February 12 — 18, 2022
News
Comment
Comment
Julianne Schultz
How Morrison killed the public service
“Two years ago, at the end of 2019, as the crises that would mark his tenure and demand an unprecedented public-sector response began to unfold, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced an apparently innocuous decision. It is one that has quietly haunted his government ever since.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
The narrow road to the Trojan Horse
“A hung parliament after the next election is emerging as a real possibility, enhanced by this week’s divisive religious discrimination debate. Among the winners could be the Greens and others who have stood up against a push to wind back years of Australian anti-discrimination laws for the sake of pandering to a loud fundamentalist Christian minority.”
Comment
John Hewson
The RBA’s inflated ego could make the housing crisis worse
“There is no doubt that inflation was brought under control through the 1990s, but there is a real debate about just how much of that was due to the management of monetary policy compared with the impact of a host of other factors including, importantly, Chinese manufacturing flooding the world with ever-cheaper product.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Artist Vivienne Binns
During a career spanning more than half a century, Vivienne Binns – a pioneer of feminist and community art in Australia – has never stopped growing.
The Influence
Alice Cummins
Maguy Marin’s Beckettian dance work May B has fascinated and moved dancer and choreographer Alice Cummins since she first saw it in 1992.
Fiction
The Wake
“I don’t know how you remember it. The Wake and the Interim. There was nothing to remember in the Interim, the 507 days that we all lost. Though we didn’t lose them. The world went on. Regular programming. Shows streamed, tweets tweeted, work worked, lives lived. A year and a half of agitation. Dooms to scroll. While we were away. The world heated, kept that catastrophic trajectory. Tyrants were voted in. Governments obfuscated. Billionaires made even more money. This was no break from industry. This was no break from anything.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Race
“I never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist.”
The podcast host apologises after a video compilation surfaced of him using racially offensive language. This is the impeccable logic of a man who made his fortune selling powdered masculinity to lonely adults.
Politics
“Now we have Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police spying on members of congress.”
The Georgia lawmaker accuses the United States house speaker of monitoring politicians. Gazpacho or not, Pelosi is always ice cold.
Strategy
“All Anthony would have to do is none of the things that Scott’s done.”
The former Australian of the Year offers her advice to Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Unfortunately, Labor’s strategy is to do everything Scott Morrison does, just a little less.
Faith
“I just want to start by saying that Citipointe church is no longer Brisbane’s best-kept secret.”
The senior global pastor of Brisbane’s Citipointe megachurch addresses worshippers. Most people would prefer recognition didn’t come from being associated with a regime of contracts used to bully trans teenagers, but you can’t have everything.
Romance
“If you’re a six and they’re a 10, it might not be your looks that they’ve been charmed by.”
The Liberal senator warns that foreign intelligence agencies might be using dating apps to access classified information. As always, the former Institute of Public Affairs staffer is speaking like a true four.
Messages
“Every family’s got this crazy uncle that wakes up from the rocking chair and sort of in a startled way shouts out something.”
The Home Affairs minister rejects Bob Carr’s assertion that he was behind the text message calling Scott Morrison “a psycho”. Speaking of which, Carr once chose to publish a diary in which he described his own ambition “to have a concave abdomen defined by deep-cut obliques”.
