December 21, 2019 – January 24, 2020
News
Comment
Comment
Julian Burnside and Mikele Prestia
The secret trial of Witness J
“Too few Australians know about the case of Witness J – not to be confused with the case against Witness K and Bernard Collaery, itself a disgraceful overreach of the law. But a veil of secrecy shrouds the case of Witness J that should be of concern to all of us.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
PM travels as country burns
“Scott Morrison’s year of living miraculously ended with our elected leader disappearing from view and his whereabouts being treated like a state secret. The attitude that the prime minister’s location is nobody’s business is a strong indication of the arrogance – indeed the contempt – he and his government have demonstrated since their May election triumph.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Sydney Biennale artistic director Brook Andrew
For the 2020 Sydney Biennale, artistic director Brook Andrew is challenging the dominant narratives of this country, instead bringing together perspectives that have been unjustly relegated. “Australia is on a precipice of change in this present moment, with people renegotiating and confronting histories which shift dimensionally. It’s about who we are today, and there is a moral question that arises in this, which is: Where do you stand in the face of change?”
Life
The Horne Prize: Diary of a wildlife carer
“November – My first rescue. I hold the ladder while a baby tawny frogmouth is retrieved, no parents in sight. It opens its tiny mouth, pink inside with opalesque green mottling. “Stay away, I’m dangerous!” or “Feed me!” It is light as air despite the puff of feathers.”
Film
Best films of 2019
Streaming services increased their domination of the film industry this year, but the big screen still holds a vital place in cinema.
Fiction
Together
“My mother cared for my grandmother, Elsie, every day of the last 10 years of her long life – feeding her, washing her, listening to Elsie’s petty complaints about the poor quality of the television reception and answering the same question over and over with a degree of patience that wore other family members down. She wouldn’t hear of having Elsie put into a nursing home, even after my grandmother wandered out of her government flat one Christmas Day.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
