The Spectator Australia

ROWAN DEAN | "We had it all. We had a great country." We had solid and reliable leadership. We had a great economy. We were respected and admired around the world. We called it as we saw it. We were loyal to our allies and our friends. We laughed and had fun. We made great music and great films. We dominated on the sports field. We made good use of the abundance of natural resources this land is blessed with, to further the opportunities for every one of us to enjoy the good Aussie life. Most of us didn’t give a rats about political correctness and all the pathetic fads of the hand-wringing lefty crowd. We threw it all away. And today we are paying a very heavy price. Paying the price for the vanity and treacheries of a lesser breed of politicians from both sides of the political divide who put their own personal egos and personal enrichment ahead of their sworn duty to serve the people of this nation. And now we are led by donkeys and cowards. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/the-30…

B1 does it again spectator.com.au/2026/03/b1-doe…

Why do the Greens oppose action against regimes who want them, and Australians in general, dead…? The answer is complex, but one factor seems to be an entrenched shared outlook of ressentiment, which Nietzsche argued was a deep-seated and reactive anger that emerges from perceived weakness or impotence. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/why-do…

My parents brought me to Australia 70 years ago. I am writing this letter to myself – and anyone else who will listen – to gather my thoughts. Gone is the feeling I once had that Australia had been successfully created from the meeting of peoples from many distant origins, all of whom came to this country with a will to strengthen its cultural integrity as well as share in its obvious benefits. Now there are some who have come here because they want to take and not give; because they want to bully their way into Australia’s benefits without giving consideration to Australian ways; and even to aggressively impose their unwelcome ideologies with no acceptance of any disagreement: Invaders who do not want to change for us but who want us to change for them. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/a-lett…

Let’s stop pretending this is mere incompetence or bad luck. It is my opinion that Labor has engineered our decline deliberately, not to govern but to dismantle the liberal democratic system that built the luckiest country on Earth. Every major policy choice since 2022 has accelerated that demolition through ballooning national debt, engineered inflation, energy sabotage, mass immigration without infrastructure, and a relentless transfer of power from individuals and states to Canberra and globalist bureaucracies. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/is-lab…

Almost all of what One Nation has proposed has been ignored or blocked. When it comes to ensuring we are not in the position we are now – facing shortages resulting from the Iranian mullahs’ determination to destroy the world rather than be defeated – One Nation has been the party which would have left Australia in a far better position than the other parties have. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/one-na…

The economic fallout from a long Iran war would be larger than most people yet realise. Fuel and fertiliser shortages will lead to higher prices and rationing, and this will ripple through the rest of the economy in the form of higher inflation and an economic recession. We can’t control the Iran war, but we can control how we react, and unfortunately, the track record of our government suggests they will do all the wrong things. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/prepar…

The Strait of Hormuz is the artery carrying one-fifth of the world’s oil. President Trump’s call for allied warships to protect it from Iranian threats was a test of resolve. Australia’s response was lazy and irresponsible. Refusing to send even a single vessel was to turn our back on the United States. Not just any ally, but the nation that has bled for us and with us, time and again. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/what-d…

Mamdani’s indifference to the Irish question signals the passing of two worlds: that of old New York and old Ireland. An Irish-American friend who’s a veteran of New York politics told me an anecdote about Congressman Joe Crowley’s loss to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018. That race was, in many ways, a trial run for Mamdani’s victory over Cuomo. Crowley supposedly told him: “There used to be 20 Irish pubs all up and down this neighborhood and I could campaign by just visiting each one on St. Patrick’s Day, now there’s only one.” Article: spectator.com.au/2026/03/zohran…

Israel is bombing Hezbollah targets throughout the country. Ground forces, meanwhile, are cautiously pushing forward. According to Israeli media reports, the IDF’s goal is to establish 13 additional positions north of the border. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/why-is…

Readers may disagree with the cover line of this issue. Pronouncing “the end of Trumpism” feels somewhat similar to declaring “the end of history” – a provocative, albeit less grandiose, statement that risks being mocked in the near future. We should start by saying we hope that we are wrong. Trumpism, as this magazine understands it, has been a boon to America. As Christopher Caldwell argues, the rise of Donald Trump was a healthy democratic response to a fetid political system. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/why-ir…

If you hear ‘allahu akbar!’ shouted in the street, you’ll probably run for cover. If a stranger bellows the Jewish equivalent, ‘Baruch hashem!’ in public, you might guess they’re expressing gratitude for their good health when asked how they are. If the words ringing out from the midst of a crowd are ‘Jesus Christ!’ You’ll probably think someone has stubbed their toe, or seen something ridiculous. Instinctive reactions matter because they expose deeper dispositions, often aligning with the very intention behind the action that provoked them. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/feelin…

Energy sites are now central to the conflict. Israeli strikes hit gas facilities in Asaluyeh, part of the South Pars field, setting off fires. Hours later, Iran struck Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial complex, one of the world’s main liquefied natural gas hubs. Qatari authorities reported extensive damage and fires, condemned the attack as a violation of sovereignty and warned that they reserved the right to respond. Qatar then expelled Iranian military and security attachés, giving them 24 hours to leave the country. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/the-ir…

Iceland is the only country where EU enthusiasts have managed to convince people that the accession process is simply a negotiation where the EU gets a chance to offer the applicant country a deal. To bid for a new country, if you will. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/icelan…

I am sorry to hear of the death of Stanford University Professor of Biology Paul R. Ehrlich at the age of 93. Ehrlich’s 1968 book, The Population Bomb – written with his wife Anne whose name his publisher famously kept off the front cover – established Ehrlich as the world’s latter-day Malthusian-in-chief. “The battle to feed all of humanity is over,” Ehrlich declared in The Population Bomb. “In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in world death rate.” Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/paul-e…

Is Labor deliberately ruining us? spectator.com.au/2026/03/is-lab…

ROWAN DEAN The simple truth is that, not only as an ‘advocate for survivors of sexual assault’ but as a human being, Grace Tame has not only shamed herself, she has shamed Australia. And she has completely denigrated and destroyed the respect Australians should have had for future recipients of the Australian of the Year award. Her selfishness, stupidity and arrogance deserve outright condemnation from the Prime Minister and the government. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/shame-…

Of all the weasel words used by politicians to conceal what they are really up to, ‘reform’ must be the most deceptive. Not only does it not have the meaning the political class give it, but that meaning is the exact opposite to its real and accurate meaning, giving the politicians unlimited scope to mislead the public, which of course they do with relish. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/brown-…

Chris Bowen is a zealot on a mission. He doesn’t do engineering or economics. To his mind, they are so yesterday. It is not by accident that he is the Climate Change and Energy Minister, in that order. Climate change is his thing; climate change is his priority. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/b1-doe…

Matt Canavan deserves congratulations on becoming leader of the Nationals. Staunch, switched-on, savvy – everything David Littleproud struggled to be. It would once have been a genuinely life-changing promotion – the kind that reshapes a career. Today, with the Coalition in its present condition, it is roughly equivalent to being elevated from bus conductor to bus driver on a vehicle nobody is sure has brakes. Some say a Coalition dream team is forming. I see deck chairs being repositioned on the SS Bedwetter. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/rev-up…

What do we see when we look at Australia’s political universe? We see a very brave One Nation party that opposed the thuggish, illiberal lockdowns far more than any others. We see a One Nation party prepared to vote to leave the Paris Agreement when the Libs voted the other way and the Nats found other things to do. Bravery should be made of sterner stuff, to paraphrase the Bard. Article | spectator.com.au/2026/03/rumour…