Aussie Life
Language
Have you noticed the trend to refer to some Australians as ‘First Nations’ people? Those Australians were once called ‘Aboriginal’…
Aussie life
Prime ministers rarely lose elections by bungling a single issue. An obvious benefit of the four-year term is that if…
Language
According to news reports Vladimir Putin expected his invasion and conquest of Ukraine to be a ‘cakewalk’. This is originally…
Aussie life
There’s nothing like a war and a flood to ease pretend problems like exaggerated viral outbreaks off the front pages.…
Aussie Life
I’m thinking about acquiring a drug habit. As a New South Wales Seniors Card carrier I may have left it…
Aussie Language
We are used to words being banned – but now it seems the word police are coming for the word…
Aussie Life
A journalist friend has been writing an advice column rather like The Speccie’s ‘Dear Mary’. He was calling it ‘Ask…
Aussie Language
A small award should be presented to the Australian’s Alice Workman for her new coinage. She has given us a…
Aussie Life
If a week is a long time in politics, two months is a geological epoch, during which not just goalposts…
Aussie Language
Writing in the Daily Telegraph James Morrow referred to something called a preference cascade which he said was a term…
Aussie Life
You’ve possibly heard of a ghastly woman called Patrisse Cullors. Her chief claim to fame is that she founded that…
Aussie Language
I have coined a potentially useful new expression: comatose bias. We are told that one of the great problems in…
Aussie Life
The elevation of Dylan Alcott to Australian of the Year is a great win for the disability sector, but threatens…
Aussie Language
As we approach a federal election, for the next few weeks I’ll look at some ‘election lingo’. ballot: Why do…
Aussie Life
Even in Australian publications of a conspicuously conservative disposition, it has been some time since any respected pundit has suggested,…
Aussie Language
Here’s a delightful expression I have just encountered: ‘offence archaeology’. This is the practice of going through the social media…
Aussie Life
I live by the sea and like walking along the coastline including scrambling over the rock ledges in Noosa National…
Aussie Language
A letter writer to the Australian has pointed out that Anthony Albanese appears to have coined a brand-new oxymoron to…
Aussie Life
I am writing this in Old South Wales, in the visitor suite of my mother’s assisted living facility. When I…
Aussie Language
In his column in the Weekend Australian just before Christmas demographer Bernard Salt expressed his fear that the Australian language…
Kiwi life
Of the making of many books, the Bible says, ‘there is no end’. It’s starting to feel a bit like…
Aussie Life
One of the reasons I still buy newspapers is that what no longer seems to be true of vocabulary and…
Aussie Language
This appears to be a case of ‘What were they thinking?’ The good folk at the Macquarie Dictionary have announced…
Aussie Life
The slur issued by Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe in the Chamber last week towards Hollie Hughes reaffirmed one thing, that…
Aussie Language
Nick Cater has coined what I think is a brilliant new expression the ‘laptop class’. This is his vivid and…
