Imagine my surprise to see Gregory Storer and Michael Barnett starring in the first instalment of SBS’s Living with the Enemy. These are the two gay activists who tried to put On Line Opinion out of business four years ago costing us tens of thousands of dollars, editor Susan Prior her job, and now me my […]
Continue Reading...Posts in ‘Ethics’
Living with the hypocrites – showing on SBS
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014Let’s rub out bigotry (and Catherine Deveny) Bill
Friday, August 15th, 2014I always thought that George Brandis was right – it is legal to be a bigot in this country – but Bill Shorten has corrected him, a correction which he tacitly seems to have accepted by abandoning his attempt to change section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act. According to Bill “…bigotry has no place […]
Continue Reading...Why OLO has published on the link between abortion and breast cancer
Tuesday, August 12th, 2014After the treatment meted out to Eric Abetz, possibly the last thing I wanted to see in my email inbox was an article from a credible academic, with credible evidence, that there could indeed be a link between abortion and breast cancer. But there it was, and it has been published today. Despite the media […]
Continue Reading...Remuneration of politicians
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013I have quite a few friends who are politicians. A decent chunk of them earn much less than they could in the private sector. Some of them left much more lucrative jobs to go into politics. Others that I know undoubtedly obtained a pay rise by going into representative politics, and I wonder whether they […]
Continue Reading...Adam Goodes
Monday, May 27th, 2013This morning I read the Sydney Morning Herald’s letters page, which was largely devoted to Adam Goodes’ pointing out a racist slur during an AFL game the other night. The reactions ranged from the typical schtick of the victimhood lobby to the ramblings of someone who tried to explain away Goodes’ being called an “ape” […]
Continue Reading...The boundaries of legitimate protest
Thursday, January 26th, 2012As far as I can tell from the news reports, Julia Gillard wasn’t subjected to any actual violence today (unless you count being dragged to the car by her coppers), but we’ve never seen a Prime Minister being dragged by security like that before. It is reasonable to infer that there was a serious risk […]
Continue Reading...Freedom of speech, freedom of expression and the Bolt decision
Friday, September 30th, 2011Those in doubt that the Andrew Bolt case is about free speech need only think about the contortions of logic necessary to dismissing the proposition that it is about free speech. On his blog, my friend Mark Bahnisch says that “free speech is not at issue here” before observing that “[f]ree speech, as the judgment […]
Continue Reading...A producer’s view of animal rights
Monday, June 20th, 2011G’day Australia, Let me introduce myself. I am a primary producer. For my entire life I have been involved in primary production. I would like to think that this qualifies me as a professional in my trade. So what does my trade involve? Well firstly, I produce livestock. This makes me a whole host […]
Continue Reading...Human Rights Awards, Chris Sidoti, Pauline Hanson and On Line Opinion
Sunday, December 12th, 2010Congratulations to Therese Rein, winner of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s 2010 Human Rights Award, and all the other winners. It was particularly interesting to see the Internet get a look in with GetUp winning the Community (Organisation) Award. Other winners included Nina Funnell, an occasional contributor to On Line Opinion. You can […]
Continue Reading...Is JK Rowling a witch?
Thursday, April 17th, 2008Is JK Rowling a witch? It would appear to be a reasonable question given her performance in prosecuting a case against Steven Vander Ark for daring to have compiled The Harry Potter Lexicon. The judge is urging both sides to settle, drawing on well-known legal precedents from Dicken’s Bleak House. I hope they don’t and […]
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