December 4 – 10, 2021
News
Comment
Comment
Kieran Pender
Inside Bernard Collaery’s trial
“Secret evidence, secret hearings and secret judgements. Each step in the prosecution of Bernard Collaery comes with another layer of opacity. If it were not so serious, the accumulation of secrecy in this case would be comedic. Secrecy heaped upon secrecy for secrecy’s sake. A secrecy onion? But this case is no laughing matter. At stake are transparency and accountability.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Symptoms of decay expose Morrison’s old and tired government
“If the last fortnight of parliament for the year is any guide, Labor has its tail up and the government is in the doldrums. The lack of engagement from the Coalition backbench as the prime minister and his ministers slugged it out with the opposition was one thing, but the dead giveaway was the sitting schedule for next year.”
Comment
John Hewson
Jacqui Lambie did what John Howard and the Liberal Party wouldn’t
“Now the various independents’ movements are gaining genuine momentum in a number of key seats, having identified good, strong, community-based candidates and launching their campaigns for the next federal election, it is instructive to contemplate how different our politics and government would be if they were successful and indeed may hold the balance of power, at least in the lower house.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
The Influence
Emma Donovan
The deepest influence on ARIA-nominated Emma Donovan is the music of her grandparents, Micko and Aileen Donovan.
Fiction
Flight
“I thought it was a stone at first, the scrape of metal against clunk. Kept digging and turning and if it wasn’t for the sun I would have missed it. But it caught itself a ray; yeah, Emily, a dazzle, nothing gradual about it, fleeting and blinding me quite still with its thin silver shaft. The spare key for the car – the one he lost last summer, he searched for it high and low but not here, not in the potato patch. When all the dirt was scraped out of the grooves, it grew warm in the palm of my hand.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Equality
“It’s time for more marinas large enough to cater not only for small and medium yachts, but larger ones, too.”
In a video call from the deck of her super yacht, the mining magnate complains of a lack of ports available for boats like hers in Queensland. Not all heroes wear capes but some resort wear gets dangerously close.
Politics
“I did not make a ‘noise’ I spoke when making an interjection & I certainly did not make any kind of animal noise at all.”
The Liberal senator denies allegations he impersonated a dog while Jacqui Lambie was speaking in the chamber. He said he was “doing an angry voice”, which does make him sound like a four-year-old recounting a disagreement with his father.
Retirement
“It’s sad and wrong that a capable person’s contribution can be curtailed in this way.”
The former prime minister laments Christian Porter’s decision to retire at the next election. For legal reasons, there is no joke on this item.
Technology
“It was more of a technical snafu, me being a bit of a boomer rather than anything calculated!”
The assistant minister for Women is caught using an anonymous social media account to praise her own work. The self-catfish is becoming a specialty of this government.
Retirement II
“No more brilliant mind, no greater friend, no person of greater integrity … someone with a massive heart.”
The prime minister farewells Greg Hunt, who is not recontesting his seat. For all those qualities, the Health minister somehow always looks as though he is wearing an empty suit.
Opposition
“We said we wouldn’t allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.”
The opposition leader ends the parliamentary year saying the Labor Party supported every piece of legislation put up during the pandemic. Certainly, perfection never once seemed to get in their way.
