Archived publication for June 2008
Recent publications
Liberalism after Bruce Smith, but before Bert Kelly
Richard Allsop reviews Steadfast Knight: A life of Sir Hal Colebatch by Hal G.P. Colebatch & Senator Bertie Johnston by John C. Rice The political orientation of Australia's intelligentsia has produced a situation where there have been...
Cathedrals and the birth of freedom
Andrew McIntyre reviews Cathedral by Jon Cannon Enter any one of the great gothic cathedrals of Western Europe and you cannot help but be overwhelmed by their beauty and profound mystery, and also the sheer size, boldness and complexity of their...
How land supply restrictions have locked young people out of the housing market
Adjusted for inflation, the price of houses in Australia has more than doubled (trebled in Sydney and Perth) over the past 30 years. How has this occurred? In a landmark address to the Housing Industry Association in July 2005, the Institute of...
Gordon Ramsay's Worst Recipes
The problem with Gordon Ramsay isn't his swearing. It's his hypocrisy. Gordon Ramsay, Britain's most notorious celebrity chef has demanded ‘stringent laws-licensing laws-to make sure produce is only used in season.' In a BBC interview in...
The Politics of the Olympics
On the March 26 1938, six months after he died, Pierre de Coubertin's corpse was exhumed from its grave in Lausanne, Switzerland. His heart was cut out and transported to Olympia in Greece. The heart of the founder of the modern Olympics was then...
Oppositions need to change before they can win
Liberal oppositions across the country are using an old game plan-where a ‘small target' strategy could pave the way to government. Unless they figure out why this strategy is failing, these oppositions will remain in the political...
The imaginary bikie threat and due process in South Australia
South Australian Premier Mike Rann is obsessed with the Hells Angels. The Labor leader thinks that bikie gangs like the Hells Angels are a scourge on his state and the root of most evil, and that they are threatening the very existence of the good...
The moral code of Grand Theft Auto IV
Want to steal cars and shoot cops? Then Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) is the videogame for you. You won't be the only one playing it: released for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 in April this year, it's the game of 2008. In its first...
Have bad movies edged out good?
Chris Berg reviews Sleaze Artists: Cinema at the Margins of Taste, Style, and Politics. It may not come as a surprise that Hostel: Part II, the 2007 movie which depicts nearly an hour and a half of brutal, explicit and uninterrupted torture, is...
Selections from A Political Rakes Progress
Constituents Make yourself seen by knocking every door. Reject that offer of a paramour. Well, press their interests in the Parliament And never ever cross the folk you represent. For so say they: so says your party too. Both claim your...