Free Republic

Nothing Left on Melbourne’s Jewish community radio station J-AIR has a niche firmly in the right. The show’s hosts, Alan Freedman and Michael Burd, say they are there to fill a gap created by what they see as the left-wing media and the political left. Are they Australia’s answer to Breitbart News? “I suppose that’s how you could pigeon-hole us,” says Burd. “I agree with a lot of what Breitbart would write and say. We fit in with them on issues like multiculturalism, Islam and immigration. We don’t pretend to be balanced.” Would they be classified as Australia’s alt-right? It’s...

IF you don’t think that multiculturalism and the politics of identity have become instruments of division in Australia, then you need to hear Tara Coverdale’s story. Like most mothers with young children, Coverdale enjoys opportunities to socialise with other mothers of children the same age while on maternity leave, especially in her neighbourhood in inner-city Sydney. So when a Russian-born friend mentioned a playgroup on Thursdays, at the Alexandria Park Community Centre, she was enthusiastic. Two weeks ago, on a humid Thursday morning, she bundled her eight-month-old baby in the pram and walked with her four-year-old son the short distance...

In this space, I have mentioned the concerns of several Christian readers that they will face pressure in their companies to declare themselves in favor of same-sex marriage, or stand exposed as “bigots” and marginalized. This is now happening in Australia. A reader there sends this story from The Australian. Excerpts: Some of the country’s biggest businesses have upped the ante in the crusade for marriage equality by asking Australians to wear a specially designed “acceptance ring” until same-sex marriage is legalised.

Australian koalas are drinking much more water than they used to—and it’s likely because of hot, dry weather aggravated by climate change. Koalas, which normally spend most of their time in the safety of eucalyptus trees, have begun to climb down and drink from artificial water stations provided by University of Sydney researchers. The koalas of Gunnedah, a town in southeastern Australia often referred to as the “Koala Capital of the World,” were drinking from the stations for more than 10 minutes on average, according to a press release from the university. Koalas are leaving their trees even when they...

AN Islamic community centre is generously giving $5000 for this year’s CBD Anzac Dawn Service after Sydney’s arty-farty Lord Mayor Clover Moore refused a grant for our brave Diggers. Ms Moore’s City of Sydney council has a whopping $574.3 million in the bank but has rejected an application­ from the Anzac Dawn Service Trust for a measly $5000 for next month’s commemorations. At the same time the Lord Mayor has been splashing the cash among her arts mates, including a recent $14,000 grant for a weird exhibition of crochet headwear. After The Daily Telegraph highlighted the issue, Imam Hasan Centre...

A man who claimed his pet pug 'Egg' was stolen at knife point during an armed robbery has been charged with making a false report. It's an unexpected twist in a story that captured the nation's attention. NSW Police are now one step closer in cracking the case of Egg's disappearance, although it remains unclear if the dog was ever owned by the man in the first place....

Police believe a Melbourne man who allegedly "slaughtered" and then mutilated his wife in front of their three young children may have murdered her because she did not want him to join the Islamic State group in Syria, court documents have revealed. The 35-year-old Broadmeadows man is also accused of bashing two of their children, aged under six, around the head — in one instance with a milk crate — and burning his toddler daughter with hot water. The man cannot be identified under a court order to protect the identity of his children. He was arrested and charged with...

With housing affordability a huge concern for many Sydney residents, one organisation is offering low- to middle-income earners the opportunity to live more cheaply in smaller spaces. Evolve Housing's initiative has already seen single people and couples making the switch to one-bedroom, one-bathroom places that are close to work but do not hurt the hip pocket. But can people actually live in a tiny apartment? The ABC took a tour inside one to see what it would be like.

RENTAL prices are about to soar even higher in Melbourne, but people are already on the brink and living in dodgy conditions just to be close to the city. People have been so desperate for cheaper rent, they have even resorted to paying about $100 a week for tents set up in backyards and on balconies, that were advertised on Gumtree. Others share a small living space, with a number of curtains strung up so each housemate can have their own space. Renters are also sharing bedrooms, with one ad on Gumtree offering a bed in a room with three...

A state lawmaker from Manhattan wants to make it costly for New Yorkers not to vote. Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a Democrat, introduced legislation this week that would establish “compulsory voting” in the state and punish those who don’t vote with a $10 fine. “Mandatory voting would drastically increase civic participation and transform the political arena by making politicians more reflective of the constituents that elected them,” Glick wrote in a memo submitted with the bill. Under Glick’s bill, any eligible voter who fails to vote would be hit with the $10 fine unless they have a “valid excuse” why they...

Frightened teachers at a Sydney primary school have revealed students are showing signs of extreme radicalisation at a young age, saying they have been traumatised by threats of beheading and other violent behaviour. Students as young as in Year 5 are making the threats and pressuring peers into reading the Koran at Punchbowl Public School in Sydney's southwest, the Daily Telegraph has reported. Documents given to the newspaper reportedly reveal that at least three staff members have taken stress leave, received counselling and been paid compensation after bullying from Islamic students.

A river in New Zealand has become the first in the world to be granted the same legal rights as a person. The New Zealand parliament passed the bill recognising the Whanganui River, in North Island, as a living entity. Long revered by New Zealand's Maori people, the river's interests will now be represented by two people. The Maori had been fighting for over 160 years to get this recognition for their river, a minister said. "I know the initial inclination of some people will say it's pretty strange to give a natural resource a legal personality," said New Zealand's...

The much-heralded Australian gun confiscation scheme of the late 1990s failed to disarm criminals to such a degree that Australia is going after guns again, beginning in July of this year. In other words, the gun confiscation scheme Hillary Clinton praised on October 16, 2016, as “worth looking at” for gun policy in America actually created an uneven playing field where law-abiding citizens turned in their guns while criminals retained theirs. The NRA-ILA reports: In a tacit admission that criminals and scofflaws have had little trouble circumventing Australia’s National Firearms Agreement (NFA) and the government’s confiscation effort, Australian officials have...

It's one thing to talk about changing allegiance to another country when a new president is elected. It's another thing to go ahead and do it. But that's exactly what seems to be happening, on a small scale, in at least in one distant corner of the world. In New Zealand, the number of Americans who applied for a grant of citizenship rose to 170 in the 12 weeks following the election of President Donald Trump from 100 in the same period a year earlier, immigration records obtained by The Associated Press show.

Instead of coming clean on policy failures, South Australia, the world’s renewable energy crash test dummy, has announced a decision to ditch free markets and assume direct government control of the electricity grid, in an effort to stabilise their self inflicted renewable energy nightmare.

Bill Leak, the great Australian cartoonist and painter and a dear, loyal friend of spiked, died this morning. He was 61. That his death, unexpected, comes just two days after the mirthful Sydney launch of his brilliant new book Trigger Warning: Deplorable Cartoons by Bill Leak makes what would have always been a tragic passing even more so. Bill was justifiably proud and excited about his new book, which is a collection of his best consensus-slaying cartoons. It should stand as a tribute to him now. Bill was the daily editorial cartoonist for the Australian. He was a rare breed...

As part of a deal with the Bible Society, Coopers released 10,000 cartons of commemorative Premium Light beer. Each can has a “Happy 200th birthday” message to the Bible Society printed on the side, while the cartons sport verses from the Bible. No money changed hands in the deal, which the Bible Society described as a “bicentennial gift”. The backlash started when the Bible Society hosted a video debate on marriage equality, featuring federal MPs Tim Wilson (who supports same-sex marriage) and Andrew Hastie (who opposes it). It was advertised as the first in a series of “light discussions on...

High-school students are being pressured to attend daily prayer meetings, lectures on the Koran and even cut their hair by peers badgering them to conform to Islam, according to 'scared' parents at Punchbowl Boys High School. The Punchbowl high school in Western Sydney has been identified as one of 19 New South Wales schools at risk of radicalising Muslim students, according to The Daily Telegraph. The NSW Government listed 19 schools across Western and South-Western Sydney taking part in a counter-extremism program called School Communities Working Together. Punchbowl Boys High School former principal Chris Griffiths initially refused the deradicalisation program,...

A man who posed as Justin Bieber online has been charged with more than 900 child sex-related crimes in Australia. The man, 42, masqueraded as the Canadian singer to gain explicit images from children, Queensland Police said. He was charged with 931 crimes, including three of rape, involving 157 alleged victims across the globe. Detective Inspector Jon Rouse called the allegations "frankly horrendous" and warned young fans of the singer and parents to be vigilant. "The fact that so many children could believe that they were communicating with this particular celebrity highlights the need for a serious rethink about the...

According to a report in The Australian, citing an industry expert, almost 80% of Chinese buyers can’t settle on the Australian apartments they have bought off the plan and wish they could walk away from the contracts. *snip* “Chinese buyers are still active in the established property market, but they would like to extend the settlement periods in their contracts out to as far as 12 months, betting on changes within China that might lead to a loosening of lending policies and of the barriers to taking money out,” he said. *snip* According to data released by the NAB earlier...