Writer
Lucy Hamilton
Lucy Hamilton is a Melbourne writer with degrees from the University of Melbourne and Monash University.
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Morrison joins hard right IDU’s embrace of Viktor Orban
Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has joined the advisory board of the International Democrat Union. It is an organisation that is much more radical than its self-declared defence of the “centre right” spin suggests. Continue reading »
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Murdoch, the Prince/King and conspiracy theories
There is set to be some anxiety in monarchist groups in the community as they reconcile the ascent of King Charles III to the throne with their fear. Even in educated hard right circles like The Spectator Australia’s readership, conspiracy theories about him are evident. Continue reading »
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Asylum seekers languish through the job summit
In the week of the Albanese government’s job summit, the immigration department again sent out a raft of letters to bridging visa holders in Queensland advising them it was time to reapply to rollover their permission to stay in Australia. While politicians and sector representatives debated whether we needed skilled and unskilled migrants to tackle Continue reading »
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CPAC Australia and Murdoch
One of the most unsavoury events on the Trumpist right is CPAC. This is an organisation that stages Conservative Political Action Conferences in America, as well as internationally. CPAC Australia has been operating since 2019 and the 2022 event is due to take place in Sydney this October. Continue reading »
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Orban’s Australian sycophants
Australians welcoming the defeat of our nascent religious right in the May election need to pay attention to the echoes of the American right wing strategies looming ahead of their 2024 election, and the faction in Australia that shares those goals. Continue reading »
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What is the “mad left”?
Even before the Albanese government was certain that it would have a clear majority, the Sky News chorus had begun baying about the “mad left” taking power. What the madness constitutes is never quite made clear. It is “vibe” rather than diagnosis. Continue reading »
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Dutton and Trump politics
The mainstream media in Australia is currently whitewashing fascist politics. It is not just sycophantic, or lazy, journalism. It is dangerous. Continue reading »
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Clive and the global right
It is easy to laugh at Clive Palmer’s stunts. Whether he’s talking about creating a Jurassic Park or sending texts before an election claiming that Australia is giving control of all healthcare to the WHO, the temptation is to roll our eyes. Continue reading »
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The Teal tsunami and the entitled princelings
The teal tsunami has marked a fascinating moment in Australian politics. Not only has it put integrity and real climate action at the forefront of our civic conversation, it has sent a collection of strong and accomplished women into federal parliament. Continue reading »
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The destructive Rupert Murdoch
The grim news is that Rupert’s heir, Lachlan, is a less intelligent and harder right force in News Corp. The death of the old man can’t save us. Continue reading »
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Gender anxiety on The Right
The furore within the Liberal Party about Katherine Deves. Fox star Tucker Carlson’s accidentally homoerotic trailer for his new “documentary,” The End of Men. Even, partially, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. All share the hard right’s obsession with strong men and imposing order. Continue reading »
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Scott Morrison’s constant disingenuous role play as tradesman and labourer
The recent budget has underscored that the Coalition government has abandoned the needy, and the nation’s future. Whether an Australian is hunting for a job or displaced from disaster-wrecked town, they should expect almost nothing from our leaders. Continue reading »
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Don’t expect much – with climate disasters you will largely be on your own
When Scott Morrison chides inundated Australians about expecting too much from the government or the ADF during a crisis, he is not just speaking about the nightmare scale of these catastrophic floods. He is setting expectations for the climate emergency’s cascading disasters. You’re on your own. Continue reading »
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Oligarchs in Russia and elsewhere. Rule by the powerful and the wealthy few
Australia has its own oligarchs in mining, property, finance, gambling and of course in the media. Continue reading »
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Dog whistles to create a straw man argument
The dogwhistle to the frightened right falls in the tradition started by John Howard. Continue reading »
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Lies, lies, lies — and the lying liars who tell them
Politicians, predominantly on the right, have repeatedly been caught lying in direct contravention of video evidence. The falsifications aren’t minor. Continue reading »
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Liberals now a pitiful shadow of the party founded by Menzies
The threat to Australia’s democracy from a damaged right is growing with the Coalition government mired in deceit, corruption and ideological extremism. Continue reading »
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Democracy in decline: Australia’s slide into ‘competitive authoritarianism’
Australia is at a critical point. A government that would cling to power to impose unpopular policy threatens the very nature of our democracy. Continue reading »
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Australia is at risk of letting its democracy decay beyond retrieval
Having adopted a banal imitation of American exceptionalism, Australia is at risk of following the US into decline. Continue reading »
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Depressed by the press: journalism bows to the authoritarians
Weakened by commercial and political pressures, legacy media are struggling to counter the antagonism of vested interests, writes Lucy Hamilton. Continue reading »
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Charities muzzled when climate action advocacy is most needed
Blocking charities from lobbying on “political” issues such as climate change is a blow to a liberal democracy and to our children’s futures. Continue reading »
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Culture war over religious freedom normalises fascist politics
Australian conservatives’ obsession with religious freedom is just another US import, and part of a worldwide surge in fascist identity politics. Continue reading »
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Speak without fear, as long as you’re a white, male, Christian conservative
Who can and cannot express their truth is defined by the people who have always held power, and patrolled in the digital age by online shock troops. Continue reading »
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Think tanks’ call for ‘freedom’ really promises authoritarianism
Ideological think tanks campaigning for ‘freedom’ are really pushing us further into a competitive authoritarianism regime. Continue reading »
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Australia must beware racist dog whistling in next election
A number of columns in these pages have observed that the AUKUS agreement seems a timely gambit to create a “khaki election” campaign for a floundering Coalition government. It is also potentially a dog whistle effort to deploy racism to maintain power. Continue reading »
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How the conservatives grew to reject experts and science
Anti-vaccine rioters on Melbourne’s streets were part of QAnon’s radicalisation of ordinary citizens around the world in this Covid era. They are the local eruption of an aggrieved demographic which resents a system it struggles to comprehend. Continue reading »
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Australia has proved fertile ground for US anti-intellectual propaganda
Cynical conservative strategies in US politics have well and truly made their way into Australian discourse — just look at the demands of the rioters in Melbourne for Ivermectin. Continue reading »
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With US democracy under threat from within, AUKUS puts Australia in danger
With the AUKUS treaty, Australia may have hitched its fate to a nation soon to be led by people who make Trump seem competent. Britain and Australia’s democracies are under threat; America’s future is in dire peril. Continue reading »
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Think tanks have put British democracy at risk. We have the same problem.
It’s arguable that Britain’s path to this point — where it is at risk of decaying into a ‘competitive authoritarian’ regime — can be traced back to the first of the ‘conservative’ think tanks. Continue reading »
