We Could Do Better on Child Care

Rather than formal care, 50% of the mothers said they would prefer informal arrangements. They wanted the option to have a grandparent or other relative, a friend or a nanny providing care, with 66% even saying they would accept a lower subsidy if this meant more flexibility and affordability.

How Many International Students Are Too Many?

If the most successful American public universities are any guide, when it comes to international students, 10% adds diversity to the student body, 15% is the maximum reasonable level, and 20% represents internationalisation gone wild. In Australia, the average level of international students across the entire university system is 26.7%. By any reasonable standard, that’s too high.

Glenn Fahey: Choice a Solution for Equality

With all the talk of the alleged gross educational inequality of late, one would be forgiven for thinking we were mired in Groundhog Day. As host Julia Baird observed on ABC’s The Drum on August 13: “didn’t we just go through all this with the Gonski debate?” Australians aren’t a class-envious bunch, but the home of the ‘fair go’. Dragging down the top does not improve the lot for those at the bottom. We want a society that lifts those at the bottom. With all the clamouring, one would suspect some dramatic escalation in inequality had beset us. But that is simply not reflected…

All Rise to Clap Comrade Corbyn (Minimum 15 Mins)

In ‘The Gulag Archipelago,’ Solzhenitsyn recalled how someone toasted Stalin at a Communist Party conference and ‘stormy applause, rising to an ovation,’ broke out.  Stalin wasn’t present but the applause continued regardless. ‘Palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching,’ he wrote, ‘but who would dare be the first to stop?’

Israel Folau: Moral Compass All Askew as Virtue Is Eclipsed by Values

Unease is growing in Australia that something has changed for the worse in our live-and-let-live culture. The seismic shifts giving rise to this pervasive anxiety seem to have been coming in cumulative waves. Free speech has given way to the drive to eliminate “hate speech”; bonds of trust have broken in commercial life — especially in our financial services sector; dying is becoming a medicalised event activated on ­demand by the individual, rather than the natural ending of life; and religion has become such a divisive issue that a new law is now being drafted to protect religious freedom. Less…

Herron Murder Highlights Real Homeless Problem

As the details emerge about the background of Courtney Herron’s alleged killer, we need to take a serious look at the problem of homelessness and mental illness. Our approach to these problems has not been working. Henry Hammond, a 27-year-old homeless man, appears to have had untreated mental illness and issues with substance abuse, including the drugs heroin, LSD and ice. According to witnesses, he had a long history of bizarre behaviour. He was failed by a system that did not assertively address these issues because of misguided priorities. The real cause of homelessness — and of the tragic events in Royal Park —…

No, School Choice Does Not Cause ‘Segregation’

The mental gymnastics displayed by some people in order to blame school choice for Australia’s education woes never cease to amaze. A recent OECD report on school choice and equity indicated Australia has one of the most ‘segregated’ school systems in the OECD. This just means schools tend to have less diversity of student socioeconomic background — not that they are practising apartheid. And if we look at education equity in terms of what actually matters — the effect student socioeconomic background has on achievement — then Australia’s equity is actually slightly better than the OECD average. So finger-wagging at selective and…

We Want Our Country Back

I had always thought that Gracie Fields’ great wartime song, ‘Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye,’ was written with the departing troops in mind, but it was actually sung by Gracie Fields in the 1939 film ‘Shipyard Sally’ to accompany her departure from Glasgow to present a petition from the men of the Clyde to the owners in London who wanted to close their shipyards. The film opens with Queen Mary launching The Queen Mary to the tune of ‘Rule Britannia’ and closes with Gracie Fields singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ superimposed on ships sliding down the slipways. Some…

Democrats’ Descent into Liberal Madness Has Killed the ‘Progressive’ Brand and So Much More

Today, the far-left is betraying real progressive politics by coercing its base to ‘self-identify’ with phantoms that never really existed before. Then, while these hapless ‘victims’ are busy chasing purple unicorns across a psychedelic landscape the issues that once mattered the most to the middle class are forgotten. Beginning with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal the Democrats enjoyed a hard-earned reputation as the truly ‘progressive’ party. Through a series of federal programs enacted between 1933 and 1936, like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), and the Social Security Administration (SSA), American workers gradually…

Mao’s Long March through Today’s Tory Ranks

In Alice and Wonderland, the Queen believed six impossible things before breakfast. We present just one conjecture, far-fetched at first glance, but based on evidence. The Conservative Party, as frequently observed, is no longer conservative. But it is worse than merely a liberal dilution of its former self. Our belief is that the most successful political party in British history has fallen to the diabolical ideology of cultural Marxism. This is quite a charge, but please bear with us. To begin, let us clearly state what we mean by cultural Marxism. The Guardian portrays this concept as anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, but we use…

Orbán Accuses France of Tolerating No-Go Zones where Salafist Preachers Lay Down the Law

Viktor Orbán laid out his concerns about the persecution of Christians globally, and Europe's inability to protect its borders, in a meeting yesterday with Marc Fromager, National Director of Aid to the Church in Need. Mr. Fromager who has been to the Middle East on many occasions, said that radical Muslims mostly destroy holy objects and holy places. "For persecuted Christians the whole year is Lent, every single day is Good Friday, he said, adding that according to estimates some 200 million Christians, meaning 10 per cent of the followers of Christ are unable to exercise their faith in complete…

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