November 22 – 28, 2025
News
Comment
Comment
Joëlle Gergis
Can we handle the truth on climate?
“Based on the updated national climate pledges submitted ahead of COP30, it is clear that our politicians are still not showing the genuine leadership needed to transition rapidly away from fossil fuels, which are responsible for close to 90 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Albanese caught in a Türkiye shoot
“The politics of climate and the environment is just as messy at the United Nations summit in Belém, Brazil, as it is in Canberra and the Australian states. The fate of the planet is running a poor second to vested interests and crude personal power plays.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Sculptor Hany Armanious
Hany Armanious is an existential sculptor of the everyday, capturing its absurdities while insisting they be taken seriously.
Theatre
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Sarah Goodes’ production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? adds a vicious new spin to Edward Albee’s portrait of a nightmare marriage.
Fiction
Would you believe it
“Remember I was born in 2010 so that by 2022, when ChatGPT went to its debutante ball online, I was 12. Cherry, ripe for the picking. I would in fact say (or whisper) that I was therefore on the crispycusp of every thing-thing. I have always loved my name: ‘Alice Ingleton’. I link ‘Alice’ to the Carroller who invented the pop-popular rabbit hole. Please note that ‘Ingleton’ means ‘settlement of the wolf’. So it is strangely satisfactory for a girl-person who trucks (rhyme?) with AI.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Leadership
“I thought, what do I do here? I tell him to get stuffed? I get up and walk out? I hit him?”
The former PM details his thoughts while glaring at a journalist who questioned his use of the phrase “shit happens” in the context of an Australian soldier’s death in 2011. An ability to come up with at least three inappropriate responses in 24 seconds is what won Abbott the Liberal leadership.
Less leadership
“Reports of my death are grossly exaggerated, and I’m here to fight.”
The former NSW Liberal leader declares he will defend his position from right-wing challenger Alister Henskens. His resignation the next day proves the Twain quote is almost as powerful a curse as the Liberal leadership.
Even less leadership
“Momentum is building, and Victorians have a real reason to feel hopeful again.”
The former Victorian Liberal Party leader is quoted on an invitation to the CPAC Christmas party, sent days before he was ousted. That reason is wrong, but it’s too late to go back to the printers.
New leadership
“My message to Victorians is that I’m in your corner. I want to back you in.”
The 35-year-old member for Kew makes her first speech as Victoria’s opposition leader, cribbing from the Nationals’ strategy in the federal party room.
Inflation
“A disease that we’d been rid of in North America made its way up from South America, as these migrants brought some of their cattle with them.”
The US Treasury Secretary blames immigrant cows for the high cost of burgers. Trump would have addressed this in his campaign, but “Build a Cattle Grill” wasn’t as catchy.
Law
“I know the slut-shaming far too well. Members of this place are not beyond it, and we need to reflect on that today.”
The Victorian MP describes her experience of reporting abuse in state parliament, in support of legislation to restrict the use of non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases – the first of its kind passed in Australia.
