January 22 — 28, 2022
News
Comment
Comment
Claire G. Coleman
The forever war
“It’s January already. Here I am, writing yet another opinion piece about the 26th day of this month, the day on which the nation celebrates the invasion and genocide imposed on my people and my sacred Noongar Country and all other Aboriginal people and our lands.”
Comment
John Hewson
Morrison’s ‘too-hard’ basket just keeps getting bigger
“At the start of a new year, especially after such a tumultuous year as 2021, and in what will be an election year, it seems reasonable to take a look in the ‘too-hard basket’ to see what policy issues were missed, or deliberately ignored, or simply ‘kicked down the road’ by the current government.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
The Influence
Ari Wegner
As the daughter of a painter, cinematographer Ari Wegner found inspiration from an early age in the portraiture of Lucian Freud.
Fiction
Flying
“Here we go! he said as he revved the engine and started off, the car lurching behind like some sort of glowing, metallic creature of the deep. Soon we had it by the roadside and were standing near the truck. Perhaps sensing my queasiness, and speaking again over the grinding winch and the horrorshow scream of metal on metal, he said, Funny thing. There was no body, and nodded at the car. ”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Romance
“I would still be at Latitude 30 getting smashed.”
The deputy prime minister tells the country what he would be doing if Vikki Campion hadn’t said yes when he proposed last weekend. For old time’s sake, he broke the news to his ex-wife in The Daily Telegraph.
Law
“Thank you all for your good wishes on the costs order.”
The friend of a woman who accused Christian Porter of rape celebrates the news a court has directed the former attorney-general and his barrister to pay $430,000 in legal costs. There’s a cheap joke for here but it’s too expensive to make.
Parties
“Nobody warned me that it was against the rules.”
The British prime minister claims he was not told that a drinks garden party now embroiling his government in crisis violated the country’s Covid-19 lockdown. You could argue that he makes the rules, but you would be arguing with a man who thinks looking like a steamed dessert is prime ministerial.
Children
“There are changes that we need to make around the age of forklift drivers, to get quite specific.”
The prime minister asks state governments to let 16-year-olds operate forklifts, in an effort to alleviate staff shortages affecting supply chains. The only unsafe places children should be are prisons and pandemic-ravaged schools.
Film
“If you weren’t funny or entertaining or agreeing with them, they would cut you down or turn to stone.”
The showrunner behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer spends two years reflecting on his behaviour after being outed as abusive and manipulative. It turns out it was his mother’s fault.
Business
“We can see in hindsight it was inappropriate.”
The coffee roaster apologises for a promotion that offered customers two free rapid antigen tests if they spent $160. That’s about three lattes in Melbourne these days, amirite?
