News

How seniors became our most fierce lobby

“In the end, the election was not a referendum on wages, as Bill Shorten predicted. Nor was it the climate change election, as progressives hoped and science demanded. Instead, it became a generational contest between the aged and the rest.”

Mike Seccombe Organised, connected and efficient, older voters have campaigned hard for concessions from the government and won time and again.

News

News

Coalition divided on First Nations voice

“ ‘The Uluru Statement from the Heart was issued to the Australian people because it was understood that this reform needed the Australian people’s support to have momentum, like 1967,’ Professor Megan Davis told The Saturday Paper. ”

Karen Middleton While Ken Wyatt tries to find a model for recognition that will appease his party, a grassroots movement is hoping to win public support for a voice to parliament.

News

The broken private health insurance system

Jennifer Doggett While a new report claims Australia’s private health system is in a ‘death spiral’, the crisis actually began with the introduction of Medicare in 1984.

News

Music festival deaths inquest

Drew Rooke As the NSW deputy state coroner examines the MDMA-linked deaths of six young music festival-goers, security precautions, pill testing and overdose procedures come under scrutiny.

World

Boris Johnson feels bite of Brexit trade unease

Jonathan Pearlman Boris Johnson aligns with Trump over leaks. Tribal killings in PNG. Staying shtum on China abuses. India aborts moon mission.

Diary

Gadfly
Reinventing their spiel

Richard Ackland “Cry Freedom” echoes through the wide, brown land as reptiles and hacks try to throw off the shackles of oppression. Some of them have been, or still are, Moloch employees whose newspapers cheered on the slate of overwrought post-September 11 national security laws that bit by bit tightened the noose around the reporting of politically sensitive matters that had received the green elephant stamp of “top secret”.

Opinion

Opinion

Jess Hill
Stopping coercive control and family violence

“Many of the most dangerous coercive controllers use physical violence sparingly, or not at all. Their system of fear and control requires only the believable threat of violence – to the victim or her loved ones. Savvy perpetrators know to avoid physical violence because while “incidents” of domestic violence are a crime, the system of coercive control is not.”

Opinion

Bob Brown
The Robbins Island wind farm debate

“The Australian moved in for the kill last week. Back-to-back front pages, on Monday and Tuesday, after I sounded the alarm about the impact on endangered birds if the Robbins Island wind farm in Tasmania’s north-west goes ahead. Backed up by the usual cronies at Sky News, the boilover raised a question about the impending extinction of measured public debate.”

Opinion

Chris Wallace
Scott Morrison faces Trump test

“Remember this quiet week. It is the origin moment of the biggest test of national character Australia has faced in 50 years. Some may have sensed it, others deduced it. But before 2020 arrives, anyone with contemporary historical perspective will know, understand and have had to take a position on the United States and its president. The choices are appeasement or action, with little scope to hover in between.”

Letters, Poem & Editorial

Poem

Maxine Beneba Clarke
The rate

caught skint

                    at the iga counter

 

frantic hands searching threadbare jeans

                    sorry, guess i’m short on change today

                    forgot my card

as you put the tampons, washing liquid,

and your pride

                                 away

Read More

Editorial
Serving justice

No dessert has entered the Australian public consciousness more aggressively than the towering croquembouche. George Calombaris called it one of the hardest challenges ever put to MasterChef contestants. Built on little more than air and sleight of hand, it foiled many an aspiring chef and seems to have inspired the Melbourne business operations of the celebrity chef’s sprawling restaurant empire.

Letters

Preaching his values

Thanks to Tanya Levin (“Hillsong and a prayer”, July 13-19) for her analysis of Scott Morrison’s Pentecostalist affiliations. Australians have a right to know about their prime minister’s …

The clash of symbols

Craig Kelly said if Ken Wyatt wanted to pursue “words in the constitution that don’t really mean anything, that are symbolic, then that’s fine”. But if the proposal included an idea …

Read More

Culture

Profile

Novelist and playwright Peter Polites

Ronnie Scott In his second novel, The Pillars, Peter Polites uses Australia’s fixation on home ownership to explore the intersection of race, class and sexuality – as well as a growing conservatism within the queer community. “If you look at the generic images coming out of the queer community, there is a very specific aesthetic going on that’s obviously tied to race and class … You can be a total slut monster but still operate within a hegemonic discursive framework. There’s nothing radical about reinforcing dominant discourse. To me, that’s the opposite of sexual liberation.”

Theatre

Solaris

Alison Croggon Although Stanisław Lem’s classic novel Solaris provides rich source material for a stage adaptation, there’s a disappointing banality to Malthouse Theatre’s production.

Life

Food

Persian vegetable stew

Annie Smithers

Travel

The Johannine Library and Mafra Palace

Beau Kondos

A journey to see the majestic libraries of Coimbra, Portugal, may make the visitor wonder at the hand of fate.

Sport

The fans and freedom of speech

Russell Marks While sporting bodies vow to embrace diversity and uphold a policy of maximal inclusion, the fans cheering from the sidelines may have very different priorities.

Books

Lisa Taddeo
Three Women

Julia Phillips
Disappearing Earth

Elizabeth Bryer
From Here On, Monsters

Puzzles

The Cryptic

Crossword No. 262

The Quiz

1. Which organisation publishes the magazine Warcry?
2. What nationality is Agatha Christie’s fictional detective Hercule Poirot?
3. Which river flows through the Grand Canyon?
4. What type of animal is a capuchin: (a) a rodent; (b) an antelope; or (c) a monkey?
5. Which three colourful bands were respectively fronted by Ozzy Osbourne, Ian Gillan and David Gilmour?
6. In which city did the 2019 Tour de France begin?
7. What nut flavour is the liqueur Frangelico?
8. Hermana is the Spanish word for which relative?
9. Where on the moon did the Apollo 11 lunar module land? (Bonus point for naming the nickname of the module.)
10. The actor born Eric Marlon Bishop is better known by what name?

Quotes

TRANSPORT

“No more gate barriers – just a smooth journey.”

Andrew ConstanceThe New South Wales transport minister spruiks the introduction of face-recognition technology on Sydney’s public transport system. Like Minority Report, this is sure to have a satisfying ending.

HOUSING

“The Commonwealth is not an ATM for the states.”

Karen AndrewsThe industry minister says the government will not pay to remove combustible cladding from Victorian high-rise apartments. To recap, the government will only be an ATM for high-income earners, the Big Four accounting firms, self-funded retirees, mining giants, Lockheed Martin, French submarine manufacturers and George Christensen’s love life.

COURTS

“I have enough to have you go bye bye.”

Anton BlassThe son of winemaker Wolf Blass responds to questions about his income during his Gold Coast trial. He faces charges over allegedly punching a woman – always a good time to threaten a prosecutor.

HOSPITALITY

“It is our priority to ensure all of our employees feel respected, rewarded and supported in their roles.”

George CalombarisThe restaurateur is fined by the Fair Work Commission for underpaying his staff to the tune of $7.8 million. It’s a shame that paying his employees wasn’t one of his priorities.

VALUES

“I just don’t get it; I really don’t get it.”

Pauline HansonThe One Nation leader describes her expertise as part of an all-white panel assembled by Channel Nine to discuss the Uluru climbing ban. Hanson has no problem with being places she shouldn’t, as her multiple runs for parliament attest.

DIPLOMACY

“You simply cannot use that kind of language.”

Boris JohnsonThe future British prime minister scolds the United States president for telling four female Democrats of colour to “go back where you came from”. The Brit prefers a more diplomatic turn of phrase, such as describing women who wear burqas as “looking like letterboxes”.