October 22 – 28, 2022
News
Comment
Comment
Rebecca Huntley
Jim Chalmers’ push for a wellbeing budget
“In talking about wellbeing as part of the budget, Chalmers and his colleagues are trying to appeal to a community transformed by the impacts of a pandemic as much as by current economic turbulence. But they are also trying to speak to a range of groups they have relied upon for electoral success.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
The best-laid plans
“The admiration for Anthony Albanese’s political smarts was palpable down the line from one of his senior colleagues. ‘Albo,’ he says, ‘has 360-degree vision.’ The prime minister is not just looking at the next few weeks, his colleague says: he knows where he wants to be by the time of the next election.”
Comment
John Hewson
Corporate misincentives
“Reports this week alleging that doctors had made false claims totalling as much as one third of Medicare’s annual budget has pointed to more than just potentially significant weaknesses in the Medicare system. It has again highlighted the impact of the profit motive among medical clinics run by private corporations that are not necessarily Australian owned.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Writer Orhan Pamuk
The novels of Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk often seem to be prophetic, and his latest is no exception.
The Influence
Laura Murphy
Joni Mitchell’s classic “Both Sides, Now” has inspired writer and performer Laura Murphy since she was 14 years old.
Fiction
The children’s cubby
“The children’s cubby has the look of a big top. It’s the sort of blanket that is cotton-waffled, woven, and when the light shines through it, it looks holey, like surgical mesh. This morning the sun is coming through the windows on the east side of the lounge room, just like it always does, honeyed on the floorboards. There used to be ankle-thick shag pile carpet on this floor, mustard coloured. We pulled that furry scab and revealed the shiny underneath. The floorboards are beautiful, waxed but spotted with white paint. In places there are white footprints, handprints smudged, the ghostly remnants of people. I like the paint spots; it means the kids don’t have to worry, the floor is not precious. They drop paint on it, too.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Food
“James Corden is a hugely gifted Comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man.”
The owner of New York restaurant Balthazar briefly bans the late-night host from his establishment. Weirdly, the ban was for being “the most abusive customer” he’d seen and not for Corden’s performance in Cats.
Policy
“If I would just talk about it, it wouldn’t demonstrate my commitment to the issue.”
The independent candidate in New York’s 12th Congressional District releases his own sex tape to highlight sex positivity. Unfortunately, no one who has seen the tape feels positively about sex anymore.
Crime
“I feel so bad for him. I follow what is happening to him.’’
The convicted sex trafficker expresses concern over the welfare of Prince Andrew. The prince, who she calls her “dear friend”, continues to deny they know each other well.
Love
“We met through Blak activism and briefly dated in early 2021.”
The senator resigns as the Greens’ deputy leader in the upper house after failing to disclose a relationship with a former bikie boss. Who says the party is against the 1 per cent?
Money
“Our predecessors more or less booby-trapped the budget.”
The treasurer prepares to deliver his first budget next week. Frankly, the description makes Josh Frydenberg sound more interesting than he is.
Architecture
“If you want to know about kitchen amendments and you want to put a new toilet in the corridor somewhere, call the NSW Institute of Architects.”
The former prime minister celebrates 10 years since construction started at the redeveloped Barangaroo. Everyone was wrong about it except him and a shady casino operator.
