The revelations over the last 48 hours of the near-complete extent of the Obama Administration’s surveillance of US citizens via phone records and internet traffic prompted a response from the amusingly named James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence. Accusing The Guardian of “omitting” key information — though he doesn’t say what — Clapper makes [...]

The finance industry regulator admits that its new internet blocking campaign has caused some collateral damage.

The suspension of ABC radio announcer David Morrow after his “joke” about the difficulty of seeing dark-skinned footballers in the dark catapulted me back to a childhood memory that I hadn’t thought about in years. A group of us were playing a game outside – I don’t remember the name of the game or the [...]

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 [...]