Doltone House, Sydney E&OE I hesitated a little, when Dan Tehan first suggested that there should be a dinner to mark the tenth anniversary, of the election of the Abbott government, mostly because it should have lasted longer and ended better. Before deciding that it was only-too-right, to celebrate coming back to government in record…
Originally published in The Australian In a calculated pitch to The Australian’s readership and in a sharp change of tactics, the main Yes campaigner, Noel Pearson, now says it’s important to answer people’s questions about the voice. If only he could. No one can say how the voice will be chosen, what powers it will…
Originally Published in The Sydney Morning Herald Especially on something as sensitive as the recognition of Indigenous people in the Constitution, it’s a big mistake to sponsor a referendum proposal that might fail. Had the prime minister confined his proposed change, formally announced on Wednesday, to an overdue recognition of Australia’s Indigenous heritage, it would almost…
Originally published in The Telegraph With more than 16,000 arrivals by small boat across the Channel so far this year, and 100,000 in the past five years, it’s no wonder that the Prime Minister has made stopping the boats one of the Government’s five priorities. While Britain’s predicament differs somewhat, I suspect there might be…
Originally published in the Spectator With inflation rampant, growth stagnant, government disintegrating, and nothing working – so I’d read, all due to Brexit, naturally – it was a wonder to fly into Heathrow, breeze through customs, and smartly get to a smoothly-functioning, clean and new London hotel via train and tube. What had happened to…
ADDRESS TO THE RECOVERING CONSERVATISM CONFERENCEHOSTED BY THE DANUBE INSTITUTEREFORM CLUB, LONDON E&OE What’s gone wrong with centre-right politics: is it our leaders, or our beliefs; or has the world changed? It’s a bit of each, as I will try to show, but there’s no reason it can’t be fixed. Consider the Reagan, Thatcher, and…
Originally published in the Spectator Australia Most Australians know very little about Morocco because it’s one of those places that rarely makes the news. Not much goes wrong there. In fact, much is going right. It’s peaceful, politically stable, and surprisingly prosperous. And for a Muslim country, it’s been remarkably protective of its Jewish community,…
Originally published as the afterword in ‘Dignity and Prosperity: The Future of Liberal Australia’, edited by David Stevens (Connor Court, 2023) As opposition leader, I often said that the longer the Rudd-Gillard government lasted the better the Howard government would look. But to the authors of these essays, it’s not just the former Labor government…
THE HYATT HOTEL, CANBERRAE&OE While life membership is a way for a political party to say thank you, to those who’ve served it, really, this party should less be thanking me, than I should be thanking you. But for the Liberal Party, I would never have been a member of parliament; never have been a…
E&OE It took me 24 hours by plane, 6 hours by car and 12 hours by train to get here. But I’d gladly do it again and again to salute the Ukrainian heroes who are on the frontline of freedom. For me, Putin’s war on Ukraine has long been personal. At about 515am, on July…
