February 22 – 28, 2025
News
Comment
Comment
Helen Haines
How to regain public trust in the NACC
“With the establishment of the NACC, Australians were promised a new era of transparency and accountability. That work is not done and we must continue the work to deliver that promise. The first step is removing the overreach of the exceptional circumstances test.”
Comment
David Ritter
WA must not dictate nature policy
“As David Attenborough once noted with characteristic clarity, humanity is ‘totally dependent’ on the natural world. In a straightforward hierarchy, all human activity is contingent on the continued functioning of the ecological foundations of life.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Nervous MPs hanging on election date
“The prime minister’s performance in this campaign is crucial. Labor cannot afford a repeat of 2022, where the best days of the election were the ones when the Labor leader was isolating with Covid-19 and Jason Clare and other frontbenchers filled the void.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Filmmaker Charles Williams
The prison drama Inside, the debut feature from Australian Palme d’Or winner Charles Williams, was written on the edge of his nerves.
Poetry
Three poems
“When I lived on the edge of the plain
tucked up against The Scarp, an orchard
on the northern bank of the thin river
was my point of repair. The orchardist
lived in a shed among his equipment
and chemicals, his clothes drying
and played Philosophy to my negativity,
though his answers were always defeatist.
His son wanted to sell the property
to housing estate developers. He told
me of his childhood and youth in Dalmatia.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Weather
“When a name matches a prominent person of the time, we reorder to the next name starting with that same letter to avoid any confusion.”
A spokesperson confirms the agency will skip “Anthony” as the next alphabetical name for a wind event. Labor staffers are still doing the polling on renaming Albanese “Cyclone”.
Parties
“Trumpet of Parrots.”
The former MP mispronounces the name of his new party, Trumpet of Patriots. It’s more interesting, and the logo would be only slightly more confusing.
Integrity
“I thought: no. I like Barnaby. I like what he stands for.”
The One Nation leader reveals she asked Barnaby Joyce to join her party after footage emerged of him sprawled drunk on a footpath. Presumably she likes what he falls over for too.
Policy
“I’ll just put the insurance sector on notice right now ... I expect them to bring down insurance premiums significantly by the time we form a government.”
The opposition leader explains his policy to lower insurance costs. He’s hoping that if he says insurance often enough, everyone will just fall asleep.
Bullying
“Obviously we want peace, but it can’t just be a surrender to vicious, naked aggression.”
The former prime minister criticises Donald Trump’s talks with President Vladimir Putin in a speech at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. While somehow sounding as if that’s exactly what he would really like it to be.
Movies
“Grow up.”
The actor offers advice to Guy Pearce after the Australian actor described fending off advances from Spacey while working on L.A. Confidential. There’s nothing like being cleared of sexual assault to boost your self-confidence.
