Paul J. Berating

Today's Top Stories

⚡ Top Story

SMH · Clay Lucas

Six years from 'credible information' to criminal charges, and Hastie calls it sobering

Former SAS captain and Coalition MP Andrew Hastie may testify in the Ben Roberts-Smith murder trial, calling the arrest a 'sobering day' while cautioning against prejudicing proceedings.

Hastie calls it a 'sobering day' — mate, the Brereton report landed in 2020. Six years to get from 'credible information' to criminal charges while the regiment closed ranks, the decorated walked free, and the political class discovered its concern for due process at exactly the pace required to avoid doing anything uncomfortable. The sobriety was always available. Nobody ordered it.

Michael West Media · AAP

Lehrmann Runs Out of Courts

The High Court has refused Bruce Lehrmann's application for special leave to appeal Justice Lee's finding that Network Ten's report of his rape of Brittany Higgins was substantially true, exhausting his final legal avenue.

Lehrmann took his defamation case through every court in the country like a bloke appealing a parking fine all the way to The Hague. Three judges said no, and he kept knocking. The High Court's refusal isn't news — it's a full stop that should have been a full stop two courts ago. The only institution that came out of this worse than he did is the one that employed him.

ABC News · Tom Lowrey

Defence chief confirms Australia could absolutely do thing nobody has asked it to do

Australia's chief of defence says the ADF could deploy a warship to the Strait of Hormuz if the government requested it, amid rising tensions over Iran and US pressure on allies to contribute to regional security operations.

The defence chief says we could absolutely send a warship to the Hormuz if asked, which has the same energy as a bloke at the pub announcing he could absolutely fight the bouncer if provoked. Nobody doubted the ship floats, mate. The question is who decides where it sails, and the answer — as always — is whoever rings from Washington.

Spectator Australia · Neil Clark

The Spectator Flies to 1979 Because 2026 Is Too Hard

The Spectator Australia publishes a British political history essay rehabilitating James Callaghan as an underrated PM, while contemporary Australian politics goes uncommentaried.

The Spectator Australia running a Callaghan rehabilitation piece is the editorial equivalent of rearranging the good china while the roof's leaking. Neil Clark's polishing a forty-year-old British PM nobody asked about while the masthead's own backyard burns through prime ministers like kindling. Callaghan lost to Thatcher and history moved on. Some of us live in countries with problems that haven't been dead since 1979.

Spectator Australia · Jacob Heilbrunn

Trump's Iran Pivot: From Obliteration to Olive Branches in a Fortnight

After weeks of escalating threats to destroy Iran, Trump has pivoted to ceasefire talks, raising questions about what concessions he's made and whether the Spectator can keep up with the mood changes.

Trump spent three weeks promising to obliterate Iran, then sat down for talks — the strongman equivalent of revving the engine in a car park and calling it a road trip. The Spectator ran four breathless pieces charting the arc from annihilation to diplomacy like war correspondents embedded in a man's mood swings. Bismarck made peace through calculation. This lot stumbled into it through exhaustion and declared it statecraft.

Spectator Australia · Ian Plimer

The Spectator discovers fossil fuels exist, calls it journalism

Ian Plimer argues in the Spectator Australia that decades of 'demonising' fossil fuels have left Australia energy-vulnerable, dismissing human-induced climate change as fraudulent and calling for expanded fracking.

Ian Plimer calling climate science fraudulent in the Spectator is like a bloke selling asbestos insulation at a fire safety conference — the venue's doing more damage than the speaker. Plimer's been dining out on the same contrarian geology lecture since 2009. The Spectator keeps publishing it because controversy fills the subscription bucket, and nobody in the building has to live downwind of the fracking site.