April 24 – 30, 2021
News
Comment
Comment
Joy Townsend
Teaching young people about consent
“Australia faces a reality where porn has become young people’s choice for sex education – not because it’s a good educator, but because it’s better than what else is on offer. The federal government’s new consent education campaign is exemplary of why this is the case. The campaign is, at best, bizarre, heteronormative and ill informed. At worst it is alienating, infantilising and risks disseminating harmful messaging about sexual violence.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Lean times for ineffective Morrison
“Joe Hockey infamously divided the nation into “lifters and leaners”. There’s little doubt which side of that line Prime Minister Scott Morrison now finds himself on. Morrison is a political leaner, just ask the states, who are frustrated with the federal government’s failures on the critical vaccine rollout and on climate change.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
French actor Isabelle Huppert
As Isabelle Huppert marks 50 years in front of the camera, her latest film, The Godmother, offers her the chance to create another layered, complex character.
Fiction
Two stories
“A delivery van has dropped some of its cargo, and hunks of a carcass are strewn down the street. It must be beef, I think. Or lamb? The smell is so pungent – well, I don’t know, I’ve been a vegetarian for 15 years. Beef, I decide. Each piece is rock-sized. Like a rock that would feel good in the hand. Today I am going to the hospital for a cystoscopy, a procedure where a small camera enters the bladder through the urethra. The young doctor tells me it will feel less invasive than a Pap smear. He guides the camera in and I watch on screen, the bladder looks like a veiny eye with no iris. When I return to the waiting room a man asks me nervously if he should remove his underwear. Just the gown? Just the gown. Good luck. Hours later and the rocks of beef are no longer bright with blood but flattened to the tar, the raw odour still hanging in the air.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Covid-19
“That’s the biggest load of rubbish I ever heard.”
The New South Wales premier slams Greg Hunt’s claim that even a successful rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine may not result in the opening of international borders. When Berejiklian says something is the “biggest load of rubbish” she’s heard, you’ve got to remember she dated Daryl Maguire.
Branding
“Look at the definition of ‘new’, it means different. Nobody is going to think Coke and New Coke are the same thing.”
The Sydney barrister and head of the New Liberals defends the political party’s choice of name. New Coke was canned 79 days after its launch because of the intensity of the public backlash.
Sport
“Football is a pyramid. If there is money at the top, then the money flows down and everyone gets some.”
The chairman of the European Super League finally admits that professional soccer is a pyramid scheme. Perez stands by his collapsed league and says he was just trying to “save football”.
Scheduling
“It is disappointing that I haven’t heard back from his office despite the prime minister’s repeated commentary about a proposed meeting.”
The former Liberal staffer pushes for a sit-down with Scott Morrison. While the PM was too busy to meet her, he did find time for an AFL match in Perth, a flower show in Adelaide, a mine owned by Andrew Forrest in WA and pool in Geelong.
Rhetoric
“We will be clear ... with respect to our national interests. Whether it’s around human rights, foreign investment, or other national security-related issues.”
The treasurer tears up Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative agreements with Beijing. The decision has nothing to do with the deal having been signed by a Labor government.
Climate
“This is all about continuing down the path we’ve been going down for some time.”
The Energy and Emissions Reduction minister dismisses the idea that $1.1 billion worth of funding for hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage, is in any way connected to Joe Biden’s Earth Day climate summit. Like climate change itself, it’s just a coincidence.
