It was one of the more extraordinary interviews of recent memory – which was barely covered in the media. On Monday, Stan Grant interviewed Victor Gao on ABC television’s China Tonight program in the wake of the decision that Australia would purchase nuclear-powered submarines from the US or Britain under the new AUKUS trilateral security [...]
If Industry Minister Christian Porter is forced to quit the ministry on account of accepting anonymous donations to cover personal legal costs, then only super-rich politicians will be able to defend their reputations by means of defamation actions. The likes of Clive Palmer, who held the Queensland seat of Fairfax for the Palmer United Party [...]
Just when you thought no further apologies or settlements would be required by the ABC for some time at least, the ABC communications department was busy again this week. On Tuesday, ABC communications released a document by Peter Munro titled “ABC Statement on Ms Represented”. The documentary, which aired for a total of two hours [...]
Queensland – beautiful one year, closed for business the next. This could be the new slogan that defines what some call the Sunshine State if Queensland’s Labor Party Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk stands by her statements of last Wednesday. Addressing the Queensland parliament on Wednesday, Palaszczuk said: “You open this state and you let the virus [...]
Contrary to some claims, the US’s abandonment of Afghanistan this month is not comparable with the US’s abandonment of South Vietnam in April 1975. It’s worse. However, Australia’s response to the humanitarian crisis that followed the defeats of the governments in Kabul and Saigon is far better today than it was almost a half-century ago. [...]
Tony Abbott is the most recent of the four Liberal leaders who have led the Liberal Party-Nationals Coalition to government from opposition. The others are Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies (1949), Malcolm Fraser (1975) and John Howard (1996). Consequently, Abbott has some authority to speak to Coalition supporters. Discussing national politics during a podcast interview [...]
ABC management, along with many of its journalists, proclaims the ABC is Australia’s most trusted news source. This despite the fact, on the main evening TV news bulletins, the ABC regularly comes in third behind Channel 7 and Channel 9. It’s a matter of conjecture about why, if the ABC is correct, Australians prefer to [...]
Remember when the census was all about the Australian Bureau of Statistics collecting important statistical data? It’s a while now, since in recent years the national inventory has been weaponised by born-again atheists in their battle with believers. Or, rather, with believers of the Christian faith. Agnostics have no belief one way or the other [...]
It is a familiar fact that some of the best educated in our midst also sometimes seem the most unwise. Take Melbourne barrister Julian Burnside QC, for example. He voted for the Liberal Party up to and including John Howard’s victory over Labor’s Paul Keating in March 1996. Burnside then gradually moved to the left [...]
One of the advantages of being a reporter, media presenter, commentator or academic is that you rarely, if ever, have to make decisions for which there are policy consequences. In short, critics say rather than do. On Thursday, Josh Frydenberg appeared on the ABC-TV News Breakfast program. Towards the end of the interview, the Treasurer [...]