Is the Australian Open destined to become the “Naarm Open” over time? This seems to be the logical extension of Tennis Australia’s continuing decision not to proclaim Australia Day on January 26, the date of European settlement on the Australian continent in 1788. Naarm is the name given to the meeting place of various Indigenous [...]
Since the ABC is in the process of presenting its talent for 2025, it’s an appropriate time to reassess its “expert” commentators on the US as America enters the second presidency of Donald J. Trump. As pointed out recently in this column, in late November 2024 American political analyst EJ Dionne appeared on ABC Radio [...]
And so it has come to this. France hosted a successful Olympic Games, centred on Paris, in mid-2024. However, Ice Hockey Australia has abandoned world championship matches scheduled to be played in Melbourne in April and May 2025. IHA officials are not saying much about this issue; neither is the Victorian Labor government, nor Victoria [...]
I am fond of writing words to the effect “as the saying goes it’s unwise to make predictions about the future”. A reader advises that the maxim has many parents but it’s probably a proverb of an unknown Dane translated into English. Whatever the origin, it’s good advice – which, as the record demonstrates, is [...]
On New Year’s Day 2024, morale was relatively high since the Year of the Dragon was expected to usher in a time of professionalism and rational thinking. However, that we live in a continuing vale of tears was evident as narcissism, anger, false prophecy, hyperbole, rudeness, intolerance, bad taste, double standards and ignorance prevailed over [...]
It’s all a matter of tone – or the art of being diplomatic. The diplomatic problem right now is that Dr Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the United States, has demonstrated a recent absence of tone. Along with an unwillingness to withdraw, or apologise for, undiplomatic hyperbole. The second volume of Rudd’s memoirs, titled The [...]
It remains to be seen whether Donald J. Trump’s MAGA movement will really Make America Great Again after Trump becomes the 47th US president on January 20 next year. Or whether the Trump administration will make America healthy again if Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s appointment as secretary of health and human services is confirmed by [...]
It’s a rare occasion when a weekly Wednesday speech at the National Press Club in Canberra makes news in North America. But it occurred on Wednesday after recently appointed ABC chairman Kim Williams managed to raise the ire of not only US podcaster Joe Rogan but also Elon Musk, who is said to be the [...]
It was the week of the Liberal Party fightback against the teals, who like to present themselves as community independents. Campaigning on Sydney’s Northern Beaches on Wednesday, Peter Dutton delivered a blunt message: namely, “a vote for a teal candidate is a vote for Anthony Albanese”. The Opposition Leader added: “If we (the Coalition) win [...]
The firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea in the early morning of Friday, December 6, is without question the worst example of anti-Semitism in Australian history. But this might not have been the case if the fire lit on June 19 outside the Melbourne office of Josh Burns, the [...]