Part one: Inside the Adani blockade
“The Adani project in Queensland has shrunk dramatically … Still, goes the thought, you have to zap it completely, otherwise it will grow back.”
Far from killing off the anti-Adani movement, final approvals for the Carmichael mine have catalysed protesters, who say the fight is far from over.
News
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“A covert operative of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency conducted a secret affair with a senior Whitlam government minister who was of interest to America in the lead-up to the 1975 dismissal, according to Toohey’s book on the use and abuse of secrecy in Australia.”
In a new book, veteran journalist Brian Toohey argues that covert CIA operatives have worked in Australia for decades, something the government has long denied.
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Tackling Victoria Police’s culture of misogyny
Three years ago, outgoing commissioner Ken Lay ordered a review into sexual harassment and predatory behaviour at Victoria Police. The latest audit shows that while determined moves are being made, a toxic culture is hard to stamp out.
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Stalemate on stagnant wage growth
“One big reason the wages of working Australians are stagnating is that the owners of capital in this country have grown lazy and greedy, short-sighted and risk averse. Josh Frydenberg did not put it in such blunt terms this week, but the implication was clear.”
As the country faces stagnant wage growth, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has asked Australian companies to stop returning profits to wealthy shareholders. But the federal government is doing little else, reluctant to put its long-promised surplus at risk.
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Macron’s G7 bid to ease US, Iran tensions
Emmanuel Macron plays mediator over Iran at G7. Indonesia’s capital to move from Jakarta. Australian citizen Yang Hengjun charged with espionage. The Amazon in flames.
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The University of Queensland and the Ramsayites, after a lot of fumbling and frottage, finally got into bed together. UQ joins the University of Wollongong in producing scholars honed and buffed in the ways of Western “civilisation”.
Opinion
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Badiucao
Hong Kong’s fight for freedom
“Every young protester is worried about being critically injured by police who use excessive violence. They fear being arrested and charged, of facing a possible 10-year jail sentence for rioting. But if they choose to remain silent, they may lose this last chance to help Hong Kong maintain its autonomy from Beijing. ”
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Kevin Rudd
Defining Australia’s national identity
“Political drift doesn’t offer any substantive response to the ‘great disruptions’ now bearing down on us. It just capitulates to them. That’s why it’s now urgent to re-engineer our national imagination and paint the picture of a different future for our country, and then to choose the type of Australia we wish to become.”
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Paul Bongiorno
Timor-Leste independence and press freedom
“At the very time the world’s most powerful democracy is locked in a trade war with the planet’s biggest authoritarian state, Australia’s reputation as a free nation is under severe strain. And nothing highlights this more than the independence celebrations in Timor-Leste, formerly East Timor.”
Letters, Poem & Editorial
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Maxine Beneba Clarke
September
september germinates,
determined
all sure-quiet-beautiful
and fern and jade unfurl
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Announcing the Religious Discrimination Act at Sydney’s Great Synagogue on Thursday, Attorney-General Christian Porter was at pains to stress the bill “does not create a positive right to freedom of religion” … There is no doubt this bill exists almost solely as a counter to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia – a balancing of the scales, of sorts, an offering to those who fear the advancement of LGBTQIA rights will threaten their freedom.
Culture
Artist and activist Peter Drew
Peter Drew’s posters can be seen on streets throughout Australia, throwing down a challenge to passers-by to consider our national identity. But far from being a strident activist, the artist is happy to question rather than lecture. “You’ve got to approach it with curiosity and the possibility that you might be wrong. There might be something you’re missing. You can’t forgo that possibility and bathe in the certainty of your convictions. You can’t be puritanical, because that is the worst thing of all.”
Meyne Wyatt’s powerful first play, City of Gold, joins a growing canon of theatre that asks Australia to confront its treatment of Indigenous people.
The Teskey Brothers’ Run Home Slow
On their second album, Run Home Slow, The Teskey Brothers have produced a pale imitation of the ’60s soul greats, stripping the music of its political verve and adding nothing in return.
“So much of European Australia has been left by the wayside. Working-class Australia has been left by the wayside. Regional Australia has been left by the wayside. So, it’s not even a white [versus] migrant thing. It’s just a certain 15 to 20 postcodes whose stories are told – and even then, only certain houses within those postcodes.”
Life
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Banksy and street art in Bristol
Even a visitor with no interest in street art might find that a tour of Banksy’s Bristol leaves an indelible mark.
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Boomers set to take on the world
Fresh from a historic win over the United States, Australia’s basketballers head to the FIBA World Cup in China with their sights set on a medal.
Books
Puzzles
1. Which actor links the characters Malcolm Crowe, David Addison and John McClane?
2. Name the six countries bordering Libya.
3. Which is closest to one furlong: (a) 50 metres; (b) 100 metres; or (c) 200 metres?
4. What is the name of the tube or cavity that connects the mouth with the oesophagus?
5. Zaha Hadid is famous in which field?
6. Name the American brig found adrift and intact but deserted in the mid-Atlantic in 1872.
7. How often is golf’s Ryder Cup held?
8. Tugela Falls is the world’s second-highest waterfall. Which country is it in?
9. According to Roman mythology, who is Jupiter’s father?
10. Who directs the soon-to-be-released film Ride Like a Girl? (Bonus points for naming whom the story is about.)
Quotes
RECOMPENSE
“My boots are … so smooth I’m not getting any grip. I tell you what, I’m not getting any grip on my backside either. I cannot get down.”
The One Nation leader, who vowed to summit Uluru in protest at its impending closure to climbers, gets stuck a short way up.
DONATIONS
“Hopefully this will come to an end: the horrible culture that’s existed in New South Wales.”
The former Labor senator, who stepped down over a Chinese-related donations scandal, testifies at an Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing into an alleged $100,000 donation to NSW Labor by Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo.
DIGNITY
“I would welcome the opportunity for you to come to my home, meet my wife and kids, talk to us for a few minutes, and then call me a ‘bedbug’ to my face.”
The New York Times columnist fires off an email to Associate Professor Dave Karpf, who referred to Stephens as the “metaphorical bedbug” infesting the paper’s newsroom.
AMERICA
“I wouldn’t call myself a racist, but I would say, John, I’ve said racist things on Twitter.”
The United States politician answers MSNBC host John Heilemann as he faces criticism after announcing he will challenge Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. “Obama is a Muslim. Happy New Year!” Walsh tweeted in late 2016.
RELIGION
“The plaque of Cardinal Pell has not been defaced and The Chaser video was doctored on Photoshop.”
The church responds to an undoctored video of comedy group The Chaser adding the words “and convicted pedophile” to a plaque of Cardinal George Pell at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.
MEDIA
“I feel as though this would’ve not happened to a white model.”
The Australian model responds to a magazine profile in which she spoke about the misrepresentation of African–Australian models in the Australian media. Accompanying the article was a wrongly captioned photo of another African–Australian model, Flavia Lazarus.
