[TOC:ul In this story] Towards the end of his life, Bob Ellis blogged a little, usually after writing the first draft of his missives in longhand on the fabled yellow legal pads he hauled everywhere with him. But by and large, Ellis, Australia’s finest …

[TOC:ul In this story] A glass bottle flung in a drunken stupor at a car in mid-2009 ignited one of the most watched criminal cases in the Northern Territory since the 2001 murder of British tourist Peter Falconio. It involved five white men accused …

[TOC:ul In this story] In a parallel universe, Clive Palmer is Australia’s Donald Trump but with a smile, not a snarl. The billionaire businessman plunders the voting base of the centre-right party, melds his business and political aspirations, and …

[TOC:ul In this story] Blame The West Wing. The sublime American drama set in the administration of President Jed Bartlet also gave us Leo McGarry, White House chief of staff. McGarry was Bartlet’s confidant, gatekeeper, enforcer and sometime …

[TOC:ul In this story] Laura Tingle does not cite Orwell but his spirit pervades her new Quarterly Essay, Political Amnesia. Here is her perceptive take on a word so beloved of politicians: “ ‘Reform’ has become a hollowed-out word which …

[TOC:ul In this story] George Megalogenis is such a nimble writer that you can read his latest book, Australia’s Second Chance, as if it were Hebrew scripture – that is, backwards. The debates we are having today about immigration, boat …

[TOC:ul In this story] Never has there been a phrase as rich in irony as “the green revolution”. Today it evokes images of wind farms and solar panels and a society committed to slashing its carbon emissions. But as National Geographic writer …

[TOC:ul In this story] The campaign to elevate Julia Gillard to the pantheon of Labor Party greats continues, this time at the deft hand of her former speechwriter Michael Cooney. His memoir of his thousand days – an ambitious allusion to Arthur Schlesinger …

[TOC:ul In this story] Not so long ago, middle-aged children and their ageing parents would have “the conversation”. If you were gentle, it went something like: “Mum, Dad – sis and I have been talking. We think it’s time you moved. We’ve …