June 9 – 15, 2018
News
Comment
Comment
Guy Rundle
Michaelia Cash and Shorten’s factions
“You could forget in the middle of all this low comedy that Cash has pushed the back-and-forth of Australian politics about as far as it can go without becoming something else. There’s the police raid on the Australian Workers’ Union offices, the tip-off to journos from her office, the almost-maybe of what she knew and what she told the Senate, the whiteboard she hid behind. And now the subpoena directing her to front the AWU’s court case challenging the legality of the raid. All of this is such farce that it is easy to miss how serious it is. ”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
The latest Barnaby Joyce fallout
“As far as his Nationals colleagues are concerned, last Sunday night’s nationally televised interview was Barnaby Joyce’s political death warrant. Kevin Humphries, whose state seat of Barwon is within the boundaries of Joyce’s federal electorate, told Ten Eyewitness News that ‘for his own sake, Barnaby should move on’. Humphries’ assessment of the damage was chilling for his federal colleagues. He says, ‘People want consistency in decision-making. You need discipline in government and that’s not currently being displayed, so that’s got to change.’ ”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Patricia Piccinini’s changing nature
Artist Patricia Piccinini’s sculptures of hybrid and transgenic species evoke a future where the environment is dramatically changed by human intervention – whether for better or worse is in the eye of the beholder. “We don’t create for art’s sake, for beauty’s sake. We create to make the world ‘a better place’, but are we actually doing that?”
Television
‘The Americans’
While The Americans masterfully resurrects memories of Cold War anxieties, it also offers an unnerving lens on US politics as they are today.
Portrait
Author Gabriel Tallent
“This wasn’t the story Tallent originally set out to tell, it was the one he ‘stumbled’ into. Anyone who grows up and is paying attention has personal experience of violence, he says. Young women are subjected to violence at staggeringly high rates. Feminism and the environment are intricately linked: we destroy the things that matter to us. His debut novel, My Absolute Darling, is a response to that, led by Tallent’s anecdotal experience. When he talks about the novel, and about women and violence, Tallent is measured and confident. He speaks with intensity and exactness. ”
Food
“Cooking mackerel is a commitment. I cook them over coals using a Japanese technique, grilling with the dry heat above charcoal rather than through contact with the flame. You cook only on one side, through a wire rack. When the meat turns opaque two-thirds of the way through, with just a bit of crimson left and some caramelisation in the belly, it is ready to take off.”
Books
Life
Life
Vickie Roach and Women Transforming Justice
Vickie Roach spent much of her adult life in prison. Fourteen years since her last conviction, the Yuin woman is not a prison reformer – she’s an abolitionist.
The Quiz
Quotes
AMERICA
“This has got to come to an end, this pursuit of presidents.”
The man who cleaned up New York City calls for Donald Trump to be left alone. If the US president can forget the words to his own national anthem, surely the people can forget his crimes.
POO
“I don’t really care about a fine but I would love it if the magistrate gave him a good dressing-down and told him to pull his head in.”
The concerned resident describes capturing Brisbane’s “poo jogger” on camera. The alleged defecator was the national quality manager of the aged-care provider Aveo, but resigned after being caught serially shitting in people’s driveways.
ART
“This kind of stuff happens in Indonesia or Italy.”
The photographer expresses outrage after Woolworths Prahran declined a request to stage a photograph of several hundred naked people on its rooftop. Tunick chose the location for its “otherworldly appeal” and “apocalyptic setting” – which is the kindest thing to be said for that side of the Yarra.
POLITICS
“Of course I am running again. The first people I would tell if I wasn’t would be the electorate.”
The disgraced backbencher confirms he is working for the people of New England. As with everything, if his commitment changes he would tell voters first and his wife last.
MUSIC
“You also have to recognise – and this is not a defence, just an observation – it was a different time.”
The singer and bassist in KISS pretends contrition for being an “arrogant, sexist pig”. In fairness, you don’t have to “recognise” anything – he’s just an arrogant, sexist pig.
TAX
“Other forms of discrimination, such as by skin colour, race, or ethnicity, are rightly abhorred, yet the income tax system openly discriminates against people by income.”
The think tank complains to the government about the unfairness of tax. For people so into racism, they really don’t seem to understand what it is.
