August 20 – 26, 2022
News
Comment
Comment
John Hewson
Big trouble in belittling China
“Many seem stuck on the idea that it is a choice between the United States and China, and we should let the US dictate what we do. The Americanisation of Australia has gone too far – we are in danger of losing our national identity. We don’t need to choose.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
The Influence
Leticia Cáceres
The delicate empathy of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi inspires Leticia Cáceres’s own exploration of family dilemmas.
Fiction
The good stuff
“I got a message from Minh about 10pm, said did I want to come over for a drink and I waited before replying okay. I hadn’t spoken to him since the night I fled his flat. Minh’s place in Braybrook was sparsely furnished, a collection of hard-rubbish furniture. It was a hot night. An old evaporative cooler rattled in the corner of the living room. A picture of him with his ex, Tiff, was next to the telly. I recognised it as the one I took the night I ran out.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Groceries
“My concern is that I feel like socialists are taking over. They’re marching through the institutions.”
The founder of organic grocery chain Whole Foods shares his loathing for progressives, who he believes have taken over the military and most corporations. Selling broccoli and fascism have more in common than you might think.
Politics
“Without knowing a lot more than I have read in the papers, I would be reluctant to condemn what seems to have happened.”
The former prime minister refuses to criticise Scott Morrison for secretly appointing himself to ministries. Incidentally, “without knowing more than I read in the papers” is how Abbott approaches life in general.
Faith
“It will send shivers down the spines of some bishops in the Anglican Church of Australia.”
The former Sydney archbishop announces a breakaway arm of the Anglican Church, set up in boycott of same-sex marriage. Wait until they find out why Henry VIII started the thing in the first place.
Culture
“Without the help I was given, my work would have been hasty and shallow, and my working life harder and more painfully fragmented.”
The author makes a submission to the development of a national cultural policy, thanking taxpayers for supporting her early writing. Money well spent.
Sport
“Sick in the toilet and his mate went in to help him.”
The father of rugby league star Kalyn Ponga explains why his son was filmed coming out of a toilet cubicle with a teammate. They definitely, absolutely, weren’t doing drugs in there.
Crime
“I read a couple pages. I didn’t read the whole thing cover to cover.”
The man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie admits he didn’t get all the way through The Satanic Verses. What kind of world do we live in where even adherence to a violent fatwa is not enough to get a young man to read?
