Tonight, I want to directly address you, the Australian people. While it’s easy, and understandable, that you should be pessimistic about this government, everyone should be optimistic about our country. Our health researchers have saved hundreds of millions of lives through breakthroughs in everything from infectious diseases to cancer vaccines to ulcer treatments. Our military [...]

After Julia Gillard tripped on her high heels during a visit to the Gandhi memorial in New Delhi last year, New Limited put together a list of the “Five Best Political Falls”. John Howard’s 2007 slip in Perth came in at number two, behind Fidel Castro falling off stage at the end of a speech [...]

In the aftermath of the attack on the Boston marathon, commentators such as Jonathan Green on The Drum and Rafia Zakaria at Guernica have discussed the disparity of media attention towards the small number of casualties in the Boston compared to the routine slaughter in locations like Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria. I remembered introducing a yoga [...]

I was out of town for most of the Melbourne Comedy Festival, but I was back in time to catch the final session of Aamer Rahman’s “The Truth Hurts”. Given that the show was very heavily booked, it seems likely to have a repeat airing. I was about to recommend it with a proviso about [...]

A speech I delivered this week in Hobart at the invitation of CEO Tasmania on the economy and the forthcoming election. Thanks for the invitation this evening. Tonight I thought I’d talk about the coming federal election, and of course it may come sooner than previously expected, through the prism of policy, by looking at [...]

There’s been a lot of hype this week from News Ltd and the Coalition about the purported threat to a free press from Stephen Conroy’s plan to require the print and online media’s self-regulatory bodies to show they can self-regulate. Conroy has been compared to the vilest dictators in history for this outrage. Well, if [...]

If the opinion polls are anywhere near the ballpark, by next International Women’s Day Australia will no longer have a female Prime Minister. It’s time to start thinking about feminism after Julia Gillard. And we could start by acknowledging that her Prime Ministership was no feminist victory. Of course, women had to fight for the [...]

Is the Eastleigh by-election just another opportunity for British voters to let off some steam about the state of the British political system or should Cameron and the Tories be watching their backs?

This week I found myself the target of some vituperation from anti-fluoride, erm, “campaigners” after my attention was drawn to an appalling picture of Tanya Plibersek posted to the Facebook page of South Australian independent Legislative Councillor Ann Bressington. I contacted Bressington asking why a commenter’s suggestion that the Health Minister be “lynched” was allowed [...]

“Join us for an evening with an exceptional politician, author, and very brave man.” That’s the message on the Q society flyer, although another way of putting it would be “Pay $66 to a shadowy fringe organisation for the dubious privilege of listening to a visiting racist hate-monger”. Next week, Dutch MP and far-right figurehead [...]