September 23 – 29, 2017
News
Comment
Comment
Kelly Glanney
Correcting the debate on gender identity
“Look beyond academia’s well-intended fixation with linguistics and inclusivity and you’ll find huge body of historical and empirical evidence clearly demonstrates gender variance, non-binary gender identity and gender expression have been an intrinsic part of natural human diversity for millennia.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Abbott’s all-out assault over energy
“The tragedy for the nation is that Abbott is not framing his arguments in terms of ending the energy wars. Rather, he wants to inflame them. His only focus: the next election and drawing a sharp distinction between an affordable and reliable energy target against Labor’s dearer clean energy target. Forget warnings from Finkel, the Australian Energy Market Operator and others that without a long-term policy on emissions, electricity will cost more rather than less.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Indigenous photographer Mervyn Bishop
As Australia’s first Aboriginal press photographer, Mervyn Bishop created history, helping to take control of how Indigenous people were portrayed in images. Five decades later, his passion for observing the human side of daily life has not diminished.
Visual Art
Rover Thomas at Sydney Contemporary
At Sydney Contemporary, the commercial realities of the art fair dissolve as he apprehends the elemental power of Rover (Julama) Thomas’s works.
Portrait
Artistic director Darren O’Donnell
“Dissatisfaction, O’Donnell says, is the factory of his professional abundance. Dissatisfaction with the limits of being an actor; then a writer and director; then with conventional theatre altogether, how the audience is all sitting in the dark and the actors are all in the light and there’s no communication between them. ”
Food
“To anyone who will listen, I am often heard banging on about the importance of mastering basic techniques. Often we will come across a recipe that will interest us but may be scant on instructions, or even a picture of something delicious on a picture-only social media site. It is here that the understanding of basic techniques enables us to apply our knowledge of these techniques and cook something beautiful without too much stress. ”
Books
Life
Life
Bigsound Music Festival
A ‘sense of duty’ took the author to the Bigsound music festival, but it was the talent of up-and-coming artists that truly ignited his passion.
The Quiz
Quotes
DISCOURSE
“We’ve got to be alive to the fact that sometimes, unconsciously, we ourselves might be bullies.”
The former prime minister accepts that sometimes he may accidentally victimise vulnerable people. Presumably, the rest of the time it’s deliberate.
GENDER
“Oh, this is fucked.”
The federal member for the Queensland seat of Petrie acknowledges a reporter asking the prime minister about gender equality among politicians. Before entering parliament Howarth described himself as a small businessman and he is.
RACE
“I don’t know a single person who had ever heard of Dr G Yunupingu. Why is the ABC obsessed with farewelling this guy who passed away in July?”
The former opposition leader adds racist insecurity to his list of social maladies. A quarter of a million people died in the Boxing Day tsunami and he didn’t think that was worth mentioning, either.
POLITICS
“I honestly think he has a great body. He is very fit. But I do think that politicians should stay fully clad at all times.”
The prime minister criticises Tony Abbott for wearing sluggos. It’s a sad state of affairs when this is the only thing you would do differently to your predecessor.
CITIZENSHIP
“I was 19 and more keen on football than on filling out forms.”
The One Nation senator reflects on filling out documents for his Australian citizenship. He’s now 62, and more interested in conspiracy theories than science.
WORK
“If I turn up to a party and a child who is in love with Queen Elsa is gay, that’s okay, I will love them just as much as I love any other kid.”
The nanny who lost her job as a children’s entertainer after sharing her support for the “No” case explains that she is not homophobic. She’s just Christian.
