Meet the classical liberal vagabond


There is a quiet achiever on the liberal/conservative scene, the indefatigable and mercurial Dara Macdonald.

Thinker. Writer. Reader. Freedom enthusiast. Conservative Vagabond. Cocktail maker. Lawyer.

Dara Macdonald is an Australian lawyer and founder. Dara has worked as in-house legal counsel for various national and multinational companies. Last year she took up a year-long research position with Australia’s oldest free market think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs. Last year she launched a new organisation, All Minus One, a salon to promote a culture of freedom.

Her writing.


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Petros
Petros
December 18, 2022 10:40 am

She will not be welcome in the broad-church Liberal party. Who does she think she is? Freedom enthusiast? Away, you cut-purse rascal.

WolfmanOz
December 18, 2022 11:31 am

Thanks Rafe.

I’ve not heard of her before so I’ll check out the links you posted.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 18, 2022 12:19 pm

Very good web design but I can’t so easily get a feel for her writing and outlook. The Oz, Hun, Speccie and Substack are all paywalled or register required.

If a writer writes something that no one reads does it really exist?

I admit writers need to live, but readers need a taste test also.

Damon
Damon
December 18, 2022 3:00 pm

Sorry, but there are few writers, even on the Spectator, whose views I would pay to read.

Ed Case
Ed Case
December 18, 2022 5:24 pm

Everyone else at the IPA is a Flamer, so what’s her role?

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 18, 2022 6:20 pm

Ed Casesays:
December 18, 2022 at 5:24 pm
Everyone else at the IPA is a Flamer, so what’s her role?

She’s the Spook.

Cassie of Sydney
December 18, 2022 7:38 pm

Rafe, thanks for this. I first met Dara about five or six years ago, perhaps it was at an IPA function or a Freidman Conference function but I can’t remember. Even since then I’ve been fortunate enough to see and catch up with her at various CIS, IPA and Ramsey functions, and most recently I saw and spoke with Dara at CPAC. Dara is very smart, very personable, very measured, very engaging and very switched on. When I’m confronted by the militant woke, and especially “wokey women”, as I was at that lunch last week and which I wrote about here on the Cat, I need to remember that there are young women like Dara.

“Sorry, but there are few writers, even on the Spectator, whose views I would pay to read.”

Damon, whilst I understand some of your frustration, I do think there are good Australian writers and commentators, both in the Australian newspaper, on Sky and in the Spectator who are good spruikers and promulgators for conservative, right of centre and libertarian ideas. We need to support them. Sure, no one is perfect. I have my issues with some at the IPA. I still remain furious with the IPA, mainly John Roskam, for refusing to help Bettina Arndt when she was being lynched back in 2020. I acknowledge the good work that the IPA does but we also need an organisation that is fierce and unapologetic in fighting for free speech. What we need here in Oz is a similar organisation to the Free Speech Union, and in fact one of my last conversations with Dara was about the need to establish such an organisation. As Rafe said above, The Australian newspaper ain’t perfect but my God, reading Janet Albrechtsen’s recent expert dissection of disgusting Higgins travesty has been worth every cent of my subscription. I enjoy the Spectator, both the local writers and the UK ones. I read the US based Powerline, Spiked, Unherd, The Critic and many more. There’s a lot out there, and they need to be supported. The problem with the right is that we don’t do solidarity like the left does and I think therein likes the rub. The left stands together, which ties in with their collective mindset, and whilst we might dismiss this, it works. We on the right need to stand together more. I pay good money to subscribe to the Oz, the Spectator, Quadrant and Sky because firstly I enjoy reading and watching them and secondly, because I want to support them. Supporting the “side” matters.

duncanm
duncanm
December 18, 2022 10:07 pm

substack articles are free.

WolfmanOz
December 19, 2022 2:46 am

Cassie of Sydney says:
December 18, 2022 at 7:38 pm

Ditto !

Gabor
Gabor
December 19, 2022 2:54 am

Supporting the “side” matters.

It does and is the most important aspect of belonging to a party.
Except it doesn’t work when the members value individualism more.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
December 19, 2022 5:51 am

I read a few things she wrote by following your link. She has a lively mind, and a disposition to think about things, which is engaging. On the downside, she’s very young.

That’s a fault that time will cure.

Dot
Dot
December 19, 2022 7:49 am

Good luck kid.

We are living in interesting times.

Hopefully you don’t come to the attention of the authorities.
Hopefully you don’t get what you are looking for.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 19, 2022 8:56 am

I pay good money to subscribe to the Oz, the Spectator, Quadrant and Sky because firstly I enjoy reading and watching them and secondly, because I want to support them. Supporting the “side” matters.

Yes, keeping up with the conservative mainstream can cost money but it is worth it for all the reasons Cassie mentions. We subscribe to the IPA, Quadrant, Spectator, Australian, Foxtel/Sky, I support Catallaxy and some other conservative sites with occasional donations, and read across a range of freely available conservative sites. My husband spents more time trawling across this range than I do. I have familial commitments he doesn’t have. Also, I read books of all sorts; he is very selective in what books he reads and reads fewer than me. The Cat has a very good ‘new book’ sidebar list.

My conclusion: you can’t keep up with everything and aggregator sites (sometimes Catallaxy) can help you to fall less behind than you otherwise might. One caution is that being ‘politically aware’ can become stressful, overloading; stillness and withdrawal for a recharge is sometimes necessary.

Sites allowing comments are one means of widening the input group, enabling further discussion. Thanks for the link to Dara MacDonald, another young gun. Bookmarked.

Chris M
Chris M
December 19, 2022 9:45 am

Never trust or vote for a lawyer or journalist.

Zyconoclast
Zyconoclast
December 19, 2022 11:22 am

Everyone else at the IPA is a Flamer, so what’s her role?

Douse the flames?

m0nty
m0nty
December 19, 2022 3:25 pm

Everyone else at the IPA is a Flamer, so what’s her role?

Apparently she’s the Madam.

Petros
Petros
December 19, 2022 7:28 pm

Murdoch allows a small proportion of true conservative voices. The majority are the usual MSM claptrap. He knows how to keep the newspapers going by keeping enough people happy. I choose not to fund his empire.

Cassie of Sydney
December 19, 2022 7:31 pm

“Apparently she’s the Madam”

Fuck off you despicable and vomitous piece of shit. I know Dara. How would you like your wife or daughter referred to as a “Madam”.

Heathen
Heathen
December 20, 2022 8:21 pm

Dara might well be bright. But she is hardly a legal scholar. Her current job is writing contracts for Otis lifts. All of her roles have been junior.

Heathen
Heathen
December 21, 2022 4:04 pm

Congrats Rafe. I am sure you earned that. I hope you won’t mind if I admit to some scepticism over some libertarian values of some of those often appearing in these columns. Some people seem rather keen to foist their own religious, social and even cultural prejudices down everyone’s throat. But I suppose they don’t claim to be libertarian.

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