Labor ruins 125-year-old Anzac tradition

This isn’t just a budget trim, it exposes Labor for having no interest in defending the nation’s soul.

Clad in their distinctive uniforms, these Salvation Army officers, known colloquially as Sally Men, provided hot brews – tea, coffee, biscuits, and often a listening ear to soldiers far from home. It was during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 that their role truly embedded itself in the Anzac legend. Amid the mud, blood, and ceaseless artillery, the Sally Man was a beacon of humanity, reminding our troops that someone back home cared.

This tradition, stretching back to the Boer War era around 1900, has endured through two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and countless peacekeeping missions. It’s not hyperbole to say it’s woven into the fabric of Australian identity, much like the slouch hat or the rising sun badge.

Fast forward to 2025, and the Albanese government’s latest federal budget has quietly axed funding for the Salvation Army’s military support programs, including the frontline Sally Man initiatives. Buried in the fine print of defence allocations, this estimated $1.5 million annual cut will force the Salvos to scale back their presence in barracks, on exercises, and during deployments.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Labor ruins 125-year-old Anzac tradition.

A Conservative Manifesto to rescue Australia from Albo

Now’s the time for conservative Australians to shake a leg.

The once-formidable Liberal Party, now a defunct shell of its former self, is ideologically adrift and electorally diminished, and appears content to nod along with Labor’s agenda, offering little more than token resistance.

Beneath the rhetoric of unity and fairness lies a stark reality. Our nation’s conservatives are fractured, leaderless, and in desperate need of a unifying force.

It is time to rally around a bold conservative manifesto, one that repurposes the remnants of the Liberal Party as a launchpad to challenge this creeping authoritarianism and restore Australia’s economic vitality.

Alexander Marshall wrote in the Unfiltered newsletter:

Maybe the Liberal Party should take Michael de Percy’s advice and embark on a Conservative Manifesto to re-establish the beliefs and principles which will lead the party forward.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, A Conservative Manifesto to rescue Australia from Albo.

MICHAEL DE PERCY | "It is time to rally around a bold conservative manifesto, one that repurposes the remnants of the Liberal Party as a launchpad to challenge this creeping authoritarianism and restore Australia’s economic vitality."https://t.co/NqxrhmCluJ

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) September 19, 2025

Remembering Robert Redford, the man who lit up my youth

Redford as The Great Waldo Pepper, a daredevil aviator chasing glory in the skies after the Great War.

This week, Robert Redford, that golden-haired icon of American cinema, quietly slipped away at age 89, the same age my grandfather passed a few years ago.

Redford passed peacefully at his Sundance retreat in the Utah mountains. The man who embodied the rugged individualism of the West, played the heist, and soared through the skies on screen, now rests among the peaks he so fiercely protected. It’s a fitting end for a life that was anything but ordinary, a life that provided the soundtrack and scenery to my coming of age.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

The golden era of Hollywood has lost one of its most dearly loved stars. Robert Redford slipped away at 89. As Michael de Percy writes, ‘Redford passed peacefully at his Sundance retreat in the Utah mountains. The man who embodied the rugged individualism of the West, played the heist, and soared through the skies on screen, now rests among the peaks he so fiercely protected. It’s a fitting end for a life that was anything but ordinary, a life that provided the soundtrack and scenery to my coming of age.’

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy reveals a romantic streak in his otherwise ruthless political persona – although Redford’s politics and Michael’s would be polar opposites. As an actor and director, Redford made great films although, as Christopher Tookey points out in his appreciation, he didn’t fancy himself a great actor. Too many well-known people of the 60s and 70s are popping their clogs this year, but let’s make one thing clear as many of us mourn our lost youth through them: they died, not passed, or passed away. Why is it, in an age where social media brutalises the public discourse, everyone now says dead people ‘pass away’, not ‘die’?

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Remembering Robert Redford, the man who lit up my youth.