April 25 – May 1, 2020
News
Comment
Comment
Leonard Blazeby
Coronavirus control in war-torn nations
“Conflict doesn’t stop for a pandemic. In this way, Australia is a lucky country. We enjoy a relative peace. Beyond our shores though, there are communities that face the destructive dual perils of war and Covid-19. From Syria to South Sudan, Myanmar and Yemen, families who survived gunfire and shelling must now prepare to endure this invisible threat. But they shouldn’t have to do this alone – by its very nature, a pandemic demands a collective global response.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Malcolm Turnbull vents his spleen
“No matter how hard Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his senior ministers try to ignore Malcolm Turnbull’s explosive memoir, it simply will not go away. And for that, the deposed PM is far from apologetic. During a lunchbreak this week from the media blitz flogging A Bigger Picture, Turnbull told me he had written history and to do it truthfully you have to include faithfully recorded private conversations and communications.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Hearts and Bones director Ben Lawrence
In Hearts and Bones, director Ben Lawrence explores masculinity and trauma through the story of a war photographer befriending a South Sudanese refugee. He speaks here about how his experience of parenthood has influenced his work, and the parallels between himself and his father, director Ray Lawrence. “Through the period of writing Hearts and Bones and being involved in Ghosthunter, the idea of being a father, what it means to raise a young boy in this era, all became fascinating to me.”
Theatre
National Theatre Live’s Twelfth Night
With theatres around the world closed, stage productions are now entering our homes, via the internet. The fourth streaming performance from Britain’s National Theatre, Twelfth Night, takes its audience on a rollicking journey of mistaken identity and besotted love.
Fiction
The blood bank: a love story
“The city streets were empty except for a few homeless, an empty tram gliding by like a ghost ship and a busker working in the mall. He wailed a suitably sorrowful Hank Williams standard. I was on my way to the blood bank. Earlier that morning the prime minister had announced that “difficult times call for heroes, heroes in the spirit of the Anzacs”. I’d never been a hero and no one in my family had been to war, so my chances of stepping up for the nation were slim, although providing half a litre of blood to the Red Cross did offer an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
VIRGIN
“I’ve seen lots of comments about my net worth – but that is calculated on the value of Virgin businesses around the world before this crisis.”
The billionaire, who hasn’t paid British taxes in 14 years, defends asking British taxpayers to save Virgin Atlantic from falling into receivership. He has, thus far, pledged $US250 million of his own money, about 5 per cent of his net worth.
PERSPECTIVE
“There are things more important than living.”
The lieutenant governor of Texas asks Texans to ignore the advice of health experts and the government and return to work.
REALISATION
“We realised that we, by accident, had named our son Genital.”
The comedian explains why she recently changed her nearly one-year-old son’s name from Gene Attell Fischer to Gene David Fischer.
PHOBIAS
“These bats are not constituents that I’m happy to have.”
The Victorian MP weighs in on the push to remove or cull a colony of flying foxes and bats living in his Kew electorate because some residents are worried about Covid-19.
RESULTS
“In the end, the electoral test speaks volumes. I was part of a team that won 25 seats off Labor, and he led the team that handed them 14 seats on plate – so you be the judge.”
The Sky News host responds to Malcolm Turnbull’s descriptions of her and Tony Abbott’s “truly bizarre relationship”.
BEACHES
“I didn’t break any law, I didn’t climb any fences.”
A man dubbed “Mr Bondi” speaks to the media after being filmed climbing a fence and swimming at Bondi Beach, which would constitute breaking the law, as police repeatedly informed him prior to his arrest.
