October 14 – 20, 2017
News
Comment
Comment
Clem Bastow
Hollywood’s disgrace of ‘open secrets’
“This is the sad song of contemporary feminism: burnout for the women who speak up, endless “cookies” for the men who offer little more than lip service. It’s bittersweet to admit that women and other marginalised people don’t seem to be able to shatter this status quo: if we are truly to conquer the Stone Age behaviours of men such as Harvey Weinstein, we need their fellow straight, white men to intervene, to demand a different standard.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Tony Abbott’s shadow over government policy
“Flying in the face of science is not something Turnbull or Frydenberg say they want to do. Neither, incidentally, did Abbott when he was prime minister. But now if we are to believe Abbott’s London speech, that was all a charade. He never really stopped believing the science was “crap”. We know his characterisation of the Labor government’s carbon price as a “tax” was also a confection. ”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
‘Samson & Delilah’ creator Warwick Thornton
Filmmaker Warwick Thornton’s latest offering, Sweet Country – a dark, outback, period western – brings the truth of Indigenous history to life through fiction. Says Thornton: “I was ready and really hungry, and a nice, big-arse western, a massive epic full of horses and guns, men scratching their balls, felt really, really good to me.”
Music
St. Vincent’s ‘MASSEDUCTION’
Annie Clark’s latest St. Vincent album, MASSEDUCTION, is an instant classic, delivering an often dark and desolate vision rendered with a glistening pop sheen.
Portrait
‘Food Safari Earth’ host Maeve O’Meara
“Enmore is the next stop. From its exterior Stanbuli looks like a 1960s hairdresser, complete with original lolly-pink signage advertising the Marie-Louise Salon. Inside is a romantic Turkish restaurant with geometric floor tiles, a gently curved bar and bentwood stools. ”
Food
Chocolate pots with whisky cream
“This is a great example of a recipe that can really highlight the quality of chocolate. Too often, chocolate gets piled up with other flavours. Here you really taste the nuance – the different notes in the chocolate. Because it’s cooked at a lower temperature, these flavours are not damaged.”
Books
Life
Health
Birth injuries
The first step to helping new mothers cope with the physical and psychological damage of injuries sustained during childbirth is to acknowledge how commonly they occur.
The Quiz
Quotes
POLITICS
“I attended an Australian themed house-warming party where guests went as icons of prominent Australian identities.”
The Liberal National Party candidate for Redcliffe explains how she came to post a photograph of herself with a man in blackface. He had taken the “Australian theme” literally and come as “racist”.
TELEVISION
“There are cameras, autocues, microphones, monitors, producers and all the things you need to actually create television programs.”
The broadcaster responds to a piece in The Saturday Paper describing his troll-like studio under the stairs of a Melbourne office building as “makeshift”. It is true he has cameras and producers; the only things he lacks are journalistic integrity and an audience.
PRIZES
“I haven’t had the phone calls, but I guess that’s the nature of the beast.”
The co-founder of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons confirms Malcolm Turnbull did not call after he won the Nobel peace prize. Turnbull did call to congratulate an Australian kid playing ice hockey in America. Seriously.
TECHNOLOGY
“One of the most powerful features of VR is empathy.”
The Facebook founder defends a virtual reality tour he took of hurricane-damaged Puerto Rico. Some might argue simulation is the opposite of empathy, but they probably don’t make their fortunes harvesting the data of the living.
WOMEN
“I don’t want a quota system – ever – that locks a good bloke out of doing his job.”
The former Howard government minister rejects calls for mandated representation of women in seats. Speaking of good blokes, she was dropped from cabinet for Kevin Andrews, who used her immigration portfolio for the exclusive purpose of demonising African refugees.
LANGUAGE
“I think one of the greatest of all terms I’ve come up with is ‘fake’.”
The United States president tells a Christian news network that he invented the term “fake news”. The fact it dates from the late 1800s doesn’t dissuade him: so do his sexual politics.
