Originally published in The Australian, 20 November 2017 It is never easy to talk to someone about death, even in the abstract, but it’s especially daunting to raise it in the context of “what happens after you’re gone”; and if it involves a vast sum of money, it’s all so much the harder, seeming both ghoulish…
Originally published in The Australian, 14 November 2017 Whichever way it goes, the supporters of marriage between a man and a woman can be proud of their campaign. With polls showing support for same-sex marriage as high as 70 per cent just two months ago, the No campaign has done a fine job reminding people of…
Originally published in the Spectator Australia, 10 November 2017 The other week I was trying to elicit some interest in politics from a dozen country schoolkids. Eventually, I managed to coax a single question out of them. It wasn’t the standard query of teenagers forced to think beyond their usual interests. There were no teacher-pleasing…
One night a couple of weeks back I attended two separate meetings, of different organisations, both with an interest in public life: the first had about 50 people, mostly over 60, pessimistic about the next election; the second, over 100 people, mostly under 30, optimistic about their ability to make a difference. It might not…