelman and Justin Milne. She is more willing to accept that the public broadcaster is…

Britain’s Supreme Court sides with ‘European’ progressives

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On Wednesday, the morning after the unanimous decision of Britain’s Supreme Court in Miller v The Prime Minister, Jonathan Sumption appeared on Adam Boulton’s All Out Politics program on Sky News UK. Lord Sumption retired from the Supreme Court late last year. Earlier this year he delivered the Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4. Boulton…

It’s not a conversation when only one view is allowed

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There is nothing new about what some have termed the new intolerance. It’s just that contemporary intolerance is more intense and all-embracing than once was the case. Writing in The Spectator this month, Rod Liddle reflected on the gay marriage the BBC recently featured on Songs of Praise, which broadcasts hymns from churches. Not surprisingly,…

The pointscoring behind the Liu pile-on

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Gladys Liu during Question Time in the House of Representatives Picture: Kym Smith There is a lot to be said for the biblical injunction “by their fruits you will know them”. This is of relevance to claims that Gladys Liu, the Liberal member for the eastern Melbourne seat of Chisholm, is not a fit and…

Lesson on Christian leadership ought to begin at home

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Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration Kristina Keneally. In Nine Entertainment’s news­papers on Tuesday, Latika Bourke reported Tony Abbott’s speech to the Policy Exchange think tank in support of Britain exiting the EU — Brexit. The heading was “Tony Abbott quotes the Bible in London Brexit speech”. The biblical quote occurred close to the…

How Cormann saved the election for the Liberal Party

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Scott Morrison, centre, with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, left, and Senator Mathias Cormann, right, walk out of a press conference in July. It’s just over 100 days since the Coali­tion’s crushing victory over Labor at the federal election in May. Speaking on the occasion of Scott Morrison’s first anniversary as Prime Minister last Saturday, John Howard…

Anti-Pell media pile-on has its day despite Weinberg dissent

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TSI Staff
David Marr is a George Pell ­antagonist who writes for the left-wing Guardian Australia and appears on the ABC. In the Guardian Australia on Wednesday, Marr commented on the decision of the Victorian Court of Appeal in ­George Pell v The Queen. Marr had this to say about Justice Mark Weinberg, who delivered the dissenting…

Labor missed the boat by threatening to raise taxes

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Former prime minister Paul Keating’s interview with Laura Tingle on ABC television’s 7.30 last Tuesday has set up a debate within the Labor Party over its defeat in the May election. Some Labor supporters agree with Keating that Labor, under Bill Shorten’s leadership, “failed to understand the middle-class economy” that Keating claims to have created along with…
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