October 8 – 14, 2016

“I am human like you”: Iranian refugee Mehdi Savari, in Manus Island detention centre, Papua New Guinea.

News

Leaked UNHCR report: Manus Island world’s worst

Martin McKenzie-Murray As the government prepares to meet with the UNHCR, urgent action is being demanded on mental decay.

News

News

Millions of Australians caught in health records breach

“Sussan Ley did not explain why, when doctors who discover a privacy breach are obliged to alert those affected immediately, the government waited 16 days.”

Karen Middleton The government’s negotiations with doctors over the Medicare rebate is not helped by a breach of privacy on apparently anonymised health data.

CSIRO’s Michael Borgas during the “Climate Change Fizza” rally in the seat of Wentworth, Sydney, in June.

News

Industrial tensions at CSIRO

“Because of the role I played in advocating for science, I believe I’ve been a nuisance to management, and they were seeking to reduce that influence.”

Cheryl Jones A senior researcher to be sacked from the CSIRO’s new Oceans and Atmosphere unit considers it retaliation for his role as an outspoken critic of changes in the agency’s focus.

Seaweed farmer Josias Ferroh and his daughter Angela.

News

Class action against Montara brought by West Timorese

Gabrielle Dunlevy West Timorese seaweed farmers have launched a class action against Montara for the devastating 2009 oil spill that has threatened their livelihoods.

News

Australia scoring low marks on education

“Australia, like a number of other countries that are sliding on international comparisons, tends to have a competitive, punitive approach to underperforming schools, threatening their funding.”

Mike Seccombe As elite private schools continue to benefit from government funding, Australian education standards are sliding in global terms and politicians remain reluctant to take a stand.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos (centre) with his family after voting in the referendum on a peace accord with guerilla rebels FARC, in Bogota, Colombia.

World

US hangs up on Russia over Aleppo bombing

Hamish McDonald Trump and Clinton recruit former CIA chiefs; Insiders vie to be Jakarta’s governor; Referendum blues in Hungary and Colombia

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Opinion

Opinion

Tony Blackshield
The constitution’s implied freedom

“It is not a matter of personal freedom for individuals to have their two cents’ worth, but only of ensuring ‘the free flow of ideas’.”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
Parliamentary bank hearings inadequate

“ANZ’s Shayne Elliott, like CBA’s Ian Narev, came to the parliamentary hearing in sackcloth and ashes. But the penitent’s garb could impress only the most gullible. ”

Gadfly

Richard Ackland
Gadfly: Race to the bottoms

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

ReadCartoon image, links to full cartoon page

Editorial
Off Brandis

Letters

An old argument

The irony (intended, I presume) in your editorial (“Diminishing school”, October 1-7) of three times terming the notion of ceasing government funding to private schools “radical” has …

Wind-powered politicians

The attempts of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Nick Xenophon and Barnaby Joyce (Karen Middleton, “Power struggle after statewide blackout”, October 1-7) to discredit South Australia’s …

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Books

Image for article: Bob Ellis: In His Own Words

Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis: In His Own Words

Image for article: The Better Son

Katherine Johnson
The Better Son

Image for article: Fight Like a Girl

Clementine Ford
Fight Like a Girl

Life

Image for article: Choose control

Life

Choose control

Georgia Blain As her tumour returns, Georgia Blain knows the greatest comfort available to her would be the right to choose how she dies.

Image for article: Bijoy Jain’s Mumbai-inspired MPavilion

Architecture

Bijoy Jain’s Mumbai-inspired MPavilion

Andrew Mackenzie The bamboo, rope and wooden pegs of Mumbai architect Bijoy Jain’s MPavilion are in keeping with a global trend in handmade building, even if not everyone can afford it.

Image for article: Passion play: Sharni Layton, 28, netballer

Sport

Passion play: Sharni Layton, 28, netballer

Cindy MacDonald Emotion in motion: Sharni Layton on the heart she brings to the netball court.

The Quiz

1. What colour wine is chianti?
2. Which Grammy Award-winning performer has siblings named Solange, Nixon and Bianca?
3. Name the three midcourt positions in a seven-player netball team?
4. What is the main type of rock in the oceanic crust?
5. Name the journalist author of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking? 
6. For what purpose is baking powder added to recipes?
7. The Flying Scotsman, TGV and Shinkansen are all types of what?
8. Which American poet described the quality of her despair as “owl’s talons clenching my heart”? (Bonus point for naming her semi-autobiographical novel.)
9. Winona Ryder currently stars in which science fiction-horror television series?
10. What is the largest island in the Caribbean?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

AMBITION

“Another government approached Mr Rudd to nominate him as a candidate for UN secretary-general.”

spokeswomanThe former prime minister claims through a spokesperson that he was in hot demand for the top job at the United Nations. A series of unnamed people also said he was a reasonable and skilled manager.

DIPLOMACY

“It was clearly premeditated. They were wearing the budgie smugglers and had bought them in Australia.”

Julie BishopThe foreign minister shares her views on the nine Australians arrested for nuisance after stripping at the Formula 1 grand prix in Malaysia. One of the men works for Christopher Pyne, which was considered punishment enough.

LEADERSHIP

“I’m not going to be drawn on interesting gossip or even uninteresting gossip.”

Malcolm TurnbullThe prime minister rejects reports Tony Abbott has been talking up his chances of returning to the leadership while on a trip to Britain. Abbott’s establishment there of a government in exile takes its lead from King Zog of Albania, among others.

LAW

“Notwithstanding that there is a difference between us on these matters … from a professional point of view we have never had a cross word.”

George BrandisThe attorney-general contradicts evidence from the solicitor-general, which suggested he misled parliament, and which in legal circles might constitute a pretty “cross word”.

CRIME

“I’m sorry, there’s a family emergency — I have to stop the show.”

Kanye WestThe rapper stops a New York show after hearing his wife, Kim Kardashian West, had been tied up and robbed at gunpoint in Paris. Kardashian West was uninjured in the attack.

LITERATURE

“Far from the daughter of a Neapolitan seamstress … real estate and financial records point to Anita Raja, a Rome-based translator.”

Claudio GattiThe journalist apparently reveals the true identity of Italian publishing sensation Elena Ferrante. In a follow-up report for the New York Review of Books, he promises to address other popular Google searches: “lost child ending”, “ferrante lost child synopsis” and “what happened to tina at the end of the lost child”.

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