Quote: US where its historical stupidity upholds the right to bear arms (and a very high murder rate).

And a very low home invasion rate - Australia's is, by any available statistics, far higher than in the US because of Australia's stupidity in effectively not allowing people to defend their person and property in their own home - I cannot defend myself and my daughter against the typically younger, stronger and often more numerous invaders other than with a weapon, which by law I am not allowed to have for the purpose of self-defence, not even a baseball bat and not even in my own home, but am expected to go belly up, to allow the rapists, thieves and assailants to have their way.

Good but you could have stopped at Janet Albrechtsen has a poor understanding of.... and we could fill in the blanks depending on the topic.
She is a contrarian with no ideas other than to declare that she right and the rest of us are wrong, and it's all an act. She is a yuppie from Bondi who's never done a day’s real work in her life.

Interesting article. I agree with Chris Lewis's assessment of the differences between the US and Australia. Far too many Australian journalists get their ideas 'off the shelf' from the US without bothering to consider the political, economic and social differences between the two countries. Do they even care?

As to Alan ('The Parrot') Jones, he seems to be preaching to the converted, I doubt that's he's an opinion leader in any effective sense

The role of the conservative commentator is not to report. They can safely leave that onerous task to others.

Their job is simply to provoke the reaction "by jove, she's right y'know. Smart woman, that" amongst like-minded individuals.

So there is little point in appealing to her "decency".

"Surely, Albrechtsen has enough intelligence and decency to hope that Australia does not create the same social cleavages that exist in the US which could encourage a similar movement to emerge here."

The lady's intelligence is not at issue. She is smart, to the point of intellectual, and capable of rational thought at a level that few of us attain. She has a Doctorate in Law, which is rarely awarded to dummies, I am told.

But decency is an entirely different proposition.

As a fear-mongering dog-whistler, the lady has few peers. Who can forget her assertion, in print, that "pack rape of white girls is an initiation rite of passage for a small section of young male Muslim youths". An accusation that was accompanied by no evidence. Instead, she knew she could rely upon the academic glow that surrounds a Doctor of Law, and the knee-jerk "smart woman, that" response from her audience.

On balance, I think that Chris Lewis' appeal to Ms Albrechtsen's decency may have come a little late in the day .

Pericles,

I have always thought that all perspectives, whether liberal, conservative, marxist, or whatever, do not amount to much if they cannot contribute analysis or ideas to encourage a fairer society or world.

What is intelligent writing? I suppose it is using one's unique perspective, but doing so in a way which can hep mediate problems and break down barriers between people and societies. I also struggle to do this with my support for liberalism, but concerns about free trade in recent years.

It is ia very hard task, certainly much harder than being a mere left or right-wing commentator trying to sell publicity through shock statements or appealing to the already converted.

Chris you're pretty much right- the cultural/societal differences between Australians and Americans are too profound to nurture a "Tea Party Movement" here.

The biggest contrast is that America has long and largely been a very near-'libertarian' country- people have been generally expected that they must defend themselves and cover their own medical and care expenses, and providing only minimal coverage to a few other infrastructural needs;
As such, for this country, socialized coverage of medicine had to be INTRODUCED- and given this nations vastly less socialized culture (and long stance on the evils of 'socialism' in the recent past), this wouldn't have been easy to swallow.

Meanwhile, in Australia- socialized services have been a fact of life- it would be more a shock if a party announced it were going to cut it than build further on it- which may be the only way we would get a 'tea party-type' movement of our own.

We eat sort-of similar food, wear the same clothes and watch similar TV shows ( though who doesn't these days), speak the same language and live in similar housing layouts, and both like the capitalist system as far as consumerables go, but beyond that our cultures are actually quite different.