News

Morrison sprints to Adani approval

“This was a political contest flagged as ‘the climate change election’, yet it has yielded a perverse result. Instead of pushing government towards greater action on climate change, it has pushed the other way. ”

Mike Seccombe The Queensland Labor government has taken the Coalition’s election victory as a warning it must fall in line and green-light the Carmichael coalmine.

News

News

Shorten loses again, trying to undermine Albanese leadership

“Albanese is already seeking to put his stamp on the party with talk of greater inclusiveness and respect, a backhander at the way Labor’s campaign was run.”

Karen Middleton As Labor attempts to understand how it lost the unloseable election, old divisions have been reopened by the party’s search for a new identity to win back voters.

News

Asylum seekers in crisis

Abdul Karim Hekmat

Electricity and gas have been cut off to the Melbourne home of Kurdish widower Sadoullah Malakooti and his three daughters, as the family faces destitution after cuts to government support for asylum seekers.

News

Nauru on the edge

“The regional processing centre did not introduce corruption to Nauru. But what it did was greatly empower a government that has shown alarming contempt for the rule of law and democratic customs.”

Martin McKenzie-Murray Australia’s offshore processing contracts with Nauru have abetted the longstanding corruption in the micro-nation. With elections looming in the coming months, Nauruans have grave concerns about their country’s future.

News

Surge in Coalition outsourcing

Michael West As major companies express their delight at Scott Morrison’s re-election, figures show untendered contracts have surged since the Coalition first took office in 2013, with $50 billion awarded in the two months before the election.

World

Returned Joko eyes infrastructure plan

Jonathan Pearlman Joko Widodo re-elected. The Pacific waits for climate change action. US states line up to restrict abortion. Taiwan’s advance on gay rights.

Opinion

Opinion

Bri Lee
Time to reform Queensland consent laws

“‘Mistake of fact’ comes from section 24 of the Queensland criminal code. It says that where the defendant had an ‘honest and reasonable but mistaken belief’ in a state of things that made their actions legal, they must be acquitted. This defence has had blatantly unfair consequences for survivors of sex crimes. ”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
Reserve Bank ends Coalition celebration

“Along with the rest of the nation, Scott Morrison could scarcely believe it. His mother told journalists a lot of prayers went into the shock defeat of Labor, and her jubilant son told the cheering party faithful he had “always believed in miracles”. Four days later, though, the Reserve Bank governor played the devil’s advocate – Morrison’s “strong economy” was faltering.”

Diary

Gadfly
Intensive prayer

Richard Ackland One of Gadfly’s field agents who looks after dustbins close to Horizon Church in the Sutherland Shire discovered a prayer scribbled on some prime ministerial letterhead. In the interests of religious freedom, we’ve decided to share it with you: O God, how good are you? You have cleared our land of pestilence and plague and like Canaan, the son of Ham, we rose up to smite those wanting to rid you, O Lord, of your imputations that you gave us when you cleansed the money changers from the temple. It may have been your only begotten son who did that, but you knowest from where I come.

Letters, Poem & Editorial

Poem

Maxine Beneba Clarke
Winter

silence,

                  all across the mourning fog

 

 

dark winter has descended

Read More

Editorial
Pipe dreams

The Australian Dream was once a home you owned with a car in the driveway. It was the existence promised by Robert Menzies. The basic aspiration was for comfort, a place in the community, a sense of security. Very quietly, John Howard updated that vision. The houses became McMansions. The aspirations became exceptional.

Letters

Spirit didn’t move the voters

Your editorial noted “it was an election set piece dreamed up by the most earnest of Labor strategists” (“Time to choose”, May 18-24) as now former Labor leader Bill Shorten invoked …

Bob Hawke’s legacy

The remarkable outpouring of emotion at Bob Hawke’s death surely reflects a desire in the Australian electorate to put the utter nastiness of politics in recent years behind us. Hawke had a temper, …

Read More

Culture

Profile

The many facets of Zindzi Okenyo’s world

Steve Dow Zindzi Okenyo is asserting herself through her art – on stage, on screen and in the recording studio. Here, the singer-songwriter and actor talks about growing up in different parts of Australia, travelling to her father’s birth country, and being comfortable in her own skin. “The older that I’ve gotten, the more it seems to me the way to be better is to know yourself as much as possible and then relax into it.”

Theatre

The Production Company’s Lazarus

Alison Croggon Despite a bizarre narrative that at times seems nonsensical, the first Australian production of David Bowie’s musical, Lazarus, is gloriously camp. And of course, there’s no denying the power of Bowie’s songs.

Life

Food

Iranian noodle soup

Annie Smithers

Travel

In search of the northern lights

Robert Kidd In honour of a special birthday, the author withstands the subzero temperatures of Lapland on a quest to experience the famously fickle aurora borealis.

Sport

The Caster Semenya ban

Tracey Holmes The ban on champion South African runner Caster Semenya has divided the sporting world, with its supporters claiming the playing field must be levelled. But is this just a case of intersectional discrimination?

Books

Stan Grant
Australia Day

Laila Lalami
The Other Americans

Joanne Ramos
The Farm

Puzzles

The Cryptic

Crossword No. 254

The Quiz

1. Who was Australia’s second prime minister?
2. Hg is the chemical symbol of which element?
3. The crimson pigment carmine is obtained from which insect?
4. Who wrote the hit songs “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (Bonnie Tyler), “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” (Air Supply) and “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” (Meat Loaf)?
5. What is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism?
6. Onions, shallots and garlic are members of what family starting with ‘a’?
7. Which city hosted the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest?
8. Rorschach tests are used in which field?
9. Which club won the 2019 English Premier League? (Bonus point for naming the club that was runner-up by one point.)
10. Monrovia is the capital of which west African nation?

Quotes

TELEVISION

“I’ve actually gone up since the last election, unlike your show, Deb. Since you’ve actually taken over, you’ve actually gone down in your viewership. So, should you hand over your job or should we bring Karl back?”

Pauline HansonThe senator hits back at Deb Knight over a question about One Nation’s primary vote. Even the Today host was shocked by how good this comeback was.

MIRACLES

“I’ve always believed in miracles.”

Scott MorrisonThe re-elected prime minister addresses supporters in Sydney. In the Pentecostal faith, preference flows from Clive Palmer are widely accepted as gifts bestowed by the divine.

CELEBRITY

“My recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I had just graduated high school.”

Natalie Portman

The actress denies she ever dated Moby, a claim made in the musician’s new memoir. To all those who asked, none of the staff of The Saturday Paper have ever dated him either.

POLITICS

“I think he’s the best person to lead us and I think he’s the best person to take up the fight to Scott Morrison and to the Coalition.”

Penny WongThe Labor senator throws her support behind Anthony Albanese. The question remains why he wasn’t the best person to lead the party a week ago.

LOSS

“I can’t say it doesn’t hurt to lose. But I would rather be a loser than a quitter.”

Tony AbbottThe former MP concedes his seat of Warringah to Zali Steggall. His 1029th-place finish in the Cole Classic swim this year would suggest this is a mantra in both work and life.

COURTS

“It is hysterical not in the sense of funny, but in the sense of hysteria.”

Sue Chrysanthou

Geoffrey Rush’s barrister argues a potential chilling effect on the #MeToo movement shouldn’t stop an injunction against The Daily Telegraph. A lawyer being named Sue is hysterical in the sense of funny.