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Articles by Gary Johns
One Nation must de-woke Victoria, because the Libs won’t
Labor in Victoria is rotten at two levels – economic and cultural. If the Liberal leader, Jess Wilson, and the Coalition win the forthcoming election, One Nation will likely hold the balance of power in the Legislative Council and perhaps in the Legislative Assembly. The Coalition and One Nation must work well together; if they do, they could serve as a template for a future federal alliance. But there must be a division of labour.
Thank you, Frank Tysen, for your work to preserve Palm Springs
Show Caption Hide Caption Palm Springs votes to extend data center moratorium The Palm Springs City Council voted to extend a data center moratorium to Aug. 2028 at a meeting on Sept. 30, 2026. I met Frank Tysen in 2008, the year I joined the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation Board of Directors. One of my first experiences as a board member was the ceremony celebrating the Class 1 historic designation of Casa Cody. Frank’s passion for Casa Cody led him to write the Class 1 nomination himself.
The ‘Blue Dot Communities’ Mirage
Noel Pearson is promoting a map purporting to show overwhelming Aboriginal support for the Voice. The claim doesn't withstand scrutiny Aug 19 2026 6 mins A writer, I believe, has only one duty: to recognise and defy those who would control thought and creativity whenever they appear Aug 19 2026 7 mins Depositing a cheque or making a withdrawal was once simplicity itself.
None so Blind as Those who Refuse to See
Not only does Noel :Pearson fail to understand human behaviour, he also ignores what should be the unavoidable conclusion that Aboriginal society has collapsed Aug 06 2026 4 mins Ruling Class influence is so insidious, insist the solons of the Left, that it is the air we breathe, visible only to the most sensitive and subtle scholars Aug 06 2026 11 mins It was long the French ambition to be rid of wolves, but more recently the creatures have enjoyed a better press.
Who is an Aborigine?
The definition of Aboriginal has shifted from race to association. The problem with this nicety is that the essence of being an associational Aboriginal has also shifted. Once, being Aboriginal meant being bound by circumstances and obligations – hunter-gatherer, animist, ruled by senior men, unable to move freely, both geographically and socially within the tiny society – constrained beyond belief. Most Aborigines are not so bound; their associations are nothing like what made them Aboriginal.
The Tenacity of a Labor Outlier
Mar 25 2026 0 mins Mar 25 2026 0 mins Mar 25 2026 0 mins Subscribe and enjoy unlimited access to Quadrant Editorial and much more.
The Liberal Party should trial community primaries
Australia's political parties are confronting a long-standing issue that has been gradually worsening over many years: the decline in party membership and the diminishing local political machinery that historically supported them. Across Australia, party membership makes up less than 1 per cent of the electorate. In many federal seats, the number of people selecting a party's parliamentary candidate can be counted in the dozens.
The Right not to Identify
NSW Health demanded that those it serves state if they are Aboriginal. It has taken almost six years to have this fixation on identity scrapped Mar 03 2026 4 mins The totalitarian temptation offered what many craved: community, certainty, and an end to the exhausting work of living with contradiction Mar 03 2026 14 mins I wondered why so many prisoners become Muslims.
Why Labor Turned Its Back on Israel
Feb 26 2026 0 mins Feb 26 2026 0 mins Feb 26 2026 0 mins Subscribe and enjoy unlimited access to Quadrant Editorial and much more. Unlimited Access Print & Digital Member Benefits From only $8.99 a month Feb 26 2026 0 mins Feb 26 2026 0 mins Those of malicious intent recognise a complicit government and know there is no depth Albanese & Co will not plumb to appease them Jan 20 2026 6 mins
The Last Thing Aboriginal Kids Need
What price happiness at a Port Macquarie school dedicated to reinventing a dead language? About $40,000 per student Jan 29 2026 7 mins Success in war has humble parents. It is often won by small, human-scale decisions of the kind Sextus Julius Frontinus recorded Jan 29 2026 10 mins Did Australia's then-PM fancy himself as Winston Churchill's replacement?
An Exit Strategy from Noel Pearson’s Bad Idea
ecret Women’s Business is back. Quadrant readers will recall how […] Dec 28 2025 8 mins Dec 28 2025 0 mins Dec 28 2025 0 mins Subscribe and enjoy unlimited access to Quadrant Editorial and much more. Unlimited Access Print & Digital Member Benefits From only $8.99 a month Most Aboriginal people make good choices after abandoning group solidarity.
Meet the Canberra Blaks
Most Aboriginal people make good choices after abandoning group solidarity. Unfortunately, some seek to regain it to boost their privileges Dec 22 2025 9 mins 'Come on in,' we say, and don't mind if those who take up the invitation pay no heed to our values, traditions, or language. Better if they don’t, actually. More diversity that way, more exotic recipes Dec 22 2025 4 mins Two generations before Charlie Kirk there was Leonard Read.
Diversion Therapy for Climate Ferals
The climate-deranged kiddies who skip school to clog the streets with strikes and protests need a better, valid cause.
Same Old Showtime at Garma
Human capital development requires people who can read, write, and turn up to work. The PM's latest rehashing of an old idea won't change that Aug 03 2025 4 mins Ross Garnaut wants a carbon market and Christopher Bowen doesn't.
The NT Coroner’s Post-Colonial Payback
The lens through which the NT Coroner chose to view Kumanjayi Walker's death distorted a host of grim truths and entirely ignored others Jul 15 2025 13 mins Author Susan Neiman is proud to call herself a socialist, but whatever her faults, she's angrily at odds with the woke brigade Jul 15 2025 5 mins How this cinematic masterpiece was conceived and shot is a story every bit as engrossing as the movie itself Jul 15 2025 32 mins Why was there a Coroner’s inquest into the death of Kumanjayi*...
Bad Habits: Getting Voters to Go Cold Turkey
As the Coalition dreams of returning to power, it's challenge will be to persuade voters to abandon their addiction to debt and pernicious myths Aug 04 2025 12 mins My 18 months running the ARB left me with a taste of what life in literary circles is like for so many. It’s not a taste that goes away easily Aug 04 2025 42 mins Human capital development requires people who can read, write, and turn up to work.
Dead Wrong at the AHRC
The latest reprise of the hoary deaths-in-custody 'scandal' aims to generate jobs for public servants and buckets of money for Aboriginal organisations Jun 18 2025 5 mins Progressives have trouble with the working poor, especially when they're making do and getting by. What's the point of poverty if it can't justify a new government program?
Ron Vernon: ‘Orders of the Day’, ‘Welcome to Our Country’ and ‘The Wine Tasting’
A UTAS academic has been sanctioned for daring to utter a truth feminists are frantic to suppress: it isn't only men who initiate domestic violence May 27 2025 7 mins Qatar, lovely little peninsula, has connections. Not the 'let’s-network-over-hummus' kind, but the 'hosts of Hamas' variety May 27 2025 4 mins Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief.
Marcus Ten Low: ‘nightclub of the sea’, ‘the flooded town’, and ‘death of a jockey’
A UTAS academic has been sanctioned for daring to utter a truth feminists are frantic to suppress: it isn't only men who initiate domestic violence May 27 2025 7 mins Qatar, lovely little peninsula, has connections. Not the 'let’s-network-over-hummus' kind, but the 'hosts of Hamas' variety May 27 2025 4 mins Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief.
Tony Cousins: ‘Briton Riviere. Pallas Athena and the Herdsman’s Dogs (1876)’ and ‘Madness in a Black Suit’
A UTAS academic has been sanctioned for daring to utter a truth feminists are frantic to suppress: it isn't only men who initiate domestic violence May 27 2025 7 mins Qatar, lovely little peninsula, has connections. Not the 'let’s-network-over-hummus' kind, but the 'hosts of Hamas' variety May 27 2025 4 mins Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief. And yet that is precisely what our courts are doing May 27 2025 12 mins Briton Riviere.
Oisin Breen: ‘The High Grass of Innisdubh’
A UTAS academic has been sanctioned for daring to utter a truth feminists are frantic to suppress: it isn't only men who initiate domestic violence May 27 2025 7 mins Qatar, lovely little peninsula, has connections. Not the 'let’s-network-over-hummus' kind, but the 'hosts of Hamas' variety May 27 2025 4 mins Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief.
K. M. Preston: ‘Connecting Dots’, ‘Quinces’ and ‘Strawberries’
A UTAS academic has been sanctioned for daring to utter a truth feminists are frantic to suppress: it isn't only men who initiate domestic violence May 27 2025 7 mins Qatar, lovely little peninsula, has connections. Not the 'let’s-network-over-hummus' kind, but the 'hosts of Hamas' variety May 27 2025 4 mins Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief.
James Thomson: ‘fortress’
A UTAS academic has been sanctioned for daring to utter a truth feminists are frantic to suppress: it isn't only men who initiate domestic violence May 27 2025 7 mins Qatar, lovely little peninsula, has connections. Not the 'let’s-network-over-hummus' kind, but the 'hosts of Hamas' variety May 27 2025 4 mins Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief.
Berislav Maroya: ‘On a theme’
A UTAS academic has been sanctioned for daring to utter a truth feminists are frantic to suppress: it isn't only men who initiate domestic violence May 27 2025 7 mins Qatar, lovely little peninsula, has connections. Not the 'let’s-network-over-hummus' kind, but the 'hosts of Hamas' variety May 27 2025 4 mins Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief.
Jason Beale: ‘Columbines’ and ‘Home Again’
A UTAS academic has been sanctioned for daring to utter a truth feminists are frantic to suppress: it isn't only men who initiate domestic violence May 27 2025 7 mins Qatar, lovely little peninsula, has connections. Not the 'let’s-network-over-hummus' kind, but the 'hosts of Hamas' variety May 27 2025 4 mins Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief.
Mocco Wollert: ‘The kiss’, ‘Silence’ and ‘Sonnet: a feather’
A UTAS academic has been sanctioned for daring to utter a truth feminists are frantic to suppress: it isn't only men who initiate domestic violence May 27 2025 7 mins Qatar, lovely little peninsula, has connections. Not the 'let’s-network-over-hummus' kind, but the 'hosts of Hamas' variety May 27 2025 4 mins Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief.
Family Law and Aboriginal Culture
Tilting the law in parenting cases to give more weight to Aboriginal culture defies belief. And yet that is precisely what our courts are doing May 27 2025 12 mins “And what did you do in the army?” I asked. “I was a torturer,” he replied.
Alberta to the rescue
The Canadian Alberta province’s inquiry into its Covid-19 response was true to its motto, ‘strong and free.’ In contrast, the Commonwealth of Australia’s inquiry was weak and faint-hearted. Masks, lockdowns, infection-acquired immunity, rapid testing and the shaming of medical professionals who questioned the orthodoxy were challenged in Alberta, yet these matters were largely swept aside in Australia.
Indoctrination Dressed as Education
Of all the rorts, scams, lies and rent-seeking that characterise warmism it is the brainwashing of children that is most profoundly disturbing Jan 31 2025 9 mins What did our political leaders and police think would result from turning a blind eye to escalating incidents of anti-Semitism? Jan 31 2025 4 mins Why fund jobs in remote communities with no prospects other than permanent reliance on government support?
The Global Intifada Arrives
What did our political leaders and police think would result from turning a blind eye to escalating incidents of anti-Semitism? Jan 31 2025 4 mins Why fund jobs in remote communities with no prospects other than permanent reliance on government support? Jan 30 2025 3 mins Give the ABC top marks for consistency.
Remote from Reality
Why fund jobs in remote communities with no prospects other than permanent reliance on government support? Jan 30 2025 3 mins Give the ABC top marks for consistency. Whenever it reports on Gaza, there is only one villain -- and it certainly isn't Hamas Jan 30 2025 15 mins Climate models generate junk in infinite iterations.
Pallywood Films and Their ABC Present
Why fund jobs in remote communities with no prospects other than permanent reliance on government support? Jan 30 2025 3 mins Give the ABC top marks for consistency. Whenever it reports on Gaza, there is only one villain -- and it certainly isn't Hamas Jan 30 2025 15 mins Climate models generate junk in infinite iterations. Bear that in mind when catastropharians cite the 'butterfly effect' as solid science Jan 30 2025 7 mins Being so pro-Palestine often puts the ABC in a bind.
Beauty, Truth, and the Good
Expect to hear little more from the national broadcaster about Robin -- dead name 'Robert' -- Westman and today's even deader kids in Minneapolis Aug 28 2025 3 mins Anything that helps a government which treats the suffering of its people as political capital is a travesty Aug 28 2025 3 mins Strangers we were but, ultimately, not strangers at all, rather lovers of craft and musicianship, of imagination and artistry Aug 28 2025 9 mins Mark Fowler is a Christian lawyer who has long been a...
Musk Lifts Off - Quadrant
For all his quirks, this modern Edison is, above all, a disrupter, a man in a hurry to remake human destiny and his nation Jan 10 2025 7 mins Studying International Relations -- wokeness, Western masochism, antipathy for one’s nation -- is no conservative’s idea of a good time Jan 10 2025 9 mins Best of the Web: January 10, 2025: Allison Pearson on […] Jan 09 2025 2 mins If Hillbilly Elegy was compulsory reading for observers of American politics wanting to understand Trump’s first...
He pushed me first, bro
The timing is perfect: a book recalling the 2005 Cronulla riots by the key decision-makers at the time, New South Wales Police Minister Carl Scully and Police Commander Assistant Commissioner Mark Goodwin. The Albanese government’s decision to allow potentially pro-Hamas Palestinians to enter Australia has close parallels to the Fraser government’s appalling ‘Lebanese concession’, allowing ‘unskilled, illiterate’ Lebanese Muslims of ‘questionable character’ to seek asylum in Australia.
Bryan Magee and the Meaning of Life
The realisation hit Bryan Magee like a wrecking ball. At one level he had everything: “good health, energy, adventurous life, rewarding friendships, exhilarating love affairs, success in my work, exciting travel, the sustained nourishment of music, theatre, reading”, but now it was all being “overwhelmed, almost literally so, by a sense of mortality”. (Bryan Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 1997. All references are to this book unless otherwise stated.) And this was no ordinary fear.
Left, Blight, Left in Melbourne
We Melburnians have had a tough week – thanks to the decision of the Greens and their supporters to put a beast of a protest in the city to oppose the Land Forces expo at the Melbourne Convention Centre. The protest has reignited the idea that something must be done to curb their frequency and intensity. We accepted being the lockdown capital of the world – but protest capital? No, that’s a step too far.
Donald Trump, Unpalatable but Necessary
The Republican presidential contender is an acquired taste. Given the alternative, it's a taste persnickety conservatives should make the effort to acquire Sep 09 2024 4 mins Sep 09 2024 6 mins The proportions of Aboriginal children and young people placed in a relative or kin placement or with an Aboriginal foster carer have decreased, and the proportion of Aboriginal children who were reunified with their families has declined.
Modern Myths of Mother Nature
Tanya Plibersek’s eleventh-hour decision to ban a tailings dam essential for the operation of a proposed billion-dollar gold-mine project near Orange will cost NSW dear: $200 million in annual royalties, around 580 construction jobs and 290 permanent operational positions.
‘We Looked and There Was No Safe Family’
To avoid allegations of creating another “stolen generation”, child protection workers are expected to place Aboriginal children with Aboriginal families and have the process managed by Aboriginal organisations. Despite decades of trying, these procedures have not solved the problem.
Welcome to Borroloola land
Every failure in Aboriginal affairs has its reward – the opportunity to offer a shiny new bauble to public servants and a journalistic cheer squad. Last weekend, and following the failure of the Voice referendum, there were three baubles – naming an Indigenous state, renewable self-determination, and a new economic development plan. Unlimited access to spectator.com.au and app The weekly edition on the Spectator Australia app Spectator podcasts and newsletters Full access to spectator.co.uk Or
The coming populist revolt
Populism occurs when the masses revolt against the elites’ view of the world. Elite opinion does not often deal directly with popular opinion, that is, with the people who have to pay for elite opinion. When elites get it wrong, the masses revolt through the ballot; the Voice referendum is a good example. Unlimited access to spectator.com.au and app The weekly edition on the Spectator Australia app Spectator podcasts and newsletters Full access to spectator.co.uk Or
None so intolerant as the tolerant
The Victorian Bar – you remember them – was a big advocate for the Yes side in the referendum. Fifty-seven per cent of the Victorian Bar considered the constitutional amendment ‘sound, appropriate, and compatible with Australia’s system of representative and responsible government’. Such ignorance could only come from a highly woke and politicised Bar.
Aussie life | The Spectator Australia
Much has been written of Australian soccer captain Sam Kerr’s big night out in the back of a London cab. A recent piece by Luke Pearson of ‘indigenousX’, ‘Is it possible to be racist to white people?’, was his attempt to explain the controversy over the alleged remarks by Kerr, whose father is part-Indian and mother white, against a white policeman in England.
Designer sickies and other madness
The new Enterprise Agreement at the University of Queensland is special but a typical example of the genre: designer sickies. De rigueur is the introduction of gender affirmation leave – employees can access up to 20 days of paid annual leave to affirm their gender. And increased family and domestic violence leave entitlements from 10 days to 15 days.
The identity trap
Somehow, the West has gotten into a real twist about identity, especially that of minorities. Identity is being used to undermine equality and liberty in the name of justice for minorities. Minority group identity is used as a weapon against the alleged privileges of the majority. As a consequence, common humanity and individual freedoms are being undermined.
Black arts faculty
The Queensland University of Technology is to establish a Faculty of Indigenous Knowledges and Culture. Damn, my grammar app keeps trying to correct knowledges to knowledge. Obviously, it is a colonialist piece of software that refuses to acknowledge that Aboriginal people know differently. Some Aboriginal people know different things, but I doubt they know differently.
Referendum madness
Why did the political elite of Australia allow a nasty idea, the constitutional right to a Voice for one group of Australians, to be put to the Australian people? It is not as if changing the Australian constitution would solve the Aboriginal problem: that 20 per cent have been locked out of the spoils of modernity by an ideology of self-determination. Indeed, it was only going to make things worse.
Vote yes for cake and Coke
This week, Aboriginal children will walk into the store at Warburton in Western Australia and purchase the typical fare of an Aboriginal diet. On the same latitude as the border of Northern Territory and South Australia, Warburton is as remote as it gets. But cake, Coca-Cola, and energy bars are all available, and expensive. For adults, throw in smokes. These are typical purchases. Week in and week out.
Australian notes
An alliance of philanthropic foundations has declared their support for the Voice: a combined $17-million pledge from the philanthropic sector to the Yes campaign. Right now in Alice Springs and around the north of Australia charities are working with Aboriginal service providers to solve problems. But the $17-million pledge is a political act. It is not an act of charity. The Yes case advertisement mentions recognition, and reconciliation.
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