[3] The magazine was founded in Sydney in 1956[4][5] by Richard Krygier, a Polish–Jewish refugee who had been active in social-democrat politics in Europe, and James McAuley, a Catholic poet, known for the anti-modernist Ern Malley hoax.

[7] It has had many notable contributors, including Les Murray, who was its literary editor from 1990 to 2019,[8]: 240  Peter Ryan, who wrote a column from 1994 to 2015, Heinz Arndt, Sir Garfield Barwick, Frank Brennan, Ian Callinan, Hal Colebatch, Peter Coleman, Sir Zelman Cowen, Anthony Daniels, Joe Dolce, David Flint, Lord Harris of High Cross, Paul Hasluck, Dyson Heydon, Sidney Hook, A. D. Hope, Barry Humphries, Clive James, John Kerr, Michael Kirby, Frank Knopfelmacher, Peter Kocan, Christopher Koch, Andrew Lansdown, John Latham, Douglas Murray, Patrick O'Brien, Sharon Olds, George Pell, Pierre Ryckmans, Roger Sandall, Roger Scruton, Clement Semmler, Greg Sheridan, James Spigelman, Sir Ninian Stephen, Tom Switzer and Alexander Voltz, as well as several Labor and Liberal political figures, including Bob Hawke, John Howard, Tony Abbott, Mark Latham and John Wheeldon.

In it he wrote: "Had there been a shred of justice, that blast would have detonated in an Ultimo TV studio"[13] and "... none of the panel’s likely casualties would have represented the slightest reduction in humanity’s intelligence, decency, empathy or honesty".

[11][20][21] As of November 2019[update], the magazine describes itself as "Australia's most open minded publication",[22] while its home page includes articles critical of climate scientists, the ABC and "the Left's triumphal anti-clericalism.

Using the pseudonym "biotechnologist Dr Sharon Gould", Wilson submitted an article claiming that CSIRO had planned to produce food crops engineered with human genes.