“For some time, The Australian has been running a campaign against the ABC with a ferocity that betrays not mere ideological distaste but commercial anxiety.”
As the ABC faces down sustained attacks from News Corp and other outlets, the government is in the process of changing journalism for good.
News
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Crossbenchers push agendas amid crisis
With the dual citizenship crisis deepening, Bob Katter and others on the crossbench are using the chaos to push legislation the government has refused.
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“What they’re doing – stacking the board as vacancies arise – is really quite terrifying for those of us in the sector. We want transparency, not the closing down of advocacy or the nasty Minerals Council agenda.”
The government is waging a multifaceted campaign to reduce the influence of charities, requiring disclosure of how donations are spent, seeking to ban electoral campaigning if overseas funds are received, and choosing not to renew the tenure of the respected head of the sector’s regulatory body.
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Clinton Pryor’s Walk for Justice
Clinton Pryor has walked across Australia to raise awareness of injustice for Indigenous peoples and now approaches Canberra for a planned meeting with the governor-general.
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Pacific Islanders forced to leave
“After more than a decade of leading the first recorded example of forced displacement due to global warming, Rakova has almost completed housing for the first group of 10 families.”
The world’s first relocations due to climate change are under way in the inundated Carteret Islands, amid calls for Australia to increase migration from threatened Pacific islands.
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US will have to deal with Kim going nuclear
Australia staunch on US defence ties. Korean War legacy. Trump in civil war territory. Tony Jones's book reignites Balkan hostilities
Opinion
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Richard Cooke
Rewarding the politics of failure
“Fired, ousted, ineligible or disgraced, our politicians keep showing up to work anyway, George Costanza-style, barrowing doomed legislation and talking points that expired a decade ago. The Turnbull government has failed. If recent history is a guide, this means they now have jobs for life.”
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Paul Bongiorno
The mad Katter’s tea party
“Katter says there are two sets of rules at work here: one for Matt Canavan, a less senior minister in the Nationals, and one for the number two in the Coalition government, Barnaby Joyce. He says Turnbull can have no credibility with the Australian people for such a “hypocritical double standard” and says he doesn’t deserve to have any either.”
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Federal and state judges will be getting in touch with their brains next week, or rather their two brains. Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist is out from Britain and has been invited by the Federal Court to try to explain to the judges about the hemispheres in their skulls.
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
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This is the lie of Australia politics. Nothing is considered on its merits. Everything, apparently, is connected: traditionalist marriage and transphobic bullying and Australia Day barbecues. The past is held on to like tinned hams in a survivalist’s bunker.
Culture
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As a proud Arrernte–Arabana man, actor Aaron Pedersen believes that through his work and profile he can make inroads into uniting Australia. “We’re the only country in the Commonwealth that doesn’t have a treaty. It’s ridiculous. What are they scared of?”
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Tony Tuckson’s abstract expressionism
An exhibition of Tony Tuckson’s works on paper reveals an artist whose paintings did not so much respond to the world as express it.
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Exploratory musician Lizzy Welsh
“Welsh holds the violin out to me, showing me where it has been altered, the lines like scars that reveal how it’s changed over the past couple of hundred years. ‘It looks a bit like an old man, don’t you think?’ she says, cocking her head and laughing. ‘All wrinkled, cracked.’”
Food
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Whole roast chicken with spiced pilaf
“In essence, pilaf is rice that is cooked in a broth. Many rice-producing countries have their own version of this. The name is borrowed from the Turkish pilav. Served straight from the pot to the table, the pilaf can be quite a dramatic ritual.”
Life
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The frequency of horrific complications arising from transvaginal mesh implants, typically used to treat pelvic organ prolapse, has led to a class action.
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Locked away reading classics of queer literature, and writing the lyric for a new album, the author finds you are most free when you remove what keeps you hidden.
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Coach approach: Anthony Griffin, 50, NRL coach
Penrith Panthers coach Anthony Griffin on the importance of talking to your players, and the great Sydney rivalries.
Books
The Quiz
1. Tennis player Jelena Ostapenko was born and raised in which country?
2. Which is the higher rank in the Australian Army: (a) colonel; (b) brigadier; or (c) lieutenant-colonel?
3. Name the only two movie sequels to have won an Academy Award for Best Picture.
4. In which ocean is the island of Kiribati?
5. Who was recently made the first honorary citizen of the city of Manchester?
6. Richard Feynman was best known for his work in which field of science?
7. Which legendary “lost” island, first mentioned in Plato's dialogues, was said to have sunk beneath the sea?
8. Who plays Hercule Poirot in the 2017 film version of Murder on the Orient Express? (Bonus point for naming who played him in the 1974 version.)
9. What religion is predominant in the Philippines?
10. Name Australia’s chief scientist.
Quotes
LOVE
“I have an affectionate relationship with my cycling mates, who – we go cycling on the weekends. But that’s not marriage.”
The father of the house offers his version of respectful debate on marriage equality. Other things to which he is not married include reality, decency and the original colour of his hair.
WELFARE
“You’re the party of human rights and you’ve forgotten the human rights of children. Just call yourself the party for paedophiles.”
The mining magnate criticises the Greens for opposing cashless welfare cards. The NSW branch was reportedly positive about the rebrand but it was rejected in the federal party room.
DECENCY
“Enough. El Shaddai. Enough.”
The Victorian Liberal calls for all refugees held in offshore detention to be settled permanently in Australia. In four words he makes more sense than two decades of debate – and two of those words are literally the same word.
RESPONSIBILITY
“… … … … … … …”
The president of the United States of America condemns neo-Nazi violence after the murder of an anti-racism protester in Charlottesville, Virginia. In a moral vacuum, nobody can hear you lead.
ISLAM
“To ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do. ”
The attorney-general censures Pauline Hanson for wearing a burqa into the senate, his voice catching on something, possibly his defence of the rights of bigots made in the very same room.
COURTS
“And he disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan.”
One of two hundred potential jurors excused from the Martin Shkreli trial explains why he could not be impartial. Shkreli’s alleged crimes include securities and wire fraud, and the buying for $1 million of a Wu-Tang Clan album he won’t let anyone hear.
