September 28 – October 4, 2019
News
Comment
Comment
Clinton Fernandes
The Witness K case and government secrecy
“In recent months, I have sat in court as an observer as Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery has faced charges over disclosing information about the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS). On Thursday, Collaery’s case was back before the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. It is a good time, then, to consider this case and the national security state’s assault on Australia’s democratic culture more generally.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Trump awards Morrison metal of honour
“Scott Morrison is back on Australian soil with the ramifications of his seven-day Trumpfest romp still to play out. He returns with an accolade from the United States president still ringing in his ears. No ‘man of steel’, this Aussie leader is a ‘man of titanium’. And in case his compliment wasn’t clear, Trump clarified: ‘Titanium’s much tougher than steel.’ ”
Letters, Poem & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Actress and director Rachel Griffiths
Throughout her illustrious acting career, Rachel Griffiths has often spoken out against injustice. She discusses power and its abuses, her upcoming ABC series, and how Catholicism informs her feature-length directorial debut, Ride Like a Girl. “I think my faith is aesthetically Catholic, not through any allegiance to Rome. I have no faith in the Catholic structure or any structure that doesn’t include women and is designed to entrench power using secrecy and threat.”
Visual Art
Simon Denny: Mine
Combining sculpture, installation and augmented reality, Simon Denny: Mine is a thought-provoking exhibition that challenges our relationship to technology and the environment.
Portrait
Rapper and hip-hop artist GoldLink
“What we don’t talk about is first-generation immigrants that come here to America and come to France and then migrate to London. People don’t even understand that struggle in America and then a lot of people may not understand being a second-generation black person and not even understanding that they’re from Ghana. That’s actually a bigger conversation that actually needed to be had that no one was having.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
PROPORTIONALITY
“Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong couldn’t have put it better themselves. They’d be so proud.”
The Liberal likens The Conversation’s zero tolerance of climate denial to fascism.
TRAVEL
“Adelaide’s a shithole. No disrespect, no disrespect. I can say that because I’ve travelled there multiple times and I didn’t enjoy it. I found it to be incredibly dull and boring.”
The SBS presenter, who was born in Canberra, delivers her blunt assessment of the City of Churches.
FREEDOM
“I am absolutely disgusted that an RSL club – a place whose members fought overseas to defend our right to freedom of speech and religion – would do this.”
The New South Wales Liberal MP vents his outrage that North Ryde RSL cancelled his Conservative Q&A Pro-Life Edition function.
PETS
“I opened a Pandora’s box and released a Frankenstein’s monster.”
The dog breeder, a man as liberal with genetics as he is with metaphors, expresses his regret at creating the labradoodle.
TV
“When I was the first one out, I thought ‘Oh, good’. I was lonely! The octopus wanted to have a chat.”
The TV host expresses her enthusiasm at getting voted off Australia’s newest “talent show”, The Masked Singer.
AMERICA
“The President of Ukraine said that he was NOT pressured by me to do anything wrong. Can’t have better testimony than that!”
The United States president addresses allegations made by a whistleblower that he tried to induce Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic Party 2020 presidential campaigner Joe Biden.
