April 10 – 16, 2021  |  No. 344

News

Robo-debt public servants now shaping the NDIS

“Taken together, these changes fundamentally alter the NDIS … Those who receive it will be scrutinised with a latent mistrust or misunderstanding of their myriad conditions.”

Rick Morton As the government pushes for major changes to the NDIS, The Saturday Paper can reveal key figures in the scheme’s fraud and compliance division were also involved in the robo-debt fiasco.

News

News

Morrison fixed on tax cuts as US and Britain embrace big government

“What is clear is that, unlike their fellow conservatives in the UK, the Morrison government is not prepared to contemplate increasing taxation to help restore the budget balance.”

Mike Seccombe While the government pushes ahead with its major tax cuts, despite the pandemic, new analysis shows they will have a negative impact on women.

News

Australia missing out on EVs

Kurt Johnson An electric vehicle factory that could have brought hundreds of jobs to Victoria’s struggling Latrobe Valley has stalled. But around Australia the lack of government support for EVs stands in stark contrast to other nations.

News

The [email protected] response

Karen Middleton The federal government has finally addressed the Respect @ Work report. Its delayed response has been cautiously welcomed by those who hope for real change.

News

Melbourne set to overtake Sydney

Max Opray Melbourne’s population growth means it could soon overtake Sydney as Australia’s most populous city, which will have huge social and political implications nationally.

News

Older women and homelessness

Kristine Ziwica While the Morrison government makes gestures towards stronger protections for women, the number of homeless women aged over 55 continues to rise alarmingly – made worse by the pandemic, inaccurate economic modelling and poor superannuation policies.

World

Landslides, floods cause havoc in Timor-Leste

Jonathan Pearlman

US tries to salvage the ailing Iran nuclear deal. Jordan’s King Abdullah moves against rival half-brother. New Zealand agrees to travel bubble with Australia from April 19.

Opinion

Opinion

Veronica Gorrie
Lessons from a decade as an Aboriginal cop

“I spent 10 years as a police officer, working in Queensland. My book, Black and Blue, recounts my time in the police as an Aboriginal woman, and my life as a single parent of three brilliant and amazing children. It also documents the racism I was subjected to throughout my career but also everything that led up to that point. ”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
No political jab to inoculate Morrison

“The prime minister ends the quarter still well ahead of Labor’s Anthony Albanese … but he has been steadily losing ground. This echoes Labor’s research that finds the PM’s support is ‘a kilometre wide and a millimetre deep’.”

Diary

Gadfly
The Turnbull of the screw

Sami Shah Sometimes, finding a job requires overcoming biases you didn’t even know stood in the way of your gainful employment. Having a non-Anglo name has been shown in repeated studies to hurt one’s chances. Sometimes it can be as simple as being the wrong skin colour. But nothing is more damning, it seems, than being a former prime minister.

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

Read

Editorial
High on his own supply

Scott Morrison says the issue is one of supply. If only the Europeans supplied our vaccines on time, the rollout would be on track. If only the states stopped hoarding vaccines. If only GPs administered the doses delivered to them. If only.

Letters

NDIS needs to be reined in

When the NDIS was first announced, it seemed too good to be true (Rick Morton, “WhatsApp leak: ministers shut out of NDIS redraft”, April 3-9). It reflected well on us as a caring society. It …

Coalition has no ideas

Karen Middleton and Paul Bongiorno both paint a gloomy but accurate picture of the Liberal brand (“Exclusive: While women marched, the PM was doing factional deals”and “A sad tale of two …

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Culture

Books

George Saunders
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain

Susan Johnson
From Where I Fell

Safdar Ahmed
Still Alive

Life

Food

Green tomato cake and green tomato and zucchini relish

Annie Smithers

Gardening

Gourd almighty

Margaret Simons After a disappointing summer growing season, some pumpkins that randomly self-seeded from the compost in the front yard become the only harvest success.

Sport

Fight plan

Jenny Valentish Sick of a sedentary lifestyle, white-collar workers are taking a swing at sanctioned fighting, with gyms offering a moment in the ring for these otherwise placid desk jockeys.

Puzzles

The Cryptic

Crossword No. 344

The Quiz

1. Which film was not directed by Steven Spielberg: (a) Bridge of Spies; (b) Minority Report; or (c) The Departed?
2. The winner of the US Masters golf tournament is presented with a jacket of what colour?
3. Klara and the Sun is which Nobel prize and Booker Prize winner’s latest novel? (Bonus point for naming the novel for which this author won the Booker Prize.)
4. Who was Henry VIII’s first wife?
5. Punta Gallinas, the northernmost point of mainland South America, is in which country?
6. When setting up a chess board, is a queen placed on her matching or opposite colour?
7. The headquarters of the OECD are in which city?
8. In chemistry, a law named for whom states equal volumes of gases under the same conditions of temperature and pressure will contain equal numbers of molecules?
9. Which 1939 Billie Holiday song has been covered by Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, Sting and Siouxsie and the Banshees?
10. The Tet Offensive occurred during which war?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

Empathy

“I don’t think you can actually redesign people’s brains.”

Barnaby JoyceThe former Nationals leader expresses doubt about the effectiveness of empathy training. It’s not so much that you can’t “redesign” brains but that Joyce can’t afford to lose any more of his.

Fitness

“To suggest I am not an appropriate choice to be an assistant minister for Women is a form of madness we just should not indulge.”

Amanda StokerThe assistant minister for Women rejects suggestions her personal beliefs render her a poor fit for the portfolio. She’s a defender of many women but mostly Bettina Arndt.

Climate

“I gave the benefit of the doubt to the Liberals and the benefit of the doubt to Malcolm Turnbull and he pulled my pants down within 48 hours.”

John BarilaroThe New South Wales Nationals leader expresses embarrassment at having recommended the former prime minister for the Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy board. Turnbull was sacked and Barilaro put his pants back on.

Race

“We all know that one week is not enough to shift levels of ingrained ignorance.”

Shareena Clanton

The Indigenous actor describes her disappointment at the culture on the Neighbours set, where a fellow actor who used the N-word twice was subject to a week of workplace culture training. The N-word was not “neighbours”.

Law

“You make sure you don’t get into any more trouble.”

Noel NunanThe Queensland magistrate allows a 21-year-old man to go free on bail – after being charged with seven counts of rape, three counts of administering a stupefying drug to commit rape, two counts of sexual assault and various other offences.

Driving

“The lovely but tipsy crew had been at the restaurant since lunch ... Said they’d pay. He said he’d give them a lift. Took them half the ride to discover who their driver was.”

Jessica RuddThe daughter of former prime minister Kevin Rudd explains how a group of men mistook her father for an Uber driver. To be fair, it took Rudd half the ride to realise they didn’t have a vote for the United Nations secretary-general selection.