“Another witness described ‘interference’ from the Murray–Darling Basin Authority and ‘attempts to influence CSIRO findings’ related to modelling ahead of setting the water-use limits.”
Allegations that the Murray–Darling Basin Plan was compromised by government agency interference have emerged during the SA royal commission.
News
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Who is making money out of racism?
“Clearly, we are seeing a challenge to the non-discriminatory immigration program that Australia has conducted since the end of the White Australia policy.”
In a final interview as race discrimination commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane condemns politicians and media organisations for profiting from racism, and warns it will get worse. Mike Seccombe reports.
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Sleeping Giants fuel Sky News backlash
As the backlash set in after Sky News’s interview with Blair Cottrell, one activist group turned its sights to the channel’s corporate sponsors.
Read
Data mapping in the fight against sex trafficking
“Since 2014, ORA has run Safe Villages training sessions in more than 2000 villages, educating as many as 912,663 people about sex trafficking. ”
An Australian data analytics company has partnered with anti-sex-trafficking campaigners to help identify villages in India where girls and young women are most at risk.
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3D-printed weapons and the law
The legality of using 3D printers to produce firearms has made headlines here and in the US, but what of the actual practicalities?
Read
China pushes back on dissent into darkness
China pushes back on dissent. Misgivings over Xi's leadership spread. Dalai Lama succession plan.
Opinion
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Behrouz Boochani
Manus prison theory
“The soul of Manus prison and the system that created and governs Manus prison is in the process of replicating itself throughout Australian society, reproducing itself in unlimited numbers. This is the merciless system that takes humans as captives and subjects them to rules and regulations of micro-control and macro-control, a system that takes their human identities.”
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Sean Kelly
Pushing the limits of acceptable debate
“Like Donald Trump’s presidential victory, the appearance of far-right nationalist Blair Cottrell on Sky News cannot be excused by reference to recent events. It wasn’t the dumb mistake of a producer, nor was it unique to Sky. The expansion of what is considered acceptable to broadcast in this country did not begin this week. The middle ground may be where it has always been but the edges have been getting further out for years now. It’s the political equivalent of urban sprawl.”
Read
We’re surrounded by death and the passing of great totems of our time. The death of Fairfax’s independence coincided with the death of one of the era’s standout journalists, Evan Whitton. Then we had news of the death of Clive Evatt, the great Sydney defamation barrister, turf man, art collector and frequent visitor to Wagner at Bayreuth. Whitton and Evatt were polar opposites – one liked to expose wrongdoing while the other liked to sue the backside off newspapers on behalf of punters who were exposed.
Letters, Poem & Editorial
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Editorial
Australians all let us rue Joyce
That is the problem with Joyce: the politics never elevates above the schoolyard. He is a child and he is indulged by a system built for childish men. The bell he complains of is the one that asks him to vote on legislations, the one that encourages him to do his job. Urges call to him but duty is not one of them. Politics as Joyce describes it is without responsibility.
Culture
Danny Glover on acting and activism
Actor Danny Glover is probably best known for his on-screen roles spanning nearly 40 years, but his appearance in Australia to address a trade union conference comes after a lifelong commitment to civil rights and labour activism. “I was invited here again, by First Nations people, 22 years ago. I went to visit men who were incarcerated and, like in my own country, they were disproportionately people of colour. Then I knew a little bit more about Australia.”
While Gabe Gurnsey’s Physical is a slow-burn techno album that evokes the unfolding of a big night out, Rebel Yell’s Hired Muscle delivers a sharp slap of industrial primitivism.
Playwright, director and dramaturge Declan Greene
“Spidery handwriting is scrawled over almost every inch of the large freestanding whiteboard, demarcating a complex web of scenes, scene transitions and narrative arcs. Melbourne playwright, director and dramaturge Declan Greene crouches down to scrawl notes in the only sliver of space left. The room is midsummer-hot, but the back of Greene’s fitted T-shirt inexplicably avoids being sweat-stuck.”
Food
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“I know I’m courting controversy and might even lose some of you immediately with the next statement, but here we go. Candied peel is absolutely delicious. I can hear the howls of horror in my head. I’ve come to conclude that it must be one of the pantry’s most divisive common ingredients. At Christmas, people want fruit mince tarts sans peel. At Easter they want hot cross buns sans peel. A lot of people really, really seem to dislike it. But have they tasted handmade, seasonally produced peel, or have they only ever come across the nasty supermarket packet version?”
Life
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Library-borrowed copies of Dolly magazine offered a much-loved window to the world of beauty, fashion and budding sexuality. But, beyond the model searches and sealed sections, they were also tinged with feelings of solidarity and shame.
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Suicide rates among the middle-aged are on the rise. And, according to experts, growing social fragmentation, income insecurity and life pressures are fuelling the trend.
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The strong side: Emily Scott, 26, water polo player
Sydney Stingers’ Emily Scott on re-finding her love of water polo, empowering the LGBTQI community, and the exciting and inclusive atmosphere of the Gay Games.
Books
The Quiz
1. Aotearoa is the Māori name for what? (Bonus point for giving the literal translation of Aotearoa.)
2. In what year did the Korean War begin?
3. A Monegasque is a native or inhabitant of which country?
4. Who was the last teenager, before Kylian Mbappé, to score a goal in a FIFA World Cup final?
5. In what year did the Channel Tunnel open?
6. Recently named Australia’s top-earning chief executive, Don Meij heads what company?
7. The whites of human eyes are also known as what starting with ‘s’?
8. What does the acronym NAIDOC stand for?
9. The word anural refers to a lack of which body part?
10. Who plays Christopher Robin in the upcoming Disney film of the same name?
Quotes
THE REEF
“The prime minister basically said, ‘We’re going to give you half a billion dollars.’ ”
The Queensland Labor senator describes his understanding of the meeting where Malcolm Turnbull gave $443 million to the Great Barrier Reef Fund. When you put it like that, it almost sounds shady.
POLITICS
“It’s a really … sad day. It’s a disappointing day for me.”
The Labor member announces she will not contest the next federal election. It’s almost quaint to think of a time when the ugliest politics in Lindsay was the fact it set John Howard’s border policies.
APPOINTMENTS
“The government should make Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott special ministers for drought and natural disaster today.”
The shock jock offers Malcolm Turnbull advice on ministerial appointments. It seems fair to call Abbott a natural disaster, but it’s a bit rough reflecting on Joyce’s skin type.
CLIMATE
“Look, that’s a big call.”
The agriculture minister refuses to link Australia’s drought to climate change. The bigger call is pretending everything is fine because one half of your party is living in 1953.
MUSIC
“You attacking events without doing any research on them and starting a media campaign based on your own isms and schisms is the sort of thing that worked well in Nazi Germany.”
The Bluesfest boss responds to a woman who complained about the lack of diversity on the festival’s bill. Noble would sooner invoke the Holocaust than listen to an artist who isn’t Jack Johnson.
DIPLOMACY
“I have great respect for the UK. United Kingdom. Great respect. People call it Britain. They call it Great Britain. They used to call it England, different parts.”
The United States president riffs on names for Britain. He might not know the difference between England and the United Kingdom, but then he doesn’t know the difference between collusion and lawful electoral practices either.
