December 10 – 16, 2016 | The Saturday Paper

News

The Green Army’s scant environmental credentials

“Our review, using very generous criteria, found only about 135 were of genuine benefit. Doing generic weeding around some trees and saying ‘that benefits koalas’ doesn’t count.”

Mike Seccombe As the Coalition fractures over climate policy, the follies and waste of the demobilised Green Army have become clear.

News

West Australian One Nation senator Rod Culleton.

News

Pauline Hanson’s plans to expand One Nation

Karen Middleton She may be as much pilloried celebrity as politician, but when One Nation leader Pauline Hanson speaks, the disillusioned listen.

News

Exclusive: Don Dale training manual revealed

“Staff are taught that gas must not be used on ‘prisoners who are compliant or physically restrained’ or ‘non involved’ in a disturbance.”

John Power Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show how NT corrections officers violated official procedures at Don Dale.

News

Amateur sportspeople more likely to be found doping

“Performance-enhancing drugs have become so normalised that recreational cyclists are said to dope just to beat their personal bests.”

Jack Kerr With complex anti-doping regulations, mislabelling of supplements, and sporting bodies wanting to keep investigations in-house, drug tests are more likely to uncover cheats among amateurs than professional athletes.

News

Sexual harassment in the media

“Too many allegations of sexual harassment are still dealt with behind closed doors, with secret handshakes and payouts, with confidentiality clauses built in to protect corporate interests and personal reputations.”

Martin McKenzie-Murray The departure of The Age’s editor-in-chief due to workplace impropriety highlights the ongoing hypocrisy of the media as moral arbiter.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi addresses a press conference this week in Rome, before his resignation.

World

China hawks in Donald Trump team behind Taiwan call

Hamish McDonald Taiwan trade risk; NZ friendlier for seasonal workers from Pacific Islands; Italy’s PM resigns.

Comment

Jane Caro
Anti-euthanasia laws hurt families

“When he opened his eyes and saw his children, he realised he was still alive. He groaned, wept and turned his face to the wall. It seemed he must go on suffering.”

Comment

Paul Bongiorno
Comparison to John Key unflattering to Malcolm Turnbull

“New Zealand has a much less fraught political culture. Key certainly didn’t have a deputy PM who led another party that had a deep antipathy to, and suspicion of, him. ”

Gadfly

Richard Ackland
Gadfly: Plenty o’Dutton

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

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Editorial
The date is changing

Letters

Date change a good start

Congratulations to The Saturday Paper for the impetus to Change The Date (Erik Jensen, November 26-December 2). It is about time Australia grew up and accepted reality. Please keep it going. I came …

Art schools vital for our culture

In many respects I might be the last to defend the National Art School (Joyce Morgan, “Left hanging”, November 26-December 2): although I’ve stumbled around for nearly five decades …

Culture

Profile

Saroo Brierley on ‘Lion’ and the incredible rediscovery of his home in India

Susan Chenery As retold in Lion, Saroo was lost as a child in India, adopted by a Tasmanian couple and then, miraculously, 25 years later tracked down his birth mother.

Theatre

Opera Australia’s Ring cycle

Peter Craven Neil Armfield’s stark but powerful Ring delivers Wagner’s masterpiece as a triumph of the Australian stage, as good as could be imagined anywhere.

Portrait

Abstract artist John Nixon

Kate Holden In the workroom with punk veteran and abstract artist John Nixon.

Food

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Food

Almond soup

Andrew McConnell Meet gazpacho’s slick city cousin – velvety smooth almond soup.

Books

Patrick Cockburn
The Age of Jihad

Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa
Absolutely on Music

John Lahr
Joy Ride

Life

Health

Men and Parenting Pathways study

Michele Tydd An ongoing study into men’s attitudes to fatherhood and its associated pressures aims to uncover useful coping strategies and ultimately save lives.

Life

Co-living communities

Gillian Terzis Silicon Valley’s young workers are combating soaring rents by ‘co-living’ in large-scale share-housing with a community bent.

Sport

Nathan Walker, 22, ice hockey player

Donna Walker-Mitchell Nathan Walker on being the first Australian drafted by an NHL team.

The Quiz

1. Which well-known Hollywood actress of the 1950s and ’60s was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko?

2. What type of spirit is Bombay Sapphire?

3. What colour ball was used in the day/night Test cricket match in Adelaide?

4. Corella forelle, Josephine de Malines, Packham’s triumph are all types of which fruit?

5. Name the author of The Blind Side whose latest book is The Undoing Project.

6. What name is given to scissors with serrated blades that make a zigzag edge in fabric?

7. Cherophobia is an irrational fear of what?

8. Ned Kelly wrote which famous letter? (Bonus point for naming the year Ned Kelly was hanged.)

9. Hansen’s disease is more commonly known as what?

10. Susan Kiefel was recently appointed to what position?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

LITERATURE

“I think it’s a form of introspection.”

Sam DastyariThe Labor senator confirms he is writing a memoir and has been reading David Foster Wallace in preparation, presumably his Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

SURVEILLANCE

“Over time, Sodexo plans to add sensors to light poles and rubbish bins, and we already have plans to start experimenting with drones.”

Keith WestonThe project manager for a program that monitors in intimate detail the activities of Rio Tinto’s employees explains the mining company’s plan for further surveillance.

POLICING

“Flume, who does wonderful music from that sort of operation, is absolutely live entertainment and will be the sort of live entertainment on offer.”

Troy GrantThe NSW police minister explains a slight relaxation of lockout laws, apparently to benefit performers such as Flume and other “famous artists who [have] won about five ARIAs”.

AMBITION

“For president. And also, you know, so, what the hell man, anyway.”

Joe BidenThe US vice-president indicates his desire to run for the top job in 2020. Biden first ran for president in 1988, the same year Donald Trump told Oprah he wouldn’t run but if he did he would win.

HARMONY

“I don’t think he likes my authority.”

Pauline HansonThe One Nation leader complains about Senator Rod Culleton. In fairness to Rod, he scarcely approves of the High Court’s authority, let alone that of an ageing racist clinging to conspiracy theories about halal meat certification.

COUNCILS

“There was some concern around that actual name in relation to global issues.”

Karen MayThe Mackay councillor explains a decision to rename a street currently known as “Isis Court”. Daesh Drive has a nice ring to it and properly rejects implications that the group represents Islam or is a state.