April 12 – 18, 2025
News
Comment
Comment
Judith Brett
Peter Dutton’s amateur hour on policy
“Dutton’s lack of interest in policy is the Achilles heel of an election campaign built on complaint and tough-guy rhetoric. There is no detail on his nuclear policy, which is so far off it is hard to take seriously. There are serious questions about the workability of his gas policy. There are his three thought-bubble referendums and his destructive plan to cap foreign student numbers. The list goes on.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
How to blow up a campaign in two easy steps
“All elections turn on competence in political and economic management. Undermine voters’ confidence in either – or, worse, both – and the chances of success are seriously diminished. That is the situation Peter Dutton finds himself in at the end of the second week of the campaign.”
Comment
Stan Grant
In the land of magical thinking
“We have invented the economy. We have fashioned it out of the air. We have made an altar of money. The market is the arbiter of all things. We are caught in its spell. It is a world no more real than Narnia or Moria but far less entrancing and far more evil.”
Comment
John Hewson
Fix for a broken tax system
“As the major parties compete for the title of best economic manager, they are still ignoring the elephant in the room. Their future spending commitments, and voters’ expectations for further support, are not adequately funded by the prospective tax base.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Filmmaker Justin Kurzel
Justin Kurzel’s new miniseries, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, adapts Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel into a war story that resonates with hope.
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Military
“Mr Hastie’s comments were ... based on his own experience serving in the Special Air Service Regiment.”
A spokesperson responds to the shadow defence minister’s 2018 comment that “the fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it’s exclusively male”. It’s also best to sterilise jars in a low oven, but everyone ignores that one too.
Oratory
“Sky News debate WINNER!”
Anticipating the broadcaster’s decision by about 40 minutes, the LNP’s Facebook page erroneously declares a win for Peter Dutton in his first debate with the prime minister. It’s such a sad victory you almost want to donate it to them.
Science
“The genetic edits may have given these wolves a lighter coat to look reminiscent of a dire wolf.”
The Monash University genomics expert questions claims by Colossal Biosciences that they have “de-extincted” the dire wolf, which died out 12,000 years ago. Honestly, the most fraudulent part of that claim is the grammar.
Diplomacy
“I don’t think we’ll be holding China’s hand.”
The deputy prime minister responds to questions about the Chinese ambassador’s invitation for Australia to join hands with China in response to Trump. Marles knows that next it’ll be tequila sunsets and a tangle in the South China Sea.
Markets
“This is a great time to buy!!! DJT”
The United States president posts an apparent stock recommendation on his Truth Social platform hours before announcing a tariff backdown that would spark a double-digit rebound in stocks. If that sounds illegal, it’s possibly no more so than his other 34 felony counts.
Property
“While working in London and Canberra, I took out mortgages to buy the apartments that I lived in.”
The Liberal candidate for Kooyong, who has campaigned as a young renter, admits she owns an apartment in Canberra and another in London. To be fair, two mortgages does qualify you as a battler in some parts of Kooyong.
