THERE used to be a statutory office whose very name struck terror into the hearts of those who feared for their sanity, now or in the future. This was the Master in Lunacy. Threats were frequently made that “men in white coats” were ready to take anyone away for behaviour or even comment judged irrational. We may well wonder what the Master would think of those who govern us today.
THE children of any Australian parent who dares to disrespect China will forever live in shame, according to a high-ranking Chinese official.
China’s Deputy Head of Mission Wang Xining also told his Canberra audience on Thursday that any Australian who “selfishly vilified China” would be “cast aside in history”.
LABOR has admitted it’s baffled by its ongoing election losses in spite of the Party’s “intellectual and moral superiority”. Former Labor Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said his Party had an unhealthy self-opinion and showed little respect for its opponents.
THE art of politics generally changes with each generation but in the past such changes were fairly slight and were kept from getting out of hand by older and more experienced political practitioners. However, in more recent times the change has been so fast-moving that it brings about a sense of confusion acerbated by the now 24-hour news cycle. What was once the Fourth Estate and a reliable check on political abuse of power now has little understanding of the art of politics and almost no regard for the national interest.
ANY fair minded, objective juror would agree that Donald Trump was never guilty of the high crime for which he was so improperly charged. Having achieved more than any other president, at least since Ronald Reagan, there is a widespread hope in the hearts of millions that for the sake of America and of the free world, his best political days are indeed yet to come.
THE Australian parliament and the Scott Morrison government are being rocked by an incident where a young female advisor alleges being raped in a minister’s office where she worked after returning from a night’s drinking with colleagues. As a teenage boy seeing his mother beaten and assaulted as a result of domestic violence I’m the first to agree too many women are shamefully abused and victimised by men. At the same time I refuse to believe society is riven with misogyny, that all men are guilty and that women are always passive victims.
A MELBOURNE academic believes women are not standing up for their rights to have female-only spaces – like single-gender changing rooms – for fear they will be targeted as transphobic. Alongside this, she believes that the increasing encroachment of gender-neutral language, such as “chest-feeding” and “gestational carrier,” is impacting the rights of women; who are allowing it for the sake of being “progressive,” without pausing to consider whether it is in the interests of women.
NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean has responded callously to the resignation of Liberal Party colleague Craig Kelly telling him “good riddance”. Mr Kelly is the latest of a string of conservatives who have departed an increasingly radicalised Liberal Party.
WITH nearly 24 per cent of power from the wind and more to come, the Texas power grid was humming along nicely, a shining example of renewables at work saving the planet. Then along came this month’s week long snow storm. The wind turbines froze up.
FORMER Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis has called the government a “threat” to academic freedoms over its insistence on freedom of speech on campus. In a heated exchange with former education minister Dan Tehan, Prof Davis wrote “there is an irony in governments deciding to investigate academic freedoms as government frequently emerges as the largest threat to such freedoms”.
