February 1 – 7, 2025
News
Comment
Comment
Barry Jones
The case for bravery and frankness in politics
“In the past few decades, where there has been bipartisan support for free-market economics and a managerial approach to running governments, parties have become risk-averse and serious policy debates are avoided … Now there is a thorough rejection of evidence. Testable propositions are often displaced by tribalism, harvesting fear and rage and the domination of opinion.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Why interest rates are Albanese’s best hope
“Anthony Albanese faces the first parliamentary sitting of the election year with the scene set for the first interest rate cut in almost three years – a bigger political boost than any government could possibly hope for. The argument over economic management can now be turned more easily on its head. After 12 interest rate rises on Labor’s watch that exacerbated the cost-of-living crisis, the pain will begin to ease.”
Comment
Stan Grant
Australia Day and the history in nobodies
“I asked my father once – a Wiradjuri man whose body bore the scars of history – a question about the past. He shook his head. ‘Don’t go there, boy,’ he said. ‘It will only drive you mad.’ Like individuals, nations are driven mad by history. If we can’t forget, we will torture ourselves with that which we cannot change.”
Comment
John Hewson
MAGA no model for Australian business
“It’s disturbing surveying the front pages of so many Australian papers since the re-election of Donald Trump in the United States, given how many headlines seem to be attempting to normalise the MAGA ethos … Consistent with the global business reaction to Trump, reflected in last month’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, the fascination is with his announcements, not with their deliverability or consequences. ”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Theatre director Sam Strong
After staging blockbusters across Australia’s main theatres, director Sam Strong returns to Red Stitch, the intimate indie venue that made his career.
Fiction
I hear you
“They lifted their music sheets up, all of them holding the sheet the same way and at the same height, and the sound of feet stopped and the rustling stopped and the coughing stopped and I guess the lady must have smiled because the girls all smiled back and quickly brushed their hair off their foreheads and became like statues. Finally, the lady bent down into her crutches and lifted her hands up as much as they would go while resting on the crutches, and the shoulders of every girl in the choir bounced up all at once as they took a breath.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Clothing
“I find Murdoch’s assault on our democracy far more offensive and disrespectful than swear words on a T-shirt.”
The former Australian of the Year responds after being criticised for wearing a “Fuck Murdoch” shirt to a morning tea at the Lodge. Officials preferred it when she just frowned at Scott Morrison.
Food
“How good is this pav. Jen has excelled herself. Happy Australia Day.”
The former prime minister posts a monstrous pavlova, decorated to resemble the Australian Flag. The Southern Cross looked remarkably like the toilet paper blotting on Norman Gunston’s face.
Politics
“The right decisions aren’t always popular, but I’m not interested in taking the easy path.”
The opposition leader releases a video outlining his pitch to the electorate. Did you know he used to be a cop?
Tech
“In what could be compared to Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s efforts to build a new colony on Mars …”
The deputy opposition leader celebrates Australia Day, likening colonisation to Musk’s space exploration. In fairness, Arthur Phillip was probably less of a jerk.
Family
“It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets, because he himself is a predator.”
The former United States ambassador to Australia warns US senators against the confirmation of her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr as health secretary. It does help explain his history with roadkill.
Sport
“It worked … we’ll just leave it at that.”
The golfer said he had been contacted to work as a bridge between Australia and the Trump administration. Of all Trump’s interests, this was probably the most wholesome to exploit.
