The remaking of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten
“It’s not just the advice you receive, it’s how you process it. It’s very hard in modern politics to find the time to do it. But good leaders do it. And Shorten has.”
The Labor leader has come back from his summer break with a different approach to advice and a scheme to change his image.
News
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The tax shirkers running the PM’s ‘agility’ agenda
“Certainly, Google is an innovative company. But that is nowhere more enthusiastically deployed than in tax dodging.”
They are some of the country’s biggest corporate tax avoiders. Now their directors make up the board advising the government on innovation incentives.
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Bob Brown’s arrest in Lapoinya under new anti-protester laws
A High Court challenge to Tasmania’s controversial anti-protester laws follows their use to arrest conservationists in the Lapoinya forest.
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Numan Haider inquest reveals policing oversights
“A sophisticated surveillance operation was in effect against Haider – his phone tapped, his movements monitored – yet somehow police remained unaware of the pertinent and very public threats made on social media. ”
The inquest into the shooting of radicalised teenager Numan Haider reveals ASIO phone taps not shared with police, which might have saved him and officers from being put in harm’s way.
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Victoria’s duck-hunting season sparks controversy
As duck numbers dwindle, the Victorian government’s decision to support this year’s hunting season has sparked claims the regulatory body is biased.
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Donald Trump’s finger closer to the button
Russia withdraws in Syria; Aung San Suu Kyi’s shadow; Indonesia’s proxy war
Opinion
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Tony Windsor
Tony Windsor on why he is running in 2016
“So here we are with a PM who is trapped in an agenda built by the politically opportunistic crazies from whom he wrested back control of the party.”
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Paul Bongiorno
Treasurer Scott Morrison stalling on tax talk
“Why would a treasurer invest so much time and capital softening up the electorate for big tax changes only to ditch them, not once but three times?”
Letters, Poem & Editorial
Culture
Jan Chapman, producer of ’The Daughter’
Behind the scenes, from The Piano to The Daughter, film producer Jan Chapman is a major figure in Australian cinema.
Lloyd Rees drawings at the Museum of Sydney
Lloyd Rees’s works remind that drawing is an expression of connectedness to our surroundings.
Food
Life
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Tom Ballard’s eye-opening refugee visits inspire MICF show
Tom Ballard visited refugees in detention as research for a new show, but found his subject became his white guilt.
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The CHAMP study into geriatric male health
A study of men aged over 70 is hoping to uncover the secrets to living a healthier, longer life.
Books
The Quiz
1. The Sargasso Sea is a region in which ocean? (Bonus point: The novel Wide Sargasso Sea is written as a prequel to which famous work?)
2. Which singer has been named as Australia’s Eurovision artist for 2016?
3. Which museum is home to the Venus de Milo?
4. Who is chief executive of the Formula One Group?
5. What is a ceilidh?
6. According to the proverb, a problem shared is a problem …?
7. Who voices the character Judy Hopps in the film Zootopia?
8. Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall had their marriage blessed at a church on which London street?
9. Chat is the French word for what?
10. Name the celebrity chef proprietor of The Fat Duck and Dinner restaurants.
Quotes
IMPRESSIONS
“Like many in the Liberal Party, I do not fit the caricature of a Liberal that our political opponents and some in the media like to imagine.”
The former IPA director turned Liberal senator gives his maiden speech, wearing a blue tie and child’s face and neatly combed hair, and talking about how state intervention is the curse of the labour market. He probably meant a different caricature.
POLITICS
“I did make a silly comment to Bryan Green, I apologise for it. In the heat of the moment these things occur.”
Tasmania’s premier apologises for telling the opposition leader to slit his wrists. The “heat of the moment” was a debate on state tourism.
MEDIA
“Change is a permanent part of our industry. It is a reflection of what we know about the ways our readers are consuming our stories.”
The editorial director at Fairfax Media announces job cuts at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Because what readers really want is news from 120 fewer journalists.
MUSIC
“I could sing it, Mr Speaker. I could sing it, Mr Speaker. But it would detract from the seriousness of the house.”
The leader of the house quotes Whitney Houston in a frankly bizarre answer to a question on the construction industry and the need for a “tough cop” and something about a “snake oil salesman”.
LEGACY
“He has always been a long-range thinker, a big thinker, a thinker and dreamer as big as the country from which he sprang.”
The prime minister farewells Ian Macfarlane, whose dreams included a failed attempt to defect to the Nationals’ party room.
TIMING
“It’s you people that get here early that’s the problem. Stay home, do your hair and make-up, have a tequila.”
The singer explains herself to a Brisbane crowd after arriving almost three hours late for a show. Madonna hasn’t been that far behind the times since she made American Life.
