How the Northern Territory failed
“Darwin gets the cream and a fair whack of the milk and the bush gets what’s left over. It’s basically pork-barrelling.”
At the heart of the NT government’s perpetual shambles is a crisis of fiscal racism that for decades has squandered federal money.
News
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Inside Australia’s growing homeless crisis
“It used to be that you’d have your spot and if you left and came back it would still be there. But now someone else has your spot, and if you want it back you have to fight.”
Despite the promise to halve homelessness by 2020, political inertia and piecemeal funding have seen numbers spike.
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Kevin Rudd’s next move for the UN
After interrupting Kevin Rudd’s dream of becoming UN secretary-general, Malcolm Turnbull has learnt what happens when you cross the former prime minister.
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Measuring fugitive CSG emissions
“Greenhouse gases expert Professor Santos says that when it comes to getting funding for CSG studies in Australia, he has hit a brick wall.”
As coal seam gas is promoted as essential to Australia’s future energy needs, there is insufficient research being funded on the contribution to climate change of ‘fugitive emissions’ from gas mining.
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Life in Rio de Janeiro as the Olympics arrive
In Rio de Janeiro, the locals are trying to find positives in lavish spending on the Olympic Games while the city is mired in corruption and economic recession.
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Trump hands out no party favours
Suu Kyi offers olive branch to ethnic rebels; Wiranto appointment a baffling Joko twist; Rudd still a chance
Opinion
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Geoff Cousins
Dear Minister Frydenberg
“It may be advisable to temper some of your own comments on the future of coal as an energy source. You are, after all, now the minister for the environment not the minister against it. ”
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Paul Bongiorno
Malcolm Turnbull’s week of missteps
“Attention to detail doesn’t seem to be the attorney-general’s strong suit. But in a scramble to save face, George Brandis, QC, would have none of the criticism.”
An insider’s outside view
A new podcast from Schwartz Media
Join Richard Denniss, The Australia Institute’s chief economist, as he tackles Australia’s most important political and economic issues in a new weekly podcast.
Find The Lucky Country on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
Letters & Editorial
Culture
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Barrie Kosky’s ’Saul’ heads to Adelaide Festival
Komische Oper Berlin director Barrie Kosky is unlikely to return to Australia, where arts funding is suffering successive cuts. In contrast, he says, ‘the arts are in the DNA of western Europe’.
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Malthouse Theatre’s ‘Edward II’
A new production of Marlowe’s classic Edward II strips back the original until what remains is a flat facsimile.
Food
Life
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The gentrification under way in Harlem is delivering a new population drawn to the history but disconnected from it.
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Rethinking chronic fatigue syndrome
Despite world-class research into chronic fatigue syndrome being undertaken nationally, government funding and support for sufferers is grossly lacking.
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Golden dreams: Penny Taylor, 35, basketballer
Dual Olympic silver medallist and 2006 world champion and WNBA champion with Phoenix Mercury, Penny Taylor has her sights set on gold in Rio.
Books
The Quiz
1. The Mamanuca Islands form part of which nation?
2. What is the name of the latest instalment in the Bourne film series? (Bonus points for naming the actor who plays the protagonist and the total number of films in the series.)
3. Where did the Australian shepherd dog breed originate?
4. Today marks the start of the Games of the which number Olympiad in Rio?
5. Name Australia’s minister for the environment and energy.
6. What is six cubed?
7. Which is the common name of the product that has the chemical symbol H2O2?
8. Who is the lyricist for the musical Kinky Boots?
9. In the New Testament, what is the name of the beggar “full of sores”?
10. “Namaste” is a greeting in which language?
Quotes
AMERICA
“There is great unity in my campaign, perhaps greater than ever before.”
The Republican presidential candidate celebrates a week in which he has feuded with the parents of a dead solider, in which his own staff were reportedly suicidal, and in which he made paranoid claims the November election would be rigged.
MUSIC
“Who is this? And how did you get my number? Please STOP texting me or I will report you to the police, this is the second time you’ve done this… go away.”
A man Jimmy Barnes thought was the Powderfinger frontman responds to a text message from Barnes congratulating him on his new album.
RACISM
“Bill Leak has a knack for pointing out the obvious - symbolism doesn’t make any difference.”
The senator defends a cartoon published in The Australian, showing an Aboriginal man with a beer in one hand explaining to a police officer that he doesn’t know his son’s name. It’s less a knack for pointing out the obvious and more for just being a racist.
CLIMATE CHANGE
“I went looking into the agencies that have been spreading the climate science. I started finding out things about the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology. That led me then to the UN…”
The second One Nation member to win a Queensland senate spot confirms that the party is an angry chain email come to life.
BANKS
“They should be fully accountable and it is up to them. They are big institutions.”
The prime minister encourages banks to explain to borrowers why they did not pass on a rate cut this week. The answer, for those playing at home, is greed.
POLITICS
“The ABC presented footage of incidents that had already been investigated and characterised it as ‘news’.”
The “senator” questions the ABC’s decision to air its investigation into abuse at the Don Dale detention centre. Further questions mount around why Bernardi continues to characterise his “inhumanity” as “debate”.
