Today in The Australian

It is a truth universally acknow­ledged that we live in a post-truth age.

That Sally McManus’s speech on the 110th anniversary of the Harvester decision last week is ­replete with claims whose only ­relationship to reality is that they contradict it may therefore be par for the course.

Today in The Australian
 
“Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live!” proclaimed the banners in the Moscow mausoleum as Lenin’s embalmed body was laid to rest; but 100 years after the storming of the Winter Palace, all that remains of the communist utopia the Bolsheviks promised when they seized power on November 7, 1917, is the dust and ashes of its victims.

Today in The Australian

If there is a lesson from Australian energy policy, it is that it is far easier to make a fish soup out of an aquarium than vice-versa. But even though Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg have not worked a miracle, their National Energy Guarantee could be a first step to reversing the harm caused to what was once a relatively well-functioning electricity market.

Today in The Australian


The continuing crisis in Catalonia highlights once again the dangers plebiscites pose to social coherence and stability. By reducing complex problems to simple questions, they can exacerbate divisions rather than build agreement, while worsening the tyranny of the majority.

Today in The Australian


Faced with legitimate questions about the future submarine program, Christopher Pyne’s approach has been to mimic the great name-calling scene in Waiting for Godot: “Ceremonious ape!”, “Punctilious pig!”, “Moron!”, “Vermin!”, “Sewer-rat!”, “Curate!”, “Cretin!” — culminating in Estragon’s most devastating of insults to Vladimir: “Crritic!”

Today in The Australian
Having won a fourth term, Angela Merkel has secured a place in the pantheon of German chancellors alongside her fellow conservatives Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl. But there is no denying that the coalition she leads of the Christian Democrats and the Christian Social Union has emerged battered and bruised from last Sunday’s election.