December 16 – 22, 2023
News
Comment
Comment
John Hewson
Labor’s credible plan for immigration
“Perhaps Australia’s greatest postwar achievement has been the creation of a functional and tolerant multicultural, multiethnic and multi-religious society that has become the envy of the world. However, it is very important to recognise that despite this success, it remains very much a work in progress.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
The Influence
Shannyn Palmer on the Yiwarra Kuju exhibition
Yiwarra Kuju was a major inspiration behind Shannyn Palmer’s Unmaking Angas Downs, which just won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Australian History.
Fiction
Office Christmas party
“Whatever the pretexts, let me say that disinhibition kicked in around dusk. The photocopier challenge began, as it probably always does, with people photocopying their faces and hands. Personally I regret the direction it took from there, but as team head of human resources tasked with leveraging the input of all employees in the company’s annual targeted goals, I felt compelled to join in.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Politics
“Queensland is in good shape.”
The former premier of Queensland offers her assessment after eight years in office. She’s wrong: the state is way too big and too influential in federal elections.
Law
“Complete capitulation.”
The lawyer representing Nine newspapers describes Kerry Stokes’s decision to pay Ben Roberts-Smith’s legal bill. Stokes is the second innocent old man to be badly hurt in this story.
Television
“I had a huge row. I was told in the interest of taste and in respect for the cameramen and women that I shouldn’t be doing this.”
The conservative politician explains that he showered naked throughout I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here because he wanted to check for leeches. The man insists on associating only with creatures like him.
Ideology
“The divisions inside the conservative movement are less over what should be done and more over how far we might go…”
The former prime minister shares his vision for electoral success. In case there was any doubt about his brain function, he maintains “the right answer is always as far as possible”.
Media
“News Ltd should sack him.”
The energy and climate change minister calls for Andrew Bolt to be sacked over a column that linked climate action with “race-based tribalism”. At this point, Bolt is really just playing bingo with himself.
Prisons
“The system preferred to blame me rather than accept that, sometimes, children can and do die suddenly, unexpectedly, and heartbreakingly.”
The 56-year-old responds after the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed her convictions. Folbigg served 20 years in prison following the deaths of her four children.
