August 26 – September 1, 2017
News
Comment
Comment
Eva Cox
Cashless welfare unsuccessful and unwelcome
“The question of whether cashless welfare card payment programs, which the government claims to be evidence-based, are effective is crucial. Do they work to improve behaviour? There exists a range of reports and official evaluations of the Northern Territory and other income-management programs, as well as some initial data on the cashless debit card trials. These include a major $1 million government-funded evaluation of the NT program that has failed to find any serious evidence of its effectiveness.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Echoes of Gillard in citizenship fight
“You know a government is racked by self-doubt when it spends more time back-pedalling after it has thrown the first punch. Junior woodchuck minister Angus Taylor was sent out earlier in the week to demand that Bill Shorten come clean and prove he has renounced his dual British citizenship. By midweek the government’s most senior strategist, Christopher Pyne, was refusing to join the fight. The prime minister never did.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Artist Agatha Gothe-Snape’s textual works
Despite Agatha Gothe-Snape’s claim that she makes art ‘you would roll your eyes at’, public engagement is an important element of her work, which incorporates performance and audience instructions. “There will always be a crisis that precipitates an action. It’s a pretty violent and unsustainable way to work emotionally but it does create otherwise unimagined outcomes.”
Books
Life
Life
Lost for words
When the late writer underwent surgery for a tumour in the language centre of her brain, she faced the fear her command of English would be irrevocably damaged.
The Quiz
Quotes
DRUGS
“I have tried marijuana in the past when I was at university. But it is not something I’m proud of, it is not something I did very often.”
The minister for human services explains how his drug testing of welfare recipients is not just needlessly punitive but also personally hypocritical.
MARRIAGE
“Believe in yourself.”
The prime minister encourages same-sex couples and queer people to be proud. The self is easier to believe in than him, his government or an unnecessary postal survey that has all the rigour and purpose of the letters bag on Funniest Home Videos.
CITIZENSHIP
“At a later time he received correspondence from the Home Office saying they accepted his renunciation.”
The barrister for Malcolm Roberts explains that his client filled in a form renouncing his British citizenship, despite claiming he never “believed” he was a citizen. The confession brings to zero the number of true things “believed” by this bumbling conspiracy theorist.
CLIMATE
“They are taking out coal, they are going to clean it.”
The United States president sings the praises of a made-up technology by explaining its made-up process. Which is different from the made-up process described by the “clean coal” industry, but that probably doesn’t matter because it’s made up.
SEXUALITY
“I don’t want them abrogating to themselves the right to take the most beautiful word in the English language and saying, ‘Oh, now that’s mine.’ ”
The independent politician complains that “the homosexuals” stole the word gay. These ugly holes in his vocabulary go some way to explain his Dadaist syntax. The other view is that he’s an idiot.
RELIGION
“It is a confronting form of attire and I certainly would be disappointed if any Australian chose to wear it.”
The former prime minister adds the burqa to the list of things that make him uncomfortable, joining gays, women and good government. In a troubling update: thousands of Australians already chose to wear the burqa, Tony just doesn’t think of them as Australian.
