January 25 – 31, 2025
News
Comment
Comment
Marcia Langton
Dutton’s deliberate Australia Day cruelty
“It’s January in Australia and so the annual Australia Day political circus has rolled into town. It started much earlier this year, with Peter Dutton and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price working to grab some headlines before the upcoming election. Their followers have declared January is now ‘Australia Month’ and have washed through social media with absurd lies and conspiracy theories about Aboriginal people.”
Comment
Hal Pawson
The keys to the housing crisis
“Housing is a wickedly complex policy area made even more challenging by the division of relevant powers across the federal and state divide … That said, however, it is a sad fact that few federal administrations since the 1990s have even attempted to address Australia’s housing policy challenges in any comprehensive way.”
Comment
Chris Wallace
Is Albanese bigger than his ambition?
“Albanese is a transactional politician who is good at planes, trains and automobiles – not unimportant things – and he won an election and will perhaps win another. However, he is unable to satisfy Australia’s yearning for better government…”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Fiction
Pigs and rabbits
“With time, they could afford a bigger house. A longer driveway. Inching further away from her family but not so far that Frida would ping it was intentional, or so Tom assumed. They didn’t know their neighbours. Tom liked it that way. In fact, he became so unpleasant at times Frida wondered if it was all by design to drive others away. There were two citrus trees in this backyard, but since Frida never cooked any of that weird Mediterranean food from her childhood, again the fruit went uneaten. No bowls of bright lemons sat decoratively on the kitchen table. Tom spent his weekends much the same as he always had, mowing and burying grapefruit corpses. He would never allow them to rot on the ground.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Politics
“People like me are the future. We will dismantle the woke left with prejudice.”
The right-wing senator expresses his hope for politics. In fairness, the future probably looks pretty exciting when you’ve just started walking on land.
Sport
“I deeply regret that many other people – including my family, friends and colleagues and football club – have been caught up in this matter.”
The Carlton president and former chief executive of PwC steps down from two roles after a dick pic scandal. On the bright side, these resignations are one way to pay less tax.
Media
“Today the lies are laid bare. Today, the cover-ups are exposed.”
The lawyer representing Prince Harry responds after Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group pays a substantial settlement over invasion of privacy. Prince Harry hates the media for ruining his life and paying him to make podcasts.
Gaming
“It’s impossible to beat the players in Asia if you don’t.”
The world’s richest man admits to cheating on online video games by having someone else play his account. It’s that kind of logic that allows a person to buy Twitter for five times its actual value.
Faith
“The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbours.”
The Episcopal bishop of Washington delivers the inaugural prayer service for Donald Trump. The United States president said he liked the Bible better when men preached it.
Plants
“This spadix that we see going up the middle of the plant, the tall phallic object, will flop over and essentially collapse and die.”
The chief scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney describes the flowering of Amorphophallus titanum. Crowds flocked to the spectacle that, with its frills and smell of rotting flesh, was reminiscent of an André Rieu concert.
