June 29 – July 5, 2024
News
Comment
Comment
Rosie Batty and Kate Fitz-Gibbon
The case for a federal minister for children
“Australian political leaders require the courage to think in transformative and tangible ways about what it will take to secure a safer future for children and young people. The status quo is unacceptable for the current generation, and the next generation deserves better.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Actor Austin Butler
Actor Austin Butler leaves the heightened realities of Elvis and Dune: Part Two to star in Jeff Nichols’s high-octane tribute to 1960s motorcycle culture, The Bikeriders.
Fiction
Fairy story
“The prime minister called a presser to address these urgent issues, at the end of which he took off his jacket, pulled off his pants to reveal legs as slender as two threads of yarn and beat his wings hard. Papers flew, journos covered their faces with clipboards, iPads, notebooks, and he shot out the window, followed by the naked head of ASIO and a dozen prominent journalists whose journalism had long ago folded from interrogation into pure raging spite.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Law
“It might be the deal of the century, the $2 million, for all I know.”
The lawyer for Bruce Lehrmann responds to an order that his client pay lump-sum costs to the Ten Network after his failed defamation case. Couldn’t happen to a nicer person.
Oration
“I kinda wish I was Australian. Perth is like San Francisco without the junkies.”
The American pundit addresses a crowd in Canberra. There must be some current in the Pacific that makes unweighted bodies and right-wing commentators wash up here.
Hallucinations
“We are really sorry that this happened to them, this was not the intention.”
The director of Uncle Frog gummies announces a product recall after his mushroom gummies led to “disturbing hallucinations”. At least five people have been hospitalised.
Policy
“He’s just come out and pulled this out of his clacker.”
The crossbench senator shares her view of Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy plan. It also happens to be the most detailed account of the policy’s formulation so far.
Elections
“I think the teals will be dissolved as a group when the public decides they want a Liberal government.”
The former prime minister endorses the Liberal candidate for Wentworth. The “when” in this sentence is doing an extraordinary amount of work.
Culture
“I’ve just started director training and have just finished filming my first episode as director.”
The actor who played Jarrod Rebecchi for nearly 30 years on Neighbours announces he is leaving the show to become a director. Vale Toadfish.
