July 11 – 17, 2020
News
Comment
Comment
Ed Husic
Ben Chifley’s legacy
“While taking my young son on yet another visit to Canberra’s Questacon last year, I decided to walk him past a pair of statues of John Curtin and Ben Chifley. Watching the winter sun warm Chifley’s bronze face, I wondered, momentarily, what my son would have thought of me representing the seat named after Joseph Benedict Chifley. After all, I am the son of migrants from the former Yugoslavia, the same migrants who had been fair game politically in the late 1920s when Chifley first entered politics.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Labor scrapes through in Eden-Monaro
“Four days after the voters of Eden-Monaro kept the marginal seat in opposition hands, the Reserve Bank governor summed up the nation’s predicament: we are all flying by the seat of our pants. Scott Morrison, too, put it succinctly: ‘This is a global pandemic. There are no guarantees in a global pandemic. You have to deal with the situations that are in front of you.’ It is how you deal with these situations, or rather how lucky you are in dealing with them, that can mark a leader up or down.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Fiction
Winner winner (Part one)
“The Emerald Queen was just beginning its second loop of the Tasman Peninsula when Phil, Ellen, John and Karen were seated for their standing 7 o’clock dinner reservation in the smaller of the two grand dining rooms. ‘Isn’t it so much nicer in this one?’ Ellen asked, leaning back a few degrees as a linen serviette was placed across her lap. She looked to Karen. ‘And I’m sure it’s easier for John to hear us all talking in here, without that music they keep so loud near the buffet upstairs.’ ‘Oh, John can hear fine,’ Phil cut in, dismissing his wife’s jab. She was switched on, but sometimes a bit harsh. ‘The doctor said that now, with his implant, he can hear better than most 50-year-olds,’ Karen replied, firmly but smiling. They picked up their menus and read as though it wasn’t the same laminated list they had been scanning every night for almost three weeks.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
JUSTICE
“Hasn’t anyone told you about bathrooms?”
The ACT magistrate scolds two men who snorted cocaine in front of police officers outside a Canberra pub. Proof that life is getting back to normal in the ACT after lockdown: the charges against the pair, friends from their time at an exclusive private school, were dismissed.
DEBTS
“Our experience indicates that won’t be the case but Australians will take time and update their details progressively.”
The minister responsible for the robo-debt scheme, well known for its tact and patience, suggests Australians owed money by the government will be relaxed about getting it back.
MUSIC
“We had heartfelt discussions with her about how we can all come together and make something special and beautiful out of this moment.”
The band that changed its name from Lady Antebellum after “reflecting on the Black Lives Matter movement” files a lawsuit against Anita White, a Black artist already performing as Lady A.
ENERGY
“I know what Tesla was getting at. What he didn’t have in his era, though, was the capability of putting a huge copper ring around the world.”
The Australian actor suggests harnessing the energy of the Earth’s rotation using copper wire and satellite stations to provide unlimited free energy. Ending our reliance on fossil fuels, making Americans watch Australian films – is there anything he can’t do?
MEDIA
“A report on Ghislaine Maxwell during FOX News Channel’s America’s News HQ mistakenly eliminated President Donald Trump from a photo alongside then Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell.”
The right-wing media giant apologises for accidentally editing Trump out of a photo. But no apology for keeping Melania in it.
COVID-19
“Our state has to be on high alert.”
The New South Wales premier urges residents to exercise caution as coronavirus cases spike in Victoria. This includes the planeload of Jetstar passengers from Melbourne allowed to disembark at Sydney Airport on Tuesday without any health checks.
