October 31-November 6, 2015

News

Turnbull and Morrison: the Coalition’s new power pact

“Morrison, as NSW state director of the Liberal Party, oversaw what came to be known as the Great Wentworth Stack, as Peter King and Turnbull competed in late 2003 to sign up new members to support them in the preselection battle the following March.”

Sophie Morris With an alliance redolent of the Hawke–Keating era, the compact between Turnbull and Morrison is key to the government’s fortunes.

News

Chris Kenny visits Nauru as borders open up to allies

“Chris Kenny’s reporting is glib. No, child abuse doesn’t ‘leap out at you’. It’s ruinously contained. Hidden by shame. ”

Martin McKenzie-Murray Allowing a supportive journalist access to Nauru does nothing to assuage the levels of secrecy and lies on the island.

Lawrence Ho, second left, his wife Sharen Lo, singer Mariah Carey, and James Packer at the opening of Studio City in Macau this week.

News

James Packer’s Macau casinos suffer setbacks

Hamish McDonald With China’s anti-corruption campaign biting hard on his Macau casinos, James Packer is trying to spread his bets elsewhere.

News

Chinese investment and extradition

“The unending extradition issue illustrates Australia’s deep ambivalence to our economic relationship with China: Australia wants the goods they send us, but we’re suspicious of the provenance of capital inflows and dubious about its benefits.”

Mike Seccombe Australian governments must engage in a negotiation of the nation’s need for good economic relations amid unease about Chinese investment.

News

The royal commission and the unpunished teacher

“Morton infected my psyche and awarded me a lifetime of mental torment. That he hurt other young women, and may still be doing so, infuriates me.”

Therase Lawless Groomed by her high school English teacher for a sexual relationship that began when she was 15 years old, the author sought justice through the royal commission. Two years on, her abuser is still teaching.

Hillary Clinton prepares to testify before the house select committee on Benghazi.

World

Clinton connections come back to haunt

Hamish McDonald US Navy makes point to China; Turkey's presidential election; China's Confucius Peace Prize

Comment

Jonathan Horn
Fools and horses at Melbourne Cup

“I used to love the sport … But there comes a point where watching a green hessian screen being erected around a dying animal loses some of its appeal. ”

Comment

Paul Bongiorno
Tony Abbott loosens his collar at Thatcher Lecture

“Eric Abetz, before he was unceremoniously dumped by Turnbull, was being lined up as our ambassador to Berlin. That Abbott project has been quietly shelved.”

Gadfly

Richard Ackland
Gadfly: The Rupe and Jerry show

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

Read

Editorial
Deathly silence

Letters

Desire to settle permanent maritime boundaries

In Foreign Minister Bishop’s letter to the editor (October 17-23) she expresses “concern” that readers will be “left with the impression that Australia’s …

Order in the court, too

I am fully supportive of Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s call for a federal bill of rights (“Reining in the rogues”, October 24-30). In her criticism of rogue governments, she overlooked the saving …

Culture

Profile

Crimson Peak’s Mia Wasikowska in sharp focus

Steve Dow Actress Mia Wasikowska, star of Crimson Peak, grew up in the gaze of a camera lens, in a family of photographers.

Music

Warumpi Band, ‘Warumpi Band 4 Ever’

Dave Faulkner

A new compilation confirms Warumpi Band's status as one of Australia’s great rock acts, led by the volatile George Rrurrambu.

Portrait

Artist-photographer Richard Mosse’s journey to The Enclave

Kate Holden Richard Mosse turns the war-torn landscape of the Democratic Republic of Congo shockingly pink.

Food

Read

Food

Bagna càuda

Andrew McConnell Enjoy a taste of Italy with a modern twist on bagna càuda.

Books

John Irving
Avenue of Mysteries

Image for article: Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

Carrie Brownstein
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

John Gribbin
13.8

Life

Gardening

Waterwise tips to beat this summer’s killer heat

Helen Razer With El Niño conditions on the way, gardeners wishing to defy the odds need to prioritise and get waterwise.

Science

Zoos, conservation and the fight for de-extinction

Maddison Connaughton

The battle against species extinctions is ethically fraught. As habitat diminishes, what is the purpose of conservation, and what role should zoos play?

Sport

The Boss: Glen Boss, 46, jockey

Richard Cooke Champion jockey Glen Boss on the mighty mare Makybe Diva and their three Melbourne Cups.

The Quiz

1. Meryl Streep plays which historic figure in a new film starring Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter?

2. The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet was recently awarded what global honour?

3. True or false: rhinoceroses are herbivores.

4. The northernmost point in Scandinavia is in which country?

5. WBC is the abbreviation for which company on the Australian Stock Exchange?

6. Who was the first Australian author to win a Booker Prize for Fiction? (Bonus points for naming the book and the year it won.)

7. How many times has veteran British stayer Red Cadeaux placed second in the Melbourne Cup?

8. Nasi lemak is a national dish of which country?

9. What star sign would someone born on All Saints’ Eve have?

10. In which year did the “Storming of the Bastille” take place?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

WAR

“The response could so easily have been hand-wringing and impotent appeals to the United Nations had Mrs T not seized upon a military plan.”

Tony AbbottThe former prime minister on the Falklands War, or what sounds like a subplot in an episode of The A-Team.

LOGIC

“The Australian experience proves that the only way to dissuade people seeking to come from afar is not to let them in.”

Tony AbbottWarming to the theme of specious irrelevance, the former prime minister offers a kind of evil Zen to the Margaret Thatcher Lecture in London.

IMMIGRATION

“It’s what makes us decent and humane countries as well as prosperous ones, but – right now – this wholesome instinct is leading much of Europe into catastrophic error.”

Tony AbbottThe former prime minister discusses the destructive impulse in Western democracy to “love thy neighbour” – a theme expanded on in his forthcoming country record, Disagreeing with Jesus.

BORDER PROTECTION

“It will require some force; it will require massive logistics and expense; it will gnaw at our consciences – yet it is the only way to prevent a tide of humanity surging through Europe and quite possibly changing it forever.”

Tony AbbottThe former prime minister talks to the virtues of giving up on decency and any basic sense of humanity. Familiar material.

JUSTICE

“We are rediscovering the hard way that justice tempered by mercy is an exacting ideal as too much mercy for some necessarily undermines justice for all.”

Tony AbbottThe former prime minister makes a quaint case for merciless cruelty. The logic is confusing, but much of the room was asleep at this point.

GOVERNANCE

“To Thatcher, the prime ministership wasn’t about holding office; it was about getting things done.”

Tony AbbottThe former prime minister, to a room now entirely asleep, skirts the irony of the fact he did neither.