Home Affairs pushes for cyber spy powers
“The move is designed to protect essential services from sabotage, terrorism or organised crime … The proposed changes would enable the ASD to disrupt activity onshore – a significant extension of the disruption powers it was given in March last year.”
A new proposal would give the Australian Signals Directorate access to the IT systems of Australian companies, but the agency didn’t ask for these powers.
News
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Newstart: Thaw in senate may end 25-year freeze
“Deloitte Access Economics senior partner Chris Richardson called the failure to increase Newstart payments ‘our standout failure as a nation … What we have is a society that is unnecessarily cruel.’ ”
As the upper house this week backs an inquiry into raising Newstart, analysis shows it is Australian seniors who are most likely to be living on just $38 a day.
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For the author and Greens senator, a recent return visit to Manus Island confirmed that conditions have worsened in an already unspeakably cruel environment.
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Probe into ex-ministers’ jumps to private sector
“There is a long list of former ministers who have gone from politics straight to senior jobs in the sectors for which they had responsibility in government.”
With public dissatisfaction simmering over Christopher Pyne’s and Julie Bishop’s new jobs in the private sector, a senate inquiry will investigate former ministers’ compliance with their code of conduct.
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Farm activists face tougher laws
As federal and state governments impose tougher laws to deter animal activists from trespassing on farms, there is growing concern that journalists and whistleblowers will be unable to report on unethical farming practices.
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Ardern has gun law reform in her sights
Iran tensions increase. Jacinda Ardern tightens gun controls. Hong Kong protests continue. Boris Johnson begins as Britain’s PM.
Opinion
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Anonymous
Casualisation of academic teaching
“This year, seven Australian universities made it into the top 100 in the QS World University Rankings. Their vice-chancellors cheered. But on staff-student ratio Australian universities scored dismally. Of those top seven Australian universities, the Australian National University had the highest score for teaching. It was ranked 417th in the world. Three of Australia’s ‘top’ universities were ranked outside the world’s top 600 for their student-staff ratios.”
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Paul Bongiorno
Opposition ignore PM, focus on Taylor
“Scott Morrison, who famously shrank the Liberal Party to near-invisibility to win the May election, was this week confronted by his party’s reappearance, and he doesn’t much like it. In just the second government party room meeting since polling day, Morrison read the riot act to backbenchers for unhelpfully freelancing in the media. In parliament, he sat frustrated as Labor mostly ignored him in question time.”
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Gadfly
Out of saddle and addled
Little wonder Nick “Goosebumps” Cater very quickly lost the plot on Monday’s Q&A. The poor fellow from the Menzies “Research” Centre had just stepped off his Pollie Pedal bicycle, after he and a bunch of other ageing, angry, white reactionaries in Lycra and dyed hair roared into towns in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, sweatily inspecting war memorials and other remnants of past glories.
Letters, Poem & Editorial
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Editorial
Zero idea on suicide
Hypocrisy is claiming a plan to end suicide while scores of people self-harm in offshore detention. It is doing so while you ignore advice that says your own policies have caused this harm – that the men on Manus Island have one of the highest rates of mental illness in the world, and that most of these men were asymptomatic when they arrived.
Culture
Artist Julie Gough on untold histories
Throughout her career, artist Julie Gough has shone light on Tasmania’s colonial history and the genocidal war against Aboriginal people, including her ancestors. With a major solo exhibition at TMAG, Tense Past, she speaks about her remarkable work. “Art is not only a visual outcome; making each artwork is my way of proceeding through the quagmire of the past.”
Shaun Gladwell: Pacific Undertow
The largest survey of Shaun Gladwell’s work – on display at the MCA – not only showcases his trademark slow-motion video practice and his newer ventures into AR and VR, but also heightens a viewer’s consciousness of the ways bodies move.
Season three of The Handmaid’s Tale
Ten episodes into its third season, The Handmaid’s Tale seems to be going round in circles, rather than expanding on its most interesting ideas and exploiting the talents of its stellar cast.
Life
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A new study into men who choose not to have children looks at the third-party scrutiny and judgement – and communication difficulties – that accompany the decision.
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Two-time Tour de France stage-winner Caleb Ewan
Once heralded as ‘cycling’s next big thing’, Caleb Ewan was controversially left off his team’s 2018 Tour de France roster. Given a start this year with Lotto Soudal, the Australian sprinter has now rewarded the Belgian outfit with two stage wins.
Books
Puzzles
1. Which organisation is often referred to by members as Cosa Nostra?
2. Which actress links the films The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Wonder Woman and Forrest Gump?
3. What does the ‘e’ stand for in email?
4. In which year did Hurricane Katrina ravage the city of New Orleans?
5. Isak Dinesen wrote under what pen name?
6. Germany’s Adolf Dassler founded which sports brand?
7. The cimbasso belongs to which section of an orchestra? (Bonus points for naming all four sections of an orchestra.)
8. What is the Italian word for snake?
9. Which team did the United States defeat to win the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup?
10. In blood pressure readings, does systolic refer to the top or bottom number?
Quotes
FAMILY
“Meet Winter, Arabella’s birthday dream come true and the newest member of the Kushner family.”
The American first daughter introduces the world to her new family pet. The dog is, perhaps unsurprisingly, extremely white.
ENVIRONMENT
“Emissions go up and down.”
The energy minister seeks to address the confusion around his assertion that Australia’s emissions are going down. To clarify, they are not not going up.
EMPLOYMENT
“People have to be prepared to move sometimes out of their comfort zone.”
The deputy prime minister suggests Newstart is “meagre” but enables people to move towns to find a job. Politicians also have a travel allowance, which works out to a week of Newstart for every day they are in Canberra.
WAGES
“We would like to thank Gary, George and Matt for their contribution over the past 11 years.”
The Network Ten chief farewells the MasterChef hosts who walked away from contract negotiations after being denied a 40 per cent pay rise. The trio were only demanding $1.5 million each a year, merely a fifth of what Calombaris grifted from his workers.
MUSIC
“I don’t censor his art, if I can be a muse for it.”
The actress laughs off a lyric sung by her husband, Keith Urban: “She’s a maniac in the bed, but a brainiac in her head.” One of those rare occasions where censorship isn’t such a bad thing.
ADVICE
“Look at your own likeable and unlikeable behaviours and try to reduce the list of unlikeable behaviours.”
The author stirs controversy with his advice for students. Telling kids who are being bullied to look at themselves would go on the “unlikeable” list.
