Notes from reality TV
They say politics is reality TV for ugly people. So draw what you will from my being invited to participate in ABC2’s flagship series for 2013, the provocatively named Shitsville Express. In my...
View ArticleSilencing climate change dissenters
Something is rotten in the state of climate science. The atmosphere is so poisonous it’s like a throwback to the days when the Nazis tried to discredit the ‘Jewish physics’ of Albert Einstein by...
View ArticleRudd’s foreign policy mess
Welcome to al-Qa’eda in Papua New Guinea. Our very own terrorist network right on our doorstep, funded by the Aussie taxpayer. Kevin Rudd’s PNG boat people deal is potentially the most reckless foreign...
View ArticleStrange bedfellow
I thought I should share with you something you didn’t already know about Kevin Rudd. I mean, let’s face it — it’s getting harder and harder to find unusual stories about our regurgitated Prime...
View ArticleGorilla tactics
It was an Australian dream of the supreme New York fantasy: King Kong, the story of the gargantuan monkey who dwarfs Gotham City, the terrifying monster ape with the tender heart who clings to the girl...
View ArticleIn praise of people smugglers
It’s not the sentiment de jour, but has anyone considered that people smugglers might not be the root of all evil? Yes, they could probably seek out a more positive, state-sanctioned profession....
View ArticleA political melodrama
In Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel We Need to Talk about Kevin, a mother struggles to love her strange child despite the many vicious things he says and does. Something similar has happened with the...
View ArticleMy Aussie heroes
So, it’s 2-0 down with two matches to go. The last time an Australian tourist side was 2-0 down in an Ashes series in England after three Tests was back in 1977. I remember that summer well, because...
View ArticlePlease get rid of this dreadful technology
Ah, the thwack of leather on willow! Surely nothing could be more redolent of an English summer, or an Australian summer as well. Is there anything to compare with the sight of a ball bowled by a...
View ArticleSeptember 7 is our Spring Clean-up day
Spring is in the air, even though it’s still winter. During these past two or three weeks Sydney has bathed in gorgeous sunshine, the frangipanis have started to bloom and bikini-clad girls are already...
View ArticleKevin Rudd is just like Tony Blair
London There is something alarming, and distressing, for any sensitive Pom watching from afar your general election campaign. It is the similarity between Kevin Rudd and our own former prime minister...
View ArticleNotes from America
Back in Los Angeles after four months in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where I directed a three hour Bonnie & Clyde for a combination of networks — Sony, A&E, Lifetime and the History Channel. No, it...
View ArticleA dry spell
It’s a pity about Sam Strong’s production of The Crucible. Arthur Miller’s allegory of McCarthyism through the dark glass of 17th-century witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts, is one of the masterpieces...
View ArticleRudd’s foreign policy mess
Welcome to al-Qa’eda in Papua New Guinea. Our very own terrorist network right on our doorstep, funded by the Aussie taxpayer. Kevin Rudd’s PNG boat people deal is potentially the most reckless foreign...
View ArticleDesperate times
This will be the last column I write about Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. In over a quarter of century in politics, I never came across a more cynical and opportunistic leader. Never. From his...
View ArticleVote Abbott for the Ashes
So the Australian Test cricket team licks its wounds after yet another disastrous Ashes series in which its top-order batting was too brittle and its bowling lacked sufficient penetration. What’s been...
View ArticleThe cult of Labor
Last week, former Howard cabinet minister Nick Minchin spoke out against Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave scheme, describing it as ‘indefensible’. The next day WA’s Liberal Premier Colin Barnett let...
View ArticleDon’t listen to this foreigner
London There is a long and distinguished history of people — usually journalists — observing and commenting upon the politics of other nations. It is what I am doing right now. It is quite another...
View ArticleLabor’s stunningly childish campaign
Late in the election campaign, as Australians firmed in their resolve to throw Labor out, a study appeared that suggested the nationwide demand for change might be mistaken. According to the study,...
View ArticleThe real deal
Since the 2006 mid-term congressional elections that began the Republican party’s decline, American pundits have been scanning the horizon for models of conservatism that the GOP might usefully...
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