June 20 – 26, 2020
News
Comment
Comment
Osman Faruqi
Deflecting from the real issues of Black Lives Matter
“The morphing of a campaign focused on policing, justice and structural disadvantage into a culture war over statues, movies and TV isn’t an accident. It’s a deliberate attempt by conservatives to shift this debate onto terrain where they are more comfortable fighting. None of the demands raised by organisers of the Black Lives Matter rallies related to renaming federal electorates, felling statues or cleansing Netflix’s library of blackface material.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
The spectacular fall of Adem Somyurek
“It took a carefully orchestrated sting lasting 12 months to rid the Australian Labor Party of a strongman few could tolerate any longer. But the fall of factional warlord Adem Somyurek has ramifications well beyond the borders of his Victorian fiefdom. Somyurek made sure of that himself when he boasted in secret recordings that his influence went to the top of the Labor Party in Canberra.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
A tribute to Arthur Summons
He was a small man with a huge heart and left an indelible mark on the games of rugby league and rugby union. Arthur Summons was also one half of the famous “Gladiators” image. “I didn’t really do anything to make it happen. Just tripped over in the mud, had a photo taken and became famous.”
Fiction
Prosper, crash, lane, notice
“The city is performing a disturbingly accurate impression of a ghost town and I am trying to impersonate a dead virus particle haunting it, infecting it; like pneumonia in the lungs of the city, when the ghost of a city has no physical lungs. I walk, there are barely cars moving, there is barely any air to fill my lungs, there are definitely no people. I wonder what has happened this time, what news I have missed with no credit on my phone.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
TOURISM
“I don’t mean to be offensive to South Australians, but why would you want to go there?”
The Victorian premier takes a moment’s respite from the scandal engulfing his party to engage in some old-fashioned interstate badinage.
ACTIVISM
“This is causing division within our nation … if people don’t stand up to this, I’m in fear of what it’s going to be like to live in this country.”
The One Nation leader vents her frustration over her failed “All Lives Matter” motion, after the senate moved to deny its debate in a rare show of unity.
VOCABULARY
“It was just language that was sort of floating around at the time and it’s what came out.”
The LNP senator attempts to explain why she described Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as “the knee on the throat of the businesses of Queensland”. Prime Minister Scott Morrison hasn’t attempted to explain how Stoker still has a job.
COURTS
“An order is thus necessary to ensure that ‘the minister’ responsible for administering the Migration Act does so in accordance with law.”
The Federal Court judge threatens to find Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in contempt of court, because apparently Australia’s immigration system now has to comply with the law.
INFRASTRUCTURE
“I’m pleased to let the member know that’s why we have committed $150 million to upgrade the Barton Highway.”
The prime minister responds to MP Alicia Payne telling him some women have had to give birth on the side of the Canberra highway due to the region’s lack of birthing facilities.
REDEPLOYMENT
“These comments have quite rightly cost me my job.”
The Victorian Labor MP accepts his fate after covert recordings reveal him making homophobic and misogynist comments about young party staffers and the state’s minister for Women.
