Paul J. Berating

Today's Top Stories

⚡ Top Story

Two senior Liberals walk to One Nation as the party watches the furniture leave

Former senator Hollie Hughes and ex-vice-president Teena McQueen defected to One Nation on Saturday, the latest senior Liberals to walk out the door.

Hughes and McQueen out the door to One Nation — the Liberals aren't haemorrhaging members, they're being drained by a party that's figured out the host doesn't fight back. Menzies built a broad church. Hanson's renovating it room by room while Sussan Ley reads the heritage listing.

Michael West Media · AAP

Goodrem sings for Australia in Eurovision final

Delta Goodrem has taken to the stage in Austria to compete in the Eurovision final, with her performance sandwiched between Ukraine and Serbia.

Australia's been in Eurovision for eleven years now and we're still pretending it's not weird. A nation closer to Jakarta than Vienna sandwiched between Ukraine and Serbia, belting out a power ballad like it's our continent. Geography says no. The contract says yes. Goodrem'll do fine — it's the premise that's been flat since 2015.

SMH · Mike Foley

Coal comfort: Taylor kicks off Climate War 3.0

The Coalition is upping the ante with an aggressive energy policy designed to tackle the government’s climate agenda and the One Nation insurgency.

Climate War 3.0 — Taylor's running the sequel because the first two made money at the box office. Howard had Kyoto, Abbott had the carbon tax, now Taylor's got One Nation breathing down his neck and a coal seam to wave at the cameras. The policy isn't designed to power the grid. It's designed to power a preference deal.

Michael West Media · Judith Treanor

Never again. Worst antisemitism comes from Zionists says Australian Jew

I am Jewish, and the antisemitism I experience comes from Zionists and far-right supporters of Zionism because of my outspoken opposition to the actions of the Israeli state.

Treanor's saying the quiet bit aloud — that opposing a state's conduct and being Jewish are not the same conversation, and conflating them serves the conflators, not the Jews. The loudest voices weaponise the word until it can't do the work it was built for. Call everything antisemitism and eventually nothing is.

SMH · Matthew Knott

Wale wins, Canberra exhales — but Beijing's still got the lease

Matthew Wale's surprise victory in Solomon Islands gives Canberra a moment of relief, but the structural shift in Pacific power doesn't reverse with a single ballot.

Wale wins and Canberra exhales like a bloke who's just heard the smoke alarm was the toaster. One election in Honiara doesn't reverse a security pact, doesn't unbuild a wharf, doesn't unsign a cheque. Beijing plays the long game in decades; we play it in news cycles and relief bulletins.