October 23 – 29, 2021
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The Influence
Jo Lloyd
For choreographer Jo Lloyd, the discomfort of Leos Carax’s film Holy Motors is part of its uneasy brilliance.
Fiction
The quickest way home
“The boy says, ‘You’re the one who writes novels, aren’t you?’ Patrick doesn’t reply. He did, he wrote one, it won an award but no one would publish it, but he thinks now, this might make a good novel, about what happens when you fuck your employees around, when you give them two weeks’ notice when you know they’ve got a million-dollar mortgage. The boy says, ‘I was thinking of becoming a writer,’ and Patrick laughs, almost runs into a van, says, ‘That’d be the dumbest decision of your life.’”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Class
“Despite the billions of dollars governments invest in changing the lives of proles, their number increases.”
The former New South Wales minister for Family and Community Services writes an opinion piece explaining that poor people are “often damaged and almost entirely lacking discipline”. Goward said this was a “Marxist analysis” – apparently without knowing what either word meant.
Defamation
“I think it’s a workplace entitlement issue and I think it’s a broader discussion that should be had.”
The Defence minister proposes taxpayer funding for politicians to pursue defamation actions. This is a man who spent the better part of the past decade torturing people as part of his job – and is still worried about his reputation.
Law
“From a Nationals point of view, we will not be supporting James on this position and he can go and get fucked, simple as that.”
The Victorian Nationals leader condemns shadow minister James Newbury for changing the opposition’s stance on anti-gay conversion laws. The question of course is not whether Newbury can get fucked but by whom.
Climate
“I’m in a position of being asked to marry a girl that I haven’t met. That’s not how the Nationals party room works.”
The Nationals senator explains his continued objection to a net-zero target. The party might still be without a climate policy, but it has finally made clear its stance on arranged marriage.
Mining
“The objective seriousness of the crime was one of the highest order.”
The NSW Supreme Court justice sentences Ian Macdonald, Eddie Obeid and his son Moses to between five and nine years in jail for their parts in rigging a coal exploration tender. Anyway, there’s no need for a federal ICAC.
Inquiries
“Incredulous.”
The former NSW premier giving evidence at ICAC describes his reaction to learning that Gladys Berejiklian had been in a secret relationship with another member of parliament. It seems like a credible response, given he had seen Daryl Maguire up close.
