James Packer’s sweet deals for casino
“Kerry looked uncomfortable in a suit. James looks like he was born in a suit. – Richard Walsh”
As Packer’s Barangaroo casino ploughs through all obstacles, it becomes more clear he plays by different rules.
News
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Greste family’s stoic wait for news
For the parents of an Australian journalist imprisoned in Egypt, the past 100 days have been interminable.
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Leard coalmine protest brings out young and old
“At the moment, Greg Hunt is not being the minister for the environment, he is being the minister for the mines.”
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Federal Labor’s next generation
With the fresh wounds of the rerun WA senate election adding to the pain of last year’s federal rout, a new crop of Labor MPs have a unique chance to redefine their ailing party.
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Border fleet forced out of action
The government’s zeal to turn back asylum seekers is pushing our patrol boats beyond their limits. Six of seven are out of action.
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Probe into CIA may shake Canberra
Spotlight on NSA. Taiwan’s sunflower protests defy China. Will HK get direct elections?
Opinion
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Bob Debus
Abbott government’s offensive against nature conservation
“The structures of nature conservation in Australia, built over more than a generation, are suffering an onslaught that has barely been reported.”
Letters, Poem & Editorial
Culture
Wim Wenders and Mary Zournazi’s peace mission
Acclaimed filmmaker Wim Wenders and Australian philosopher Mary Zournazi have spent a decade exploring the visual and moral language for peace.
Imagining desire at Sydney’s 19th Biennale
Overwhelming and sometimes strange, sprawling but also magical, the Sydney Biennale engages on many levels.
Food
Life
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Joost and Jennie Bakker’s Monbulk home
With the edict ‘waste not, want not’, an eco warrior turns the dream of sustainability into reality.
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Nervous in the southern Italian city of Naples
What happens when an innately suspicious traveller heads to a city renowned for peril with her eternally optimistic husband?
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The axeman cometh: Brad De Losa, 36, woodchopper
World champion woodchopper Brad De Losa talks about landing those heavy blows.
Books
The Quiz
1. In what year did the RMS Titanic sink in the North Atlantic Ocean? (Bonus points for naming her two sister ships.)
2. G.U.Y. is the new single for which pop artist?
3. Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities is set during which major conflict?
4. Which atmospheric layer is closer to Earth: the stratosphere or troposphere?
5. Mossad is the national intelligence agency of what country?
6. Anthony Field, Emma Watkins, Simon Pryce and Lachlan Gillespie are better known as …?
7. Which country hosted the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 cricket tournament?
8. What is the first name of the French artist Matisse (1869-1954)?
9. Which actress links the characters Rose DeWitt Bukater, Clementine Kruczynski, Hanna Schmitz and April Wheeler?
10. Which high-profile unionist recently announced he will quit the Australian Workers’ Union in July?
Quotes
BEGINNINGS
Blast! Seven years’ weight training burnt off in the three-week adrenalin flow of the job.
The former NSW premier curses in his diary as, now foreign minister, he buys protein powder to bulk up. Earlier, he had been stung by Nancy Kissinger’s aside: “My God, you’re skinny.”
DRUGS
Popped two Normison to smother the excitement.
The civil war enthusiast on dropping sleeping tablets to pull himself together after Henry Kissinger invited him to the exclusive Bohemian Grove encampment. Carr was so buzzed he thought they were talking about a remounted operetta.
DESIRE
My ambition: to have a concave abdomen defined by deep-cut obliques.
The senator celebrates a breakfast of carrot juice, omelette, lentils, salad and salmon – “no bread, no croissant”.
MODESTY
I have more energy than sixteen gladiators.
The amateur historian employs the standard metric for diplomatic stamina.
JEALOUSY
The South Korean minister wins my award for best tie: a lime-green Hermès for which I would ransack any airport store.
The noted dandy lets his mind drift at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Phnom Penh.
CONCLUSIONS
Yes, I had stepped into this narrative, though only briefly … Yes, it was history.
The suddenly former foreign minister muses on his contribution, his government now fallen, a spray of Russian pines out the window beyond him.
