News

Inside the Brandis-Gleeson breakdown

“What seems to have made Brandis angriest of all is that during the pre-election caretaker period Gleeson took a call from shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus. The first Brandis knew of it was when Gleeson told the committee last Friday.”

Karen Middleton George Brandis’s move to control legal advice has opened a schism with Justin Gleeson, that critics say make the solicitor-general a “dog on a lead”.

News

News

Culture war in offshore detention

“This is an issue that plays into the white noise of politics – that rings louder than human rights reports. But I’ve yet to see a politician stand up and say ‘I’m proud of these abuses’.”

Martin McKenzie-Murray The response to Four Corners’ Nauru report underscores a shift in the immigration debate from human lives to media bias.

News

Age discrimination in the workforce

Lyn Drummond Age discrimination in the workplace and welfare payments barely above the poverty line are seeing an increasing number of over-55s in desperate straits.

News

Justice Reinvestment on trial in Cowra

John Power In country NSW, a small town is embarking on an innovative plan to keep potential law-breakers out of the justice system.

News

Bob Day’s resignation and Family First’s future

“The hit to Family First will be enormous, both financially, because Day and his acolytes provided almost all their funding, and reputationally. Their future federal electoral prospects seem dim.”

Mike Seccombe Bob Day’s resignation from the senate this week amid the collapse of his building companies raises questions about Family First’s funding arrangements and its future without him.

World

China arrests threaten Packer’s Barangaroo

Hamish McDonald What happens to Mosul after Daesh?; Hillary Clinton plays Donald Trump in final debate; Julian Assange’s internet outage.

Opinion

Opinion

Karen Middleton
The ubiquity of sexual harassment

“I wasn’t looking to make people angry, just aware that it happens a lot to many women in all sorts of situations, that this kind of sexual attention is not the same as flirting and it would be great if it happened a lot less. Like, never.”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
Turnbull takes a hit in the Adler gun debate

“In parliament, Turnbull did what he failed to do on Radio National and vowed never to trade away Howard’s gun laws but to strengthen them. But he then mired himself in an apparent contradiction. ”

Diary

Gadfly
Broderick’s uni assignment

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


Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

Read

Editorial
Triggs warring

The Saturday Paper accepts Gillian Triggs' retraction. It is an appalling shame that the mistake has overshadowed her work.

Letters

Talking is just the beginning

If there is one good thing to come out of Donald Trump’s grabs and gropes it is the tweets, discussion and articles such as Karen Middleton’s bringing predatory behaviour of men into the open …

Years of anger

Thank you for bringing out in the open the constantly occurring molestation of women and how this goes unreported. Until these molesters are called to account, as in your article, it will still seem to be okay to …

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Food

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Life

Life

George Megalogenis on growing up with Bruce Springsteen

George Megalogenis On the release of Bruce Springsteen’s memoir Born to Run, a reflection on a childhood of musical epiphanies amid echoes of migrant experience.

Health

Antibiotic resistance

Kemal Atlay Overuse of antibiotics, in the home and agriculturally, has created a global health crisis with bacterial resistance to current treatments predicted to claim 10 million lives yearly by 2050.

Sport

Unstoppable: Sarah Hammond, 36, endurance cyclist

Cindy MacDonald Endurance cyclist Sarah Hammond on the hallucinations that take hold on the road.

Books

James Gleick
Time Travel

Ali Smith
Autumn

Jodi Picoult
Small Great Things

The Quiz

1. Which long-running cartoon series features characters named Franklin, Lucy, Sally and Pig-Pen?
2. Pilot Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger was flying for which airline when he was forced to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River?
3. Which author created the character Philip Pirrip? (Bonus point for naming in which novel he appeared.)
4. What is the capital of Uzbekistan?
5. Children with a full set of baby teeth have how many?
6. What, beginning with ‘g’, is the name for a class of mollusc comprising snails?
7. Which Australian surfer won her maiden world title this month?
8. The musical Miss Saigon was inspired by which opera?
9. Which world leader was awarded this year’s Nobel peace prize?
10. Name the billionaire boss of Berkshire Hathaway.

Quotes

RHETORIC

“Would you just like to be pompous for the whole day, or only for this question?”

Penny WongThe senator asks George Brandis the question he’s been posing his entire life. The attorney-general had advised Wong that when she said “square away” she really meant “reconcile”.

DEFENCE

“That was his angry face. We now have seen his angry face. What really happened after he got carried away at the clam bake in Honolulu.”

Christopher PyneThe defence minister accuses his shadow, Richard Marles, of overreach on the issue of the South China Sea while enjoying shellfish in Hawaii. For a man who can’t keep a voting majority in the chamber, he does have a knack for small details.

LANGUAGE

“Vabbè! Tutti li itali sono benvenuti alla Londra!”

Boris JohnsonThe British foreign secretary confirms that after Brexit Italians will still be welcome in Britain. He does so with eight words of Italian, a remarkable five of which were used correctly.

MEDIA

“They’ve turned themselves into political operatives and it’s unacceptable for the national broadcaster.”

Peter DuttonThe immigration minister complains the ABC aired footage showing he was running a despicable gulag on Nauru. Which is an unfortunate byproduct of running a despicable gulag on Nauru.

CELEBRITY

“Enormous body, small head.”

Helen MirrenThe actress assesses Republican candidate Donald Trump. Some other things happened in a presidential debate on Thursday, but this was better.

SCHOOLS

“No.”

Simon BirminghamThe education minister answers a question about whether he agreed with George Christensen’s likening of the Safe Schools program to paedophilic grooming. The prime minister might learn from this simple example.