Home
Search
thewest.com.au‌‌

Opinion

For all the noise about commercialisation, crowded shopping centres and the need to create the ideal festive season, Christmas maintains its reputation as the most wonderful time of the year.

opinion
opinion
Gary MartinCommentsPremium
opinion
Christmas is still the most wonderful time of the year

For all the noise about commercialisation, crowded shopping centres and the need to create the ideal festive season, Christmas maintains its reputation as the most wonderful time of the year.

Gary Martin

Cute hatched chick on color background

opinion
opinion
Andrew MillerCommentsPremium
opinion
Chicken or egg debate sparks bigger question during holidays

A trip to the animal farm opens up a gateway to the really big questions in life.

Andrew Miller

Anthony Albanese said he would do ‘whatever action is necessary’ when asked about rooting out anti-Semitism. Anything but royal commission apparently.

opinion
opinion
EditorialCommentsPremium
opinion
Albo’s Bondi inquiry move beggars belief

Anthony Albanese said he would do ‘whatever action is necessary’ when asked about rooting out anti-Semitism. Anything but royal commission apparently.

The Bondi massacre occurred because of failures by government at the strategic, tactical and operational levels.

opinion
opinion
Ben HarveyCommentsPremium
opinion
Bondi atrocity was a fatal failure that can’t go unpunished

The Bondi massacre occurred because of failures by government at the strategic, tactical and operational levels. It is a blunder that cannot go unpunished.

Ben Harvey

Ben Harvey

Opinion: Christmas at the beach is a reminder that the Aussie way of life still remains despite changing times.

opinion
opinion
Merry ChristmasCommentsPremium
opinion
Christmas has come when Australia needs it most

Celebrating Christmas reminds us that all is not lost and that the Australia we once knew – at least fragments of it – still remain.

Joe Spagnolo

Nat Locke pictured in the studio

opinion
opinion
THAT’S LIFE
opinion
Where I’m finding slivers of good in a devastating week

Here are some of things I’ve really taken the time to savour, because they have brought me joy or shown me a little glimpse of beauty, because that’s where the humanity lies. 

Nat Locke

The Royal Commission proposal came after an announcement of new rules that will be introduced to the state as well. NewsWire / Damian Shaw

opinion
opinion
EditorialsCommentsPremium
opinion
Only light can bring healing for our nation

Light a candle and take a minute’s silence at 3.47pm to mark one week since the atrocity that occurred at Bondi, to help our nation heal.

Giving is what Christmas is all about

Anxiety Aunt PremiumIs it creepy to emulate Santa at Christmas?

‘And when you are you finished with the kids across the road can you please come and visit your Aunt? One has been an awfully good girl this year.’

Jay Hanna

Jay Hanna

Rabbi Daniel Lieberman at the Perth Hebrew Congregation.

opinion
opinion
OpinionComments
opinion
Creep of anti-Semitism has changed the Australia I love

Over the past two years we have seen relentless vilification: anti-Semitic slurs hurled at my own children, graffiti on Jewish homes and businesses, synagogues firebombed.

Daniel J Lieberman

Having separately fled the Soviet Union’s growing menace against Ukrainian Jews for a life in Australia, Michael and Valentyna eventually met in Sydney and soon after had a daughter they hadn’t planned.

OpinionCommentsPremiumComplicit in an unspeakable attack on our nation’s values

The slaughter of Australian Jews at an iconic beach is a vivid example of what happens when a nation loses grip on its shared social values.

Paul Murray

A woman kneels and prays at a flower memorial to shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting.

EditorialsCommentsPremiumAs a nation we must choose light over hate

EDITORIAL: Like the surfers who paddled out into the Bondi waves at daybreak on Friday, we can choose to charge into the light.

Editorial

Defeating anti-Semitism requires more than just stronger laws and effective enforcement. It also demands a cultural shift.

OpinionCommentsWhat we owe to the 15 Bondi terror attack victims

LORRAINE FINLAY: Defeating anti-Semitism requires more than just stronger laws and effective enforcement. It also demands a cultural shift.

Lorraine Finlay

Woodside Energy chairman Rochard Goyder and outgoing CEO Meg O'Neill.

opinion
opinion
EnergyCommentsPremium
opinion
Who will be new Woodside CEO? Look at Goyder’s track record

Will Woodside Energy go with an outsider to replace Meg ONeill, or look to promote from within? The answer lies in chair Richard Goyder’s past hires at some of Australia’s biggest companies.

Sean Smith

Ben Harvey unveils the 10 most bizarre, cringeworthy and downright dirty underworld stories of 2025.

Ben HarveyVideoCommentsPremiumTwo most preposterous underworld yarns don’t involve bikies

In the last show of the year, Ben Harvey unveils the 10 most bizarre, cringeworthy and downright dirty underworld stories of 2025.

Ben Harvey

Ben Harvey

‘Prime Minister Anthony Albanese answered questions about The Voice and climate change with more passion than a query about the worst terror attack on Australian soil,’ writes Ben Harvey.

opinion
opinion
BEN HARVEY Comments
opinion
Climate change? Tick. Voice? Tick. Pressure test? Missing

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese answered questions about The Voice and climate change with more passion than a query about the worst terror attack on Australian soil.

Ben Harvey

Ben Harvey

‘When the Prime Minister now says we need tougher laws, he is acknowledging what Jewish Australians have been saying all along: words matter. Incitement matters. Inaction matters,’ writes Dvir Abramovich.

opinion
opinion
DVIR ABRAMOVICHComments
opinion
What Albo doesn’t understand about the Bondi attack

Radical Islamic hate preachers have been allowed to operate in this country, spreading anti-Semitism under the cover of religion, and Bondi is the proof.

Dvir Abramovich

Anthony Albanese’s response to anti-Semitism in Australia has fallen short from the start.

opinion
opinion
EditorialCommentsPremium
opinion
Albanese’s ‘regrets’ are two years and 15 deaths too late

Instead of relief, the overwhelming reaction to Anthony Albanese’s announcement on Thursday was one of profound disappointment.

‘For two years, Australian governments and civil society institutions looked away as extreme, false and obsessive rhetoric about Israel, Zionism and Jewish Australians spread unchecked,’ writes Paul Rubenstein.

opinion
opinion
Paul Rubenstein CommentsPremium
opinion
Real political risk-taking needed to stamp out anti-Semitism

If Australia wishes to remain the Lucky Country, then it must act - not symbolically, not cautiously, not only when convenient. Because the cost of doing nothing will be far greater.

Paul Rubenstein

Basil Zempilas during the a condolence motion for the Bondi massacre.

opinion
opinion
Basil ZempilasCommentsPremium
opinion
As Australia mourns, we need leadership and moral clarity

This is the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil and Australia will never be the same. There is shock and there is anger. Let us use this anger to do better to protect Australia’s Jewish community.

Basil Zempilas

Letters to the editor must contain the author’s full name, address and daytime contact number.

Letter to the editorLetter to the Editor: Desal plant questions going unanswered

It seems that Water Corp is endorsing the words that the Premier stated earlier this year or late last year, writes Albany environmentalist Tony Harrison. 

Tony Harrison

Letters to the editor must contain the author’s full name, address and daytime contact number.

Letter to the editorLetter to the Editor: Collaboration key to prescribed burns

Collaboration brings better outcomes for community and wildlife, writes Amaris Wildlife Sanctuary owner Maggie van Santen. 

Maggie Van Santen

‘Weltschmerz’ directly translated from German means world pain, and it describes a sadness caused by awareness of global suffering.

opinion
opinion
OpinionCommentsPremium
opinion
How to give grief purpose in the aftermath of Bondi tragedy

Many of us are suffering ‘weltschmerz,’ which describes a deep sadness about the injustices of the world. How can we cope with it in the aftermath of the Bondi tragedy?

Kim Macdonald

Kim Macdonald

Treasurer Rita Saffioti.

opinion
opinion
Rita SaffiotiCommentsPremium
opinion
We cannot allow those cowards who seek to divide us to win

The cowards that carried out the Bondi attacks want nothing more than to divide our community. We can’t let them.

Rita Saffioti

An impassioned Josh Frydenberg delivered an address that showed for 15 minutes he was more than an ex-politician. He was the father of the nation.

analysis
analysis
Ben HarveyComments
analysis
Why Josh Frydenberg’s speech was so important for our nation

BEN HARVEY: An impassioned Josh Frydenberg delivered an address that showed for 15 minutes he was more than an ex-politician. He was the father of the nation.

Ben Harvey

Ben Harvey