September 29 – October 5, 2018
News
Comment
Comment
Jane Caro
Enemies of public schooling
“It is the secular nature of public education that Morrison and his fellow conservative believers don’t like. It’s why conservative prime ministers from John Howard onwards have sneered at the lack of values in public schools. What they really mean is the lack of their particular brand of rigid Christian values. It’s the greatest strength of public education that they reject – inclusivity, the fundamental belief that there are as many ways to live a good life as there are people living lives.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Morrison raises the flag again
“The Scott Morrison version of the Liberal government continues to be one of relentless activity and half-baked ideas. Morrison’s hand-waving, an early feature of his prime ministership, became flag-waving during the week as he replanted the Union Jack on the shores of Botany Bay. The arrival of the First Fleet on January 26, 1788 was, the PM proclaimed, “the birthday of modern Australia”. He also raised the prospect of another national day to celebrate the first 60,000 years of the continent’s history. ”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Choreographer Liam Scarlett
Choreographer Liam Scarlett, a former dancer with the Royal Ballet whose Midsummer Night’s Dream will soon tour China, seems destined to join the ranks of the all-time greats. “With every premiere you sit back and watch it for what it is. You think I could tweak this or I could tweak that. But I was happy with it, it was such a relief when it was over but it’s probably the thing I’ve done which I felt most proud of.”
Film
Ladies in Black
Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black is not just a homage to classical filmmaking and 1950s Sydney, it is also a window into the cultural richness brought by post-World War II refugees. If only it had pushed darker themes further.
Portrait
Dancer Jo Lloyd
“‘I was eight. At the end of the year they made this piece, and they were tying fabric and they were rolling this woman, and they were doing moves on the floor and they had bare feet – and it was one of those real classic moments of what have we got here? And he, the teacher, one night said, you can get up and join in. I remember taking off the tights and the ballet shoes and the feeling of the floor, and not rotating the feet, and going to parallel,’ she demonstrates this with her hands, and in fact, her hands are never still. ‘It was a distinct moment. I hate to be corny, but it was.’”
Books
Life
The Quiz
Quotes
COMMEMORATION
“A few scars, a few mistakes, a few things you could have done better.”
The prime minister offers his take on the colonisation of Australia, which sounds less like violent frontier wars and more like an attempt to assemble Ikea furniture.
REGRET
“He’ll be having nightmares tonight.”
The Borroloola school council member explains why Indigenous envoy Tony Abbott was booted out of the Northern Territory community. In Abbott’s recurring nightmare, he wastes his prime years in politics stoking infighting and effecting little to no meaningful policy change. And then he wakes up and realises that’s exactly what happened.
ABC
“I think I do it to try to relax people.”
The former ABC chairman insists he only calls women “chicks” in a colloquial way, not in an “oh gosh, your shoulders are so tense” way.
AFL
“We’re in 2018, not in 1942.”
The AFLW star slams comments made by Mick Malthouse. The former Collingwood coach’s commitment to that moustache–soul patch combination would suggest he cares little what year it is.
OPINION
“This is a real danger of #MeToo. That people start making wild accusations, unproven accusations, they destroy people’s lives without due process.”
The commentator weighs in on the allegations levelled against United States Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, on The Drum, a show that highlights the real danger of letting people espouse their loosely formed opinions on subjects they know little about, five nights a week.
DIPLOMACY
“They were laughing with me.”
Blurring the line between optimism and delusion a little further, the US president insists his derided United Nations speech was actually warmly received by his fellow world leaders.
