September 15 – 21, 2018 | The Saturday Paper

News

I am not a ‘death meat’ of Australia

“I want to ask why the Australian government is torturing me. If she does not want me, give me to another country. I have to have a life.”

Abdul Karim Hekmat After more than five years on Nauru, Ashkan watches as his partner, Nima, descends into a catatonic state, denied medical treatment by Australia.

News

Exclusive: Dutton’s record on cabinet recusal

Karen Middleton In five years, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has only once absented himself from cabinet discussions relating to child care.

News

Changing the discourse on suicide

“My pain was also intellectually repellent to me. It represented nothing. I loathed my morbid introspection: the self-pity, the winnowing of curiosity.”

Martin McKenzie-Murray Reflecting on the limits of language around suicide, the author writes of his own experience of depression and the call for a more open discussion of mental health.

News

The Liberals’ religious right

“Of course, the PM is free to express his faith in any way he chooses. The issue is whether we, the Australian people, want a prime minister whose world view is framed by a narrow faith?”

Mike Seccombe With the ascendancy of a Pentecostal Christian leader, the Liberal Party slides further to the religious right. But can it find salvation without the coffers of Malcolm Turnbull?

A woman takes part in a protest march of ethnic Uygurs.

News

Uygurs call for sanctions over mass internments

Hamish McDonald In Sydney’s west, the Uygur community has joined calls for Australia to sanction China over its internment of more than one million members of the Muslim minority.

The United States national security adviser, John Bolton.

World

Bolton wages war on international court

Hamish McDonald Bolton warns of sanctions against ICC members, and challenges Palestinian Authority referral of Israel. Russia and Syria attack Idlib. Far-right gains in Sweden.

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Opinion

Nayuka Gorrie
Abbott’s envoy appointment derisory

“Abbott explicitly believes white people and colonisation were good things for black people and this country. He subscribes to the terra nullius colonial fiction, describing Australia as nothing but bush before colonisation and the country as benefiting from British investment on ‘then-unsettled or scarcely settled great south land’. ”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
The Morrison muppet show

“The stakes are extremely high in Wentworth. A loss there would see Morrison lose his majority in parliament. The prime minister is understood to have urged his state division to preselect a woman in what is an acknowledgement that he and the party have a “woman problem”. It is more accurately described as a “man problem” – too many men unwilling to share power.”

Gadfly

Richard Ackland
Gadfly: Let there be lights

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

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Editorial
News agency

It’s not just the Herald Sun. It’s a media that is fragile and defensive, built on unquestioned values. It’s the uncomfortable realisation that we can be wrong – that the ethics we hold dear as journalists were honed in rooms of men, drawn from the same class, the same race, the same schools.

Letters

It’s like a kind of torture

The prime minister’s recent reference to the party room as “a muppet show” insults the “Muppets” (Paul Bongiorno, “The enemies within”, September 8–14). …

Alarm bells closer to home

In a single week there have been two disturbing reports of governments jailing people for political reasons. Australian filmmaker James Ricketson got a six-year sentence simply because the Cambodian government …

Culture

Profile

Zoë Coombs Marr and her stand-in stand-up Dave

Steve Dow Comedian Zoë Coombs Marr created her male alter-ego Dave in order to critique the sexist culture of the stand-up scene, and it has taken years for her to feel ready to take the stage as herself again. “I never made Dave with the intention of being cruel or laughing at people, or going, ‘That guy sucks.’ ”

Film

The ‘whiteness’ of Crazy Rich Asians

Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen Crazy Rich Asians is a breakthrough moment for Asian representation in Hollywood, but even in this rom-com the cloud of imperialism and colonialism is never truly lifted.

Portrait

Game of Thrones’ Deborah Riley

“Riley is passionate about the psychology of space, and how different spaces make us feel. What does it feel like to walk into a large empty space? Or a small enclosed space? How does walking into a forest feel different to walking onto a field? ‘It’s all the subtle, emotional cues that help you design space,’ she explains. ‘Depending on what the emotional thrust of a scene is, and how you think a character might be feeling, that often helps me design a space. The work of the art department needs to support the script and, if possible, even enhance it. Like the costumer designer tries to tell a story through costumes, we try to support the story through sets and props.’”

Sarah Price

Food

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Food

Spring milk ricotta with honey and kunzea pikelets

“Even milk has seasonality. Developments in agriculture that have seen variation diminish can be seen in both a positive and negative light. However, the difference in a milk from a spring pasture should be celebrated. Ricotta is a very, very simple thing to make but there are tricks and much observation required in order to perfect the knack.”

David Moyle

Books

David Sornig
Blue Lake

Tom Lee
Coach Fitz

Marcelo Cohen
Melodrome

Life

Theatre

The Harp in the South

Steve Dow Kate Mulvany’s adaptation of Ruth Park’s still-resonant The Harp in the South trilogy for the STC boasts perfect casting for its darkly comic tale of gentrification and community.

Travel

Ponte City, Johannesburg

Linda Jaivin The Ponte City apartment tower in Johannesburg was built for high-flyers before becoming a violent slum ruled by gangsters. Its rebirth as respectable, affordable housing is a model of community renewal.

Sport

Swing shift: Su Oh, 22, golfer

Richard Cooke Golfer Su Oh on keeping her game simple and trying to find the right balance amid a crazy life on the road with the LPGA tour.

The Quiz

1. Who wrote the 2007 novel/novella On Chesil Beach, now a film starring Saoirse Ronan? (Bonus point for naming the other film adaptation that Ronan starred in based on a book by the same author.)

2. What is the capital of the US state of Arkansas?

3. Which French philosopher, mathematician and scientist proposed, “I think, therefore I am”?

4. What is the principal ingredient of the dish ceviche?

5. Cornelia was the first wife of which famous historical figure?

6. What was the name of the Fokker F7 Sir Charles Kingsford Smith used to cross the Pacific in 1928?

7. The prefix ‘geo-’ is derived from a Greek word meaning what?

8. Which two clubs were minor premiers in AFL and NRL in 2018?

9. What are the Where’s Wally? books known as in the United States and Canada?

10. True or false: all babies are born with blue eyes?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

NEGOTIATIONS

“Fucking mendicant.”

Scott MorrisonThe prime minister shares his view of Tasmanian treasurer Peter Gutwein during GST negotiations. Morrison denies the account, saying you can’t trust beggars.

PATRIOTISM

“I feel we should respect the Indigenous people and their culture.”

Harper NielsenThe nine-year-old explains why she won’t stand for the national anthem. Politicians despaired at the fact children are not born racist and in some cases it takes a while for them to become racist.

SPYING

“I think it’s time Downer is as exposed as Christopher Steele.”

George PapadopoulosThe jailed Trump adviser speaks about his now notorious meeting with Australia’s former high commissioner to Britain. Given the conclusive proof they have met, it’s alarming Papadopoulos thinks of Downer as being that competent.

MUSIC

“It was good harmless fun. It didn’t hurt anyone.”

Paul McCartneyThe musician describes a group masturbation session with John Lennon. He made very clear he was talking about actual masturbation and not late-era Beatles.

CARTOONS

“Open a history book motherfucker and then go fuck yourself.”

Kathy GriffinThe American comedian gives advice to junior News Corp columnist Caleb Bond after he dismissed the controversy surrounding Mark Knight’s depiction of Serena Williams. Which is weird, because nothing is as erotic to Bond as visions of the past.

BLAME

“But they began the process that has led to this 10 years of instability in Australia.”

Christopher PyneThe minister for defence blames Labor for Scott Morrison. But who are we to blame for Christopher Pyne?