You need to decolonise your mind

It’s not spring, so it wasn’t spring cleaning. It was pure catharsis.

Some might say the real colonial occupation in Western liberal democracies is not the one the textbooks denounce, but the ideological one they themselves carried. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o coined the phrase in a very different context. The irony is that the phrase now travels more easily in the opposite direction.

From the late 1970s and 1980s, imported theoretical apparatuses such as postcolonial theory, applied postmodernism, and critical approaches to identity, established themselves inside Australian universities and then cascaded into teacher training, curricula, and public discourse.

Much of it arrived via French high theory in the late 1970s and 1980s. Thatcher was alert to the broader cultural and educational dangers of the time. Australian universities largely were not.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, You need to decolonise your mind.

THE WOKE COLONY OF THE MIND RADICALISES KNOWLEDGE

When the idea of colonisation is transplanted into Western liberal democracies, it demands a purge of the Enlightenment inheritance itself.

Universalism, evidence, the possibility of knowledge independent of the knower’s… pic.twitter.com/3xxCSFRABJ

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 30, 2026

What did I miss? Australia's political week in fast-forward

What is his Plan B? This has nothing to do with chepaer electricity or carbon emissions. 

Those who allow Labor press releases to act as their sole source of truth wouldn’t imagine that Australians are caught in the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory.

The economy is … buggered. And the culture wars, that don’t exist, have the major parties bound and gagged as the captives of Populism. At least, that’s what we’re led to believe by the level of hysteria.

While this is going on, the average voter is watching ISIS fighters, enthusiasts, and brides return with surprisingly few consequences.

On that topic, and with battle-hardened ISIS Grooms discovered in Iraqi jails, One Nation’s Pauline Hanson wrote to Angus Taylor offering her party’s support for any legislation put forward to keep them out.

This was triggered by Australian doctor Tareq Kamleh, known as ‘Dr Jihad’, wishing to return. An action Angus Taylor wants to block over his alleged support for ISIS.

Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume wasn’t particularly interested in One Nation’s offer of support, insisting that the Coalition needs the support of Labor, not One Nation. Good luck with that.

My latest in The Spectator Australia co-authored with my editor, Alexandra Marshall @ellymelly, What did I miss? Australia's political week in fast-forward.

How bad is the economy?

While Energy Minister Chris Bowen reserves $4.2 million for swanky hotel rooms in Fiji, my energy provider has stopped notifying me of bill increases.

It prefers to tell me that it's 'changed its position'. Just like Albo.

Article |… pic.twitter.com/qRmml7nLp1

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 26, 2026

Vikki Campion’s warning: Mess with Barnaby and meet your match

You can’t have two people in politics who have kids. Who looks after my children?

Why has Vikki Campion suddenly reappeared in public life in support of her husband? She has launched her own Substack this week in addition to her writing for the Daily Telegraph and occasional media appearances.

She tells me she was previously unable to use social media before as a Coalition staffer.

They did the interview deliberately. Vikki tells me:

Barnaby’s doing you a favour by finding some power, getting the internet access, it’s freezing cold. It’s the first time we’ve managed to connect the shed to the internet successfully. We have no dedicated office, no epic studio. This is the best we can do. There’s no shirking, he shows up.

Vikki is not asking for special treatment. She is asking for the most basic recognition that a farm is not a studio, a working dog is not a prop, and rural Australia does not run on the same clock or the same assumptions as the inner city.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

One Nation’s heroine of the week is not Hanson, but Barnaby Joyce’s dog, Stella. That canine disciplining, in the middle of a 7.30 interview with the humourless Sarah Ferguson became a talking point for days, completely distracting attention from the controversial aspects of Hanson’s fortnight in the UK and Sicily. The haters hate it, and even question whether Stella was even there. But Michael de Percy got the real truth from Barnaby’s missus, Vicki Campion, and you can read it here.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Following the Stella!!! dog incident with Barnaby Joyce, One Nation has released merchandise – for your dog – I shit you not. Anyway… Hyper-commercialisation is the real infiltration of American politics into Australia. Anyway, our Canberra Correspondent Michael de Percy interviewed Vikki Campion about what she thought of the whole saga.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Vikki Campion’s warning: Mess with Barnaby and meet your match.

Vikki Campion is not asking for special treatment.

She is asking for the most basic recognition that a farm is not a studio, a working dog is not a prop, and rural Australia does not run on the same clock or the same assumptions as the inner city.

Article |… pic.twitter.com/pZg3pmh8aP

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 22, 2026