August 23 – 29, 2025
News
Comment
Comment
Jamal Rifi
Cohesion, compassion and peace in Gaza
“It has been a difficult two years for Australia. This much is clear. The values we hold dear and the ties that have for generations bound our community of communities have been tested like never before. These challenges are not unique to Australia. We see the same fracturing in societies across our like-minded allies in Europe.”
Comment
Marcia Langton
The NT’s wilful ignorance over Black deaths in custody
“When Tim Fischer called High Court judges ‘pissants’ in the ’90s, after they recognised native title and overturned terra nullius, he created the rare spectacle of a government minister excoriating a member of the judiciary in the media … This year, the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Lia Finocchiaro, publicly dismissed a damning coronial report into yet another Black death in custody.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Seeking consensus at home and abroad
“Treasurer Jim Chalmers summed up pretty well where Australia finds itself in a week of significant round tables in Canberra and Washington and a deepening humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. The treasurer said the Albanese government was seeking ‘to build consensus’. He was referring to the need to bring all sectors of the economy together on reforms to kickstart growth and recognise that self-interested fragmentation is a recipe for failure.”
Comment
John Hewson
Coalition at a loss on productivity
“Perhaps the fairest way to describe this week’s Economic Reform Roundtable – initially billed the productivity round table – is awkward, in a couple of respects. First, it’s difficult to know just how it might result in genuine reform. The necessary depth of detail for an idea to become policy wasn’t going to be delivered by the two dozen invitees sitting around the cabinet table.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker
Folk-rock singer-songwriter Adrianne Lenker has spent her life reaching beyond words towards the truth of the present moment.
Opera
Victorian Opera’s Abduction
Victorian Opera’s Abduction – an interpretation of Mozart’s opera that sidesteps its orientalism – showcases some stunning new talent but scurries over complexity and nuance.
Fiction
Pacing
“At first, the zoo seemed like a place of freedom. The woman drove with the infant in the car – liberation, leaving their suburb – when the autumn mornings were crisp, melting to summer-like noons. She’d purchased a membership on that first visit. Now she’d been four times – got her money’s worth, she told herself with an inflated feeling of achievement. On the first visit, her son did not seem to see anything. She pointed out the giraffes, from a distance, and some wallabies. He’d stared with expectation at a tree or the sky or at her pointing finger.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Law
“He’s pretty much become the national joke and … he’s probably Australia’s most hated man.”
The lawyer representing Bruce Lehrmann in an appeal on his defamation case. It appears he left quite a lot of clutter and personal items alongside his hat.
Politics
“I don’t think people understand. We are fucked.”
The former Victorian premier expresses concern over crime rates in the state. It’s almost like huge cuts to public services implemented by his government had a long-term effect on social cohesion.
Family
“I’m not going to pick his brain to find out exactly which of those things are true.”
The actor describes his friendship with United States Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The truth is, if you pick his brain, you are likely to find parasitic worms.
Education
“Reform is a bit like eating an elephant – one bite at a time.”
The education minister explains why he has not rushed to fix the “abject failure” of the Job-ready Graduates program. Another option would be not eating an elephant.
Music
“Mike wanted everybody to know that he wrote every single word of ‘Good Vibrations’.”
The musician reflects on Mike Love’s speech at Brian Wilson’s funeral. In fairness to Wilson, it’s mostly the title over and over and the words “na na na”.
Prison
“Mr Maguire was clearly trying to protect his reputation, possibly amongst other things.”
The magistrate sentences former Liberal politician Daryl Maguire to 10 months in prison for misleading the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption. As ever, he’s living off the taxpayer.
