September 22 – 28, 2018
News
Comment
Comment
Harper Nielsen
Why I won’t stand for the national anthem
“I really wanted people to think about the anthem, and how we exclude First Nations people. I wanted people to think about racism and how it can look, sometimes in little ways we can’t see or didn’t think about. I hope that’s happened. I also hope people talk to each other about our anthem, and about how we can honour and show respect for Indigenous Australians. So I’m happy I did what I did. And even with the mean things some people have said about me, I’d do it again.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Morrison’s ‘momentum’ peters out
“In the government party room on Tuesday Morrison told incredulous members that “we have momentum”. One quipped later: “Yeah, the sort of momentum you get when you jump off a cliff.” Maybe Morrison was taking heart from the fact he was more popular than Bill Shorten in the latest Fairfax Ipsos poll, though not quite as popular as the man he replaced.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
‘Dark Tourist’ documentary-maker David Farrier
Where once he was Tickled, New Zealand documentary-maker David Farrier has most recently devoted himself to visiting ghoulish sites of so-called ‘dark tourism’. Here, he talks about murky ethics, Kiwi sensibilities and the pressure to react the ‘right’ way. “There’s one point where I’ve got a gun to my head and I laugh, because I’m sort of nervous. “Some people will say to me that it was really inappropriate to laugh at that point … [But] that’s what happened. It’s uncomfortable laughter. We wanted to leave all that in.”
Music
Liars, TWTWF
Liars’ new album of oblique rock, TWTWF, finds Angus Andrew lyrically exploring the departure of his long-time songwriting partner and sonically drawing on his natural surrounds.
Portrait
Artist Robert Walton
“We talk a lot about art, what art is, what his practice is, although like most artists he finds it difficult to define his practice in words. He believes strongly in the good art can do, fostering what he calls ‘radical empathy’, in our society where ‘it’s easier for hearts to close and for hope to be lost than for our childlike openness and wonder to remain at the centre of life’. He sees art as problem solving. ”
Books
Life
Wine
The best wines of spring 2018
The beverage director for Andrew McConnell’s restaurants recommends the season’s top wines, and a bonus gin.
The Quiz
Quotes
MEMORIES
“My sisters and I would run away from the cantankerous old spinster next door who drowned newborn kittens in a bucket because she didn’t want to add to her clutter of cats, right into the hands of the old widow on the other side who would force feed us molasses.”
Facing an assault on his credibility from Peter Dutton, the former Border Force chief has clearly hired a PR expert to handle his closely followed Twitter account.
NICKNAMES
“I wouldn’t want to be called a ‘quota girl’.”
The New South Wales senator opposes gender quotas in the Liberal Party. She apparently takes no issue with filling the quota of LNP backbenchers needed to fill out Sky News’s nightly line-up.
IMMIGRATION
“I Stopped These.”
The inscription on a trophy the prime minister keeps in his office, shaped like a fishing boat. Tony Abbott allegedly has the same words on a marble sculpture in his office – a sort of miniature antipodean Mount Rushmore – with the faces of Malcolm Turnbull, Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd carved into it.
OPPORTUNITY
“A nobody from nowhere gets this sweet gig, free suit, new boots, just because I don’t like men.”
The Nanette comedian takes the stage to present an award at the Emmy Awards. According to the people who are angry at me on Twitter, this is also exactly how I got the job of editor of The Saturday Paper.
POLITICS
“67–68.”
The Greens MP cites the result of his failed vote of no confidence against Peter Dutton. It was close, almost as close as you need to be with the Home Affairs minister for him to save your au pair from deportation.
STRAWBERRIES
“I think you’re scum. I think you’re lowlife to have done this. You know, I don’t know why you’ve done it. Surely you’ve got family out there – brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, aunts.”
Speaking on Facebook live, the One Nation leader copy-pastes her attack lines usually reserved for migrants and refugees and instead turns them on a worthy adversary – the “strawberry terrorists” who are tearing the fabric of Australian life apart.
