August 10 – 16, 2019
News
Comment
Comment
Andy Marks
The legacy of Graham Freudenberg
“War is readily characterised as a failure of reason. But that’s not quite true. It is, in fact, a failure to hear reason. The recent loss of Graham Freudenberg – Australia’s greatest speechwriter – compels us once again to listen. We owe him that. With rising geopolitical instability, the value of reason – of the ilk Freudenberg championed – couldn’t be higher.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Australia’s trade balancing act
“The Trump presidency has been a wild ride for its ally Australia, and is becoming dangerously more bizarre by the day. Canberra is being railroaded into a confrontation with Beijing, which is clearly not in its economic or strategic interests. The Morrison government knows as much and is struggling to deal with America’s ambition in a way that assures Australia’s prosperity and security. The degree of difficulty became apparent at last weekend’s Australia–United States Ministerial Consultations in Sydney.”
Letters, Poem & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Melbourne indie band Art of Fighting
After releasing three successful albums and winning an ARIA award, indie rock band Art of Fighting all but disappeared. Having returned with their first record in 12 years, Luna Low, they discuss their thoughtful brand of songwriting, their collaborative process and their long hiatus. “Maybe we felt like we’d run our creative course to a point,” says Ollie Browne, “and there was a fear of eroding the artistry even more.”
Theatre
Oriel Gray’s The Torrents
A long-overdue revival of Oriel Gray’s The Torrents is brilliantly cast and beautifully produced, highlighting the work of a talented Australian playwright who was never given the recognition she deserved.
Portrait
Producer Alex Kelly
“When I ask Kelly what draws her to projects, she says she looks for ‘the intersection between “let’s think strategically about messages” [and] engaging the heart by telling a story and inviting [viewers] into a world that they may not see’. She adds, ‘You can’t work backwards and say we’re going to make a film to make people feel x; you have to make a film that is still its own piece of art and follows the poetry of what emerges.’ ”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
DIPLOMACY
“Andrew Hastie’s rhetoric … lays bare his Cold-War mentality and ideological bias.”
Beijing’s Australian embassy denounces the Liberal MP for comparing Chinese influence in Australia to the Nazi invasion of France. Hastie refused to say if he believed the situation was evolving.
SPORT
“G’day, it’s Kevin Rudd here – the global handball king.”
After failing to make the shortlist for secretary-general of the United Nations, the former prime minister announces a new career. To be clear, he was talking about the sport and not the political tactic.
LAW
“It’s not just a loss for me, it’s a loss for all of us, and I’m very, very, very sorry.”
The former public servant apologises after losing a High Court appeal against her sacking for tweeting criticisms of the government under a pseudonym while employed by the Immigration Department. The only people the department thinks should be anonymous are children in detention.
BIGOTRY
“Now your daughter can be in a toilet with a man (waxed balls and all) identifying as a woman.”
The former head of the Australian Christian Lobby continues the toilet-sniffing obsessions of the anti-trans movement. He calls this Pandora’s box, because he is completely fixated on genitals.
MELBOURNE
“Thank you, Crown Casino, damn, and they didn’t let me in, or him or this guy. Wow, we got a long way to go.”
The basketballer criticises Crown for allowing only the white member of his entourage to enter its Melbourne casino, an accusation the company denies. Crown is not taking bets on whether the episode was racially motivated.
VALE
“Just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”
The novelist, teacher and Nobel laureate surrenders to the wind and rides it. She was 88.
