January 27 – February 2, 2018
News
Comment
Comment
Nakkiah Lui
Dated politics of January 26
“As long as we keep celebrating the past, it’s always going to affect the future. When we glorify the same power structures that led to dispossession, when we revere the violence and glorify the white supremacy and harsh imperialism relied upon, then that is who we are and who we are going to be.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Turnbull presses on over summer
“Turnbull has spent the past few weeks meticulously planning strategy and tactics for his revival. One insider says the PM has had a series of deep-dive sessions on policy. He has also had backbenchers break their holidays to meet him for a drink and frank exchange of views.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Lisa Reihana’s historic reckoning
Artist Lisa Reihana, creator of the acclaimed video tableau In Pursuit of Venus (Infected), talks about growing up in bicultural New Zealand and her queering of Captain Cook. “The way that I feel things, I feel like sometimes I get messages from other places. I might be thinking about an idea, or in a conflict, and then I might come to a conclusion. It’s to do with intuition. For me, I’m thinking it’s from my people.”
Film
Warwick Thornton’s ‘Sweet Country’
Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country joins the canon of Australian westerns probing violent colonialism and Indigenous dispossession.
Portrait
Author Debra Adelaide
“Debra Adelaide is quick to tell me she isn’t a poet. She does love poetry though, she says, because in a very short amount of time it can take people into another space. ‘Poetry is like the guerilla warfare of literature. It can just run in there really quickly, lob in a hand grenade and run out again.’”
Books
Life
Travel
Norway’s Future Library
Outside Oslo, a forest has been planted that in a hundred years will provide the paper for an anthology of renowned writers’ work, which will remain unread until then.
The Quiz
Quotes
TAX
“Look, I think trickle-down is a really inappropriate term.”
The prime minister complains about the reality of his tax reforms. The preferred term is “giving money to people who vote for me”.
MUSIC
“It’s caused a great deal of offence from these posturing, narcissistic moralisers.”
The conservative senator condemns musicians for asking that he not include their music on his Australia Day playlist. If artists want to be defended for their moralistic narcissism, they should look into homophobic wedding cake baking.
LAW
“I know what it’s like to be in prison. And if you commit a crime in our society, you know what: it’s a holiday in there.”
The One Nation leader calls for the deportation of immigrant families if any member commits a crime. Fourteen years ago Hanson described being put on suicide watch in prison and feeling as if it were “the end of my world” – which is not everyone’s idea of a holiday, but might feel like a break from life in a self-administered race war.
NEWS
“The effectiveness of fake news is primarily due to its ability to mimic real news, to seem plausible.”
The Catholic leader uses his World Communications Day address to warn against disinformation, calling Eve’s temptation the “first fake news”. Side note: journalistic integrity is not really a marker of the Bible’s writing from there.
INFRASTRUCTURE
“All ideas merit consideration, even the most far-fetched ones.”
France’s finance minister politely dismisses Boris Johnson’s suggestion that a bridge be built over the English Channel. Reminder: this man is Britain’s foreign secretary.
FAMILY
“In 2015, David and I sat down with a school schedule ... I don’t want to miss too much of this.”
The singer announces that his current tour will be his last. He will fit in 300 shows before picking up the kids from school.
