News

Is it all over for Clive Palmer and PUP?

“The overall financial picture remains clouded given the labyrinthine and secretive structure of Palmer’s private corporate empire.”

Mike Seccombe During the past two years, Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel donated $21 million to the Palmer United Party. Now it can’t afford to pay its workers.

News

News

Reza Barati witness on Manus warned: ‘It’s very easy to kill you’

“No one can ever imagine how it feels to think every time that someone might kill you. Every second I have to be alert at nights. When someone passes here I have to be prepared.”

Di Cousens The key witness in the Reza Barati murder trial remains on Manus Island, frightened for his life and receiving death threats from the guards against whom he has testified.

News

Lateral damage counting domestic deaths

“If she’d had her way, he would have been paraded on national television with his crimes tattooed across his forehead. ‘Let the public know exactly what I’ve been through,’ she begged. ‘Give me a real social autopsy.’”

Jill Singer As the deaths of women such as Deanne Bridgland go uncounted, the true toll of domestic violence remains hidden.

News

Turnbull’s change of tone in foreign affairs

Hamish McDonald Malcolm Turnbull’s visits to Washington and elsewhere continue his reshaping of the tone of Australia’s foreign policy, away from Tony Abbott’s bullish moralising.

News

Holiday surprises for Malcolm Turnbull

Martin McKenzie-Murray Traditionally, Christmas and new year marks a flat spot for political news. But the past few weeks have thrown up their share of woe for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

World

Ominous crackdown on Hong Kong publishers

Hamish McDonald Taiwan elects first female leader. Iran free to reopen oil markets.

Opinion

Opinion

Frank Moorhouse
Rethinking ASIO’s role with a Citizen’s Compact

“What is almost as damaging to civil society as random and irrational or organised acts of violence is the hounding and persecution, jailing, the bending of the law against innocent people.”

Opinion

Sean Kelly
Abetz and Andrews’ petty politicking dogs statesman Turnbull

“It is the worst type of cynicism to use the battle against Daesh as some kind of proxy for the fight between Liberal moderates and conservatives.”

Diary

Gadfly
Media gathers at Jurassic waterhole

Richard Ackland Diarist-at-large Richard Ackland flys about the nation.

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

Read

Editorial
Government delay to Save the Children report inexcusable

Letters

Howard and Downer got it wrong

John Martinkus’s reference to “John Howard and Alexander Downer’s Srebrenica moment” (“The truth about Howard’s Timor ‘liberation’ ”, December …

A new take on Timor-Leste

Another interesting take on Howard’s “liberation” of East Timor: While working as a self-funded volunteer in East Timor in 2005-2006, I had an interesting discussion with a representative …

Read More

Books

Sunil Yapa
Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist

Amy Stewart
Girl Waits with Gun

Han Kang
Human Acts

Life

Technology

China’s digital natives behind with the Great Firewall

Ruby J. Murray While China’s young generation know their way around online censorship, they aren’t necessarily against it.

Travel

The art of Marfa, Texas

Jo Stewart

The small town of Marfa, Texas, where James Dean starred in Giant, is now an improbable modern art mecca where the desert wears Prada.

Sport

Green energy: Danny Green, 42, boxer

Richard Cooke Danny Green on what boxing has taught him about human nature, and the Mundine rivalry.

The Quiz

1. What is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet? 
2. Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan have all held which senior post in the United States?
3. Alphabetically, what is the last element on the periodic table? (Bonus point for naming the first.)
4. What is the currency unit of Thailand?
5. The skeleton of an adult human body comprises how many bones?
6. Which volcano is known as the “Lighthouse of the Mediterranean”?
7. On what date do the Rio Olympic Games begin?
8. What is the name of the latest album by Adele?
9. Name the disgraced former federal MP who has been ordered to pay more than $458,000 for misusing union funds?
10. Who wrote the music and lyrics for Matilda the Musical?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

COURTS

“If you’re going to drink yourself into oblivion, we would prefer you stayed in Adelaide.”

Alison VineyThe magistrate admonishes a 37-year-old South Australian man who was found asleep on the Garden Island naval base after drinking with his mother. He got lost after arguing with a taxi driver.

IMMIGRATION

“The department has already moved very quickly to tidy this situation up.”

Peter DuttonThe immigration minister celebrates the cancelling of Jeff Allen’s visa. Which is great if you’re a pick-up artist; for children in detention, “quickly” is about 445 days.

POLITICS

“Are you ready for the leader to make America great again? Are you ready to stump for Trump?”

Sarah PalinThe former US vice-presidential Republican nominee endorses Donald Trump in a jumble of hillbilly rhymes. It is difficult to say whether this is a step up or down from dancing children.

SCIENCE

“I know everyone in the media is saying, ‘Hey, man, it’s a head transplant on a monkey’ … The important news here is that the critics have been totally disproven.”

Sergio CanaveroThe Italian scientist boasts that he has successfully decapitated two monkeys and switched heads on one of them. The “critics” in question, are “blood flow” and “brain function”.

MARRIAGE

“I was told, ‘No, that’s not one of the drop-down options on the computer.’ ”

Marco Bulmer-RizziThe British man explains that his name was left off his husband David’s death certificate and it was marked “never married” after David died in a freak accident during their honeymoon in Adelaide.

ELECTIONS

“You just wanna tell them: ‘Shut up, close your eyes, sleep for half an hour, and we will be at Grandma’s soon.’ ”

Lynton CrosbyThe Australian political strategist, who ran the latest Tory campaign in Britain, explains his approach to the media. Which only works if Grandma has increased child poverty, cut tax credits, demonised the poor and once had her way with a pig.