November 18 – 24, 2017
News
Comment
Comment
Guy Rundle
Lack of character in Canberra analysis
“With only occasional exceptions – someone like Clive Palmer – the working hypothesis of the gallery is that every political actor is rationally self-interested and transparent to themselves in their motives and desires. They could get away with this approach in the Hawke–Keating period, and, at a stretch, up to the end of the Howard period, when personality remained constrained by political forms, to a degree. But now we have a politics whose dominant figures have slipped their ideological moorings, and the interpretive gap shows keenly.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Turnbull’s reality check is in the mail
“The dangerous, retrograde bigotry pushed by many on the “No” side was rejected overwhelmingly in the survey. Fellow travellers on the right saw voters disprove their claims that they were speaking for most of them. Their mistake is to equate their electorates with the members of their local branches. Religious extremists have begun infiltrating Liberal branches around the country. Their potency comes at preselection time, when they determine the fate of an MP. ”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Artist Del Kathryn Barton’s atheistic devotion
Motherhood saw artist Del Kathryn Barton wholeheartedly embrace colour, but her work’s mystical and frenetic style – on show in a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria – emerged from the troubled inner life of her own childhood. “It was a very rich part of managing my anxiety growing up, growing these deep internal creative places. It gave me a lot of fortitude.”
Music
Mavis Staples’ ‘If All I Was Was Black’
Teaming once more with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples has produced a powerful new album. But, says the veteran performer, her heart aches as she rails still against the racial division she’s been fighting for decades.
Portrait
Black Lives Matter in Australia
“It is a testimony to the original three founders that the Black Lives Matter movement does not lend itself well to individual portraiture. It has evolved to be every black face, and have no face at all. Indigenous Australians have a fierce history of colonial resistance in this land, dating back to white invasion. Black lives mattering here starts not with black arrivants, but with the recognition of sovereignty unceded. Black Lives Matter makes room for geographical context.”
Food
“There are very few things better than a fresh-baked cheesecake. For me, it is all about the perfect, creamy texture. Here, it is topped with cream, baked rhubarb and strawberries. But there are many variants. A simple dusting of nutmeg. A lovely crisp crumble of caramelised oats. Fresh raspberries.”
Books
Life
Health
Early menopause and fertility-related genetic conditions
Large numbers of younger women are being told they’ve undergone early menopause, but some medical experts are concerned the diagnosis is far too simplistic.
The Quiz
Quotes
PORNOGRAPHY
“Australia’s national security may have been placed in a compromising position.”
The senator complains that Christopher Pyne’s Twitter account liked a gay porn video on the night of the marriage equality announcement. In fairness, it was several positions.
DIPLOMACY
“It would be real easy and helpful for your dad to suggest that Australia appoint Assange ambassador to DC.”
The whistleblower site writes to Donald Trump jnr to suggest that Julian Assange be made Australian ambassador to the United States. You can understand why the family stuck with Russian interference instead.
CITIZENSHIP
“We’re not a family of universities or lawyers.”
The senator announces she is leaving the parliament after discovering she is a dual citizen. Still, it’s amazing how far an irrational fear of Muslims can take you.
BYELECTIONS
“I am definitely starting out as the underdog in this campaign, but I’ve never shirked from a fight.”
The former state premier confirms she will run for the Labor Party in the seat of Bennelong. She was the underdog to run New South Wales, too, until Eddie Obeid decided she should.
CAKES
“I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t have a problem at all.”
The backbencher says a Jewish baker should be allowed to refuse a wedding cake to a Muslim. It seems the hair dye has finally leaked through his skull and damaged his brain.
DEFECTION
“I know where this is going.”
The new senator leaves One Nation to sit as an independent, an hour after being sworn in. What’s the world come to, when you can’t even rely on people you thought were racist?
