Melbourne filmmaker Nathan Livingstone makes his daily bread producing online videos for his vlog, which are posted mostly on X @TheMilkBarTV and scorns the notions that Australians are so mentally feeble we needBig Sister Julian Inman Grant to vet any and all content we might come across. No fan of
American–born Julie Inman Grant is a key architect of the multigovernmental “Global Online Safety Regulators Network” to censor the speech that politicians and government bureaucrats fear. X owner Elon Musk should be thrown in prison, said a senator in Australia yesterday, because he refuses to delete a video of a
Why do some Australians feel so affronted by pale-skinned Aboriginal people? — Bruce Pascoe in Black Duck I’ve been reading Black Duck, A Year at Yumburra ($24), Bruce Pascoe’s latest. Pink-cheeked Bruce, in his persona as a First Nations Elder, gives me two main takeaways. The first is what
A disarmed population is defenceless in the face of tyranny. America’s Founding Fathers mistrusted the monopoly of government to weaponry and believed, on the basis of English history and their own colonial experience, that governments are prone to oppress the people. They believed that whenever governments plan to destroy our
This piece first ran at Quadrant Online in December 2022. It is reprised because, sadly, the Coalition has sided with Labor in moving to restrict what Australians can say and see. –– rf ___________________ IT’S THE story of the year, it’s unfolding entirely in public view, anyone could milk it—and
Forgive the foggy memory, for I can’t quite place the sign that announced in carefully painted white-on-black block letters just a single word, ‘BELIEVE’. Tennessee or Kentucky maybe, because the road it was beside wound through narrow valleys and hillsides waiting winter-naked for the first green sheen of the northern
Australia’s centre-left so often underestimates the centre-right that its advocates and publicists in the mainstream media simply cannot comprehend what motivates a politician with a conservative agenda and principles. Predictably, given the inroads the polls suggest Coalition is making, the current subject is Peter Dutton — ‘target’ would be a
It is with the deepest sadness that I must advise Quadrant readers of the tragic passing of David Martin Jones. David was intellectually brilliant, a good and kind man, and a great friend to Quadrant who had so much more to give the world and who will be sorely missed by so many, not
On March 15, 2023, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights a request to deliberate on whether the Commonwealth Parliament should enact a federal Human Rights Act (“HRA”) and, if so, what elements it should include. Dreyfus extended the deadline for the committee to respond
I didn’t mention in my previous post about the travails of travel that there was a Victorinox Swiss Army Card (above) in my carry-on bag. Caused consternation at Sydney Airport. After conferring with her superior, the lady border person decided that my toothpick, nail file and one-inch-long scissors had to
From Adelaide, where the Kaurna, “the shadowy people” once lived. I have read the histories and heard the stories. The histories serve us well, as they are the writings and recollections of a people in an earlier, and more honest time. They had no need to coat their words with
One of the defining features, possibly the crucial, most existential characteristic, of intelligence, is the ability to distinguish one thing from another. This is true in every aspect of our lives. A car is not a horse. The sky is not a mountain. Taylor Swift is not Led Zeppelin –
Melbourne filmmaker Nathan Livingstone makes his daily bread producing online videos for his vlog, which are posted mostly on X @TheMilkBarTV and scorns the notions that Australians are so mentally feeble we needBig Sister Julian Inman Grant to vet any and all content we might come across. No fan of
American–born Julie Inman Grant is a key architect of the multigovernmental “Global Online Safety Regulators Network” to censor the speech that politicians and government bureaucrats fear. X owner Elon Musk should be thrown in prison, said a senator in Australia yesterday, because he refuses to delete a video of a
Why do some Australians feel so affronted by pale-skinned Aboriginal people? — Bruce Pascoe in Black Duck I’ve been reading Black Duck, A Year at Yumburra ($24), Bruce Pascoe’s latest. Pink-cheeked Bruce, in his persona as a First Nations Elder, gives me two main takeaways. The first is what
A disarmed population is defenceless in the face of tyranny. America’s Founding Fathers mistrusted the monopoly of government to weaponry and believed, on the basis of English history and their own colonial experience, that governments are prone to oppress the people. They believed that whenever governments plan to destroy our
This piece first ran at Quadrant Online in December 2022. It is reprised because, sadly, the Coalition has sided with Labor in moving to restrict what Australians can say and see. –– rf ___________________ IT’S THE story of the year, it’s unfolding entirely in public view, anyone could milk it—and
Forgive the foggy memory, for I can’t quite place the sign that announced in carefully painted white-on-black block letters just a single word, ‘BELIEVE’. Tennessee or Kentucky maybe, because the road it was beside wound through narrow valleys and hillsides waiting winter-naked for the first green sheen of the northern
Australia’s centre-left so often underestimates the centre-right that its advocates and publicists in the mainstream media simply cannot comprehend what motivates a politician with a conservative agenda and principles. Predictably, given the inroads the polls suggest Coalition is making, the current subject is Peter Dutton — ‘target’ would be a
It is with the deepest sadness that I must advise Quadrant readers of the tragic passing of David Martin Jones. David was intellectually brilliant, a good and kind man, and a great friend to Quadrant who had so much more to give the world and who will be sorely missed by so many, not
On March 15, 2023, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights a request to deliberate on whether the Commonwealth Parliament should enact a federal Human Rights Act (“HRA”) and, if so, what elements it should include. Dreyfus extended the deadline for the committee to respond
I didn’t mention in my previous post about the travails of travel that there was a Victorinox Swiss Army Card (above) in my carry-on bag. Caused consternation at Sydney Airport. After conferring with her superior, the lady border person decided that my toothpick, nail file and one-inch-long scissors had to
From Adelaide, where the Kaurna, “the shadowy people” once lived. I have read the histories and heard the stories. The histories serve us well, as they are the writings and recollections of a people in an earlier, and more honest time. They had no need to coat their words with
One of the defining features, possibly the crucial, most existential characteristic, of intelligence, is the ability to distinguish one thing from another. This is true in every aspect of our lives. A car is not a horse. The sky is not a mountain. Taylor Swift is not Led Zeppelin –
