July 22 – 28, 2017
News
Comment
Comment
Richard Cooke
Comments and the discourse of distraction
“You can advocate letting obese diabetics die from their disease, or float the end of universal suffrage, or write about Africans being cannibals who don’t understand cities – if you’re Elizabeth Farrelly, you can do all three – but so long as these suggestions are rendered in unreadable prose and directed at a bourgeois audience, no one will care.”
Comment
Sean Kelly
Security and Malcolm Turnbull’s bluff
“By now we’ve all seen enough of Turnbull not to expect a tough guy. We want the guy who knows stuff, who is across his brief, who can explain things in detail and persuade us he has it all in hand. Instead, this week, we got Turnbull as played by Sly Stallone, the action hero who couldn’t give directions to get to the pub across the street.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Katie Noonan takes to the bush
Since arriving on the music scene as a teenager in the band George, Katie Noonan has been an evolving artist. Now, she’s seeking to empower fellow female singer–songwriters in rural Australia.
Food
Strozzapreti with salsa di noci
“The most essential thing about cooking pasta is timing. My other rule with cooking pasta is to take the recommended cooking time and subtract two minutes.”
Books
Life
Travel
Japan’s Kumano Kodō pilgrimage
‘Forest-air bathing’ is a traditional Japanese pursuit, but hiking the ancient Kumano Kodō pilgrimage paths through the Kii Peninsula mountains, the author finds herself most absorbed by the rocks beneath her feet.
The Quiz
Quotes
FACTIONS
“There is a great old military philosophy of what you walk past you condone.”
The retired major-general pushes for reform of the NSW Liberal Party. As Molan has made clear on several occasions regarding human rights abuses in offshore detention, he is an expert in walking past and condoning.
POLICE
“The dishonest narrative pushed by BLM is that America’s police forces are riven with systemic racism against innocent unarmed black men.”
The conservative columnist links the shooting by a US policeman of Australian woman Justine Damond to the Black Lives Matter movement. Police blamed a loud firework.
REFUGEES
“Frankly, I am a little tired of being held responsible for the non-implementation of an agreement that was absolutely explicit in terms of conditions.”
The former prime minister complains of being held accountable for his part in offshore detention. Also “a little tired” are the 2000 people being tortured in the island camps maintained by our government.
TELEVISION
“Is that where we want to be? No.”
The director-general of the BBC addresses the gender gap in pay for his employees. He would not say how much was being saved by the hiring of a female Doctor Who.
LAND
“You know we talk about legacies — we leave the legacy today for all Yindjibarndi, whether you’re with us or against us, this is your moment, too.”
The Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation chief executive greets news that the Federal Court has recognised an exclusive native title claim to land including Andrew Forrest’s multibillion-dollar Solomon Hub mine. Woodley is probably very rich now.
SECURITY
“Our adversaries are agile and nimble, constantly adapting and evolving to defeat our defences.”
The prime minister explains the need for a new super department on national security. Terrorists sound alarmingly like Turnbull’s “major drivers of Australia’s future economic prosperity”.
