October 24 – 30, 2020  |  No. 424

News

What went wrong inside Australia Post?

“Much of the week’s drama has returned to some form of the same question: Is the national postal service completely out of touch with community expectations?”

Rick Morton The mail carrier’s chief executive has been asked to stand aside after revelations of luxury watches gifted to executives, but the company is facing much deeper crises.

News

News

Queensland teenagers launch legal challenge of Adani mine

“These reports, says climate lawyer Ariane Wilkinson, provide Ley with strong legal grounds to revoke approval for the Carmichael mine and rail project.”

Anna Krien

Brooklyn O'Hearn and Claire Galvin have lodged a legal request for the Environment minister to revoke approval for the Carmichael mine, citing research linking its associated emissions with damage to up to 18,000 square kilometres of the World Heritage site.

News

Probe into Western Sydney airport land deal

Karen Middleton A scathing audit of the Infrastructure Department’s purchase of land for the Western Sydney airport has led to an AFP investigation. But this is only the latest controversy in a long history of scandals relating to the Badgerys Creek site.

News

Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry

“Under Jeff Kennett, Victoria embraced the theory of new public management, overhauling the way public institutions were run … During the pandemic, the state government was forced to set up hotel quarantine in a single weekend. In an environment shaped by NPM, private security stood as the natural answer to the question, who is the best choice to do this work?”

Royce Kurmelovs While Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry has been marked by the poor recall of some politicians and senior bureaucrats, the seeds of disaster were likely sown several governments ago.

News

Failures of the criminal justice system

Mike Seccombe As politicians play a tough-on-crime game to win votes, pushing Australia’s incarceration rates ever upwards, an initiative led by high-profile patrons aims to reform the justice system and end a narrow-minded reliance on prison sentences.

World

Biden’s plan to make America’s influence great again

Jonathan Pearlman Chinese officials in altercation over Taiwan celebration in Fiji. Protesters killed in anti-police protests in Lagos. Memorial held in Paris for murdered teacher.

Time for a haircut and catch-up

Rick Morton Among all the hardships of Melbourne’s lengthy Covid-19 lockdown, not being able to get a haircut has been rated by many as one of the most psychologically taxing. With salons now reopened, a palpable sense of purpose and identity is returning to the city.

Opinion

Opinion

Wesley Enoch
After the virus: Radical optimism for the arts

“There are two potential futures I can see for the arts in Australia: one in which we emerge from the pandemic strengthened in our purpose, where the arts and cultural economies are valued for their intangible public benefits, where creativity and imagination lead us – and another where the search for financial certainty and economic returns reshapes what artists can make.”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
Will Scott Morrison go full-term?

“It is always fascinating to watch the cat-and-mouse game that Australian prime ministers play with election dates. Unencumbered by fixed terms, convention dictates that the campaign starts whenever the incumbent believes they are in the best position to win.”

Diary

Gadfly
Not so glad to be Glad

Richard Ackland Our Gladys this week played a crowd-pleasing game of Twister. With one hand on the square called “love”, a foot on “insubstantial relationship”, and another on “not really a boyfriend”. With all her might she tried to keep off the tile called “tickle from the top”. The contortion was painful to behold. Yet, there she is – still Our Glad, sort of.

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

Read

Editorial
In our Defence

The Australians had seven prisoners. Afghans, captured during a drug raid in the country’s war-torn Helmand province; hogtied, hands bound behind their backs. Their mission complete, the soldiers were awaiting a United States aircraft to pick them up. What happened next remains unproved, but the recollection of one US soldier is chilling.

Letters

Time for Labor to stand up

I thought my disgust at the Coalition’s treatment of refugees could not be more vehement, but Rick Morton’s update (“Exclusive: War on refugees moves to final phase onshore”, October …

Secret cabinet

Karen Middleton’s elucidation on the pitfalls of calling a coming together of disparate heads of state and country a “national cabinet” is entirely consistent with the way a marketing mind works …

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Culture

Life

Food

Almond raspberry slice

Annie Smithers

Sport

An AFL grand final far from the heartland

Joe Gorman For footy fans struggling under lockdown in Melbourne, the 2020 AFL season has been both a welcome distraction and a reminder of what has been lost. Now it’s set to culminate with the previously unthinkable – a grand final under lights at the Gabba.

Books

Gail Jones
Our Shadows

Anna MacDonald
A Jealous Tide

Campbell Whyte
Home Time II: Beyond the Weaving

Puzzles

The Cryptic

Crossword No. 324

The Quiz

1. In which US state is Fort Knox: (a) Kentucky; (b) New York; or (c) Virginia?
2. True or false: the ears of the African elephant are bigger than those of the Indian elephant?
3. Who wrote the 1990s novel The Reader, which was adapted into a 2008 film? (Bonus point for naming who won a Best Actress Academy Award for her role in the film.)
4. Name the eight planets in order from the sun.
5. What is the second book of the Old Testament?
6. Which of these is a verb: outlier, giraffe, swim or carrot?
7. Lewis Hamilton equalled whose record of 91 formula one wins with victory in the Eifel Grand Prix this month?
8. What is the French word for Thursday?
9. In what year did the Fall of Saigon occur?
10. Which Adelaide-born singer appears on the cover of the October edition of Vogue Australia?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

Anthems

“The rendition was awful, the message was misrepresented, and Mr Palmer’s image is not good for my heavy metal image either.”

Dee SniderThe Twisted Sister singer testifies that Clive Palmer didn’t help the band sell tickets by using their song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” for his political campaign. Polls suggest the song didn’t help Palmer either.

Relationships

“I just can’t see it happening again.”

Gladys BerejiklianThe New South Wales premier tells radio hosts Kyle and Jackie O that she has given up on finding love after the Daryl Maguire scandal. Presumably she couldn’t foresee her phone being tapped either, so anything is possible.

Observance

“At one point she explained to me some problems she had. I actually prayed with her.”

Rudy Giuliani

Donald Trump’s personal lawyer denies that he acted inappropriately towards an actor posing as a TV journalist for the sequel to the film Borat. The images showing the former New York mayor reaching for his groin were merely him making the sign of the cross.

Youths

“They know the youths are laughing in the face of police officers.”

Deb FrecklingtonThe Liberal National Party leader says she will introduce a curfew for teenagers in Townsville and Cairns if she wins the upcoming Queensland election. When policy announcements start to make Joh Bjelke-Petersen look compassionate, you know the polls must be close.

Business

“I understand the aspect of competing against another football team … at the end of the day, you’ll still be mates.”

Lindsay FoxThe transport magnate breaks with other business leaders to defend Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. While scuffles are inevitable, the wealthy and the powerful will always put aside their differences in the end to face the real enemy – red tape.

Embroidery

“COVIDSafe is considered widely one of the finest tracing apps on the market.”

Stuart RobertThe minister for Government Services defends the much-maligned COVIDSafe app. Six months since its release, the app has helped officials identify a staggering number of Covid-19 cases – 14 by the latest count.