The week Australia failed on climate change
“In 1170 pages, the IPCC report speaks with an urgency rarely seen in such documents … Each scenario covered in the report represents its own clear and near-present threat.”
While Scott Morrison toured Trump’s America, the world’s top climate scientists fought it out over their latest warning of the coming disaster.
News
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Peter Dutton’s latest citizenship move
Legal experts warn that the government’s latest attempt to strip citizenship from dual nationals may cause more problems than it resolves.
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Indonesia cracks down on student protesters in Papua
“Those on the ground say the protests were largely peaceful until the Indonesian military and police moved in. In Jayapura, videos appear to show tear gas being used and, in both locations, shots were fired at protesters. The military now stands accused of killing high school and university students.”
Escalating violence in Papua has led to the deaths of more than 30 student protesters, echoing the military’s brutality in Timor-Leste and Aceh in previous decades.
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Foreign students and sexual assault
“Language barriers are part of the problem, with few Australian universities offering sexual assault crisis material in languages other than English. The result is students don’t know how to report an assault, or even that they can report one.”
One international student’s fight to have a university tutor prosecuted for sexual assault highlights how our system fails survivors.
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NSW farmers’ class action on water
As water supplies remain perilously low across Australia’s drought-stricken east, a group of farmers is launching a $750 million class action against the Murray–Darling Basin Authority.
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Thunberg thunders at climate summit
Donald Trump impeachment inquiry. Indonesia’s new criminal code. Conditions in Haiti deteriorate. Greta Thunberg at United Nations Climate Action Summit.
Opinion
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Clinton Fernandes
The Witness K case and government secrecy
“In recent months, I have sat in court as an observer as Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery has faced charges over disclosing information about the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS). On Thursday, Collaery’s case was back before the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. It is a good time, then, to consider this case and the national security state’s assault on Australia’s democratic culture more generally.”
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Paul Bongiorno
Trump awards Morrison metal of honour
“Scott Morrison is back on Australian soil with the ramifications of his seven-day Trumpfest romp still to play out. He returns with an accolade from the United States president still ringing in his ears. No ‘man of steel’, this Aussie leader is a ‘man of titanium’. And in case his compliment wasn’t clear, Trump clarified: ‘Titanium’s much tougher than steel.’ ”
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Gadfly
My friend (insert name)
Trump’s bone spurs must be giving him hell. Standing for hours on end to smother Schmo Morrison in effusions at a welcome ceremony, at a press conference, at a state dinner and then at Anthony Pratt’s cardboard factory. Agony for the Radge Orange Bampot, and for everyone else in earshot.
Letters, Poem & Editorial
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Maxine Beneba Clarke
Boxtrolls
so hear us out,
we invite that australian guy:
the PM with the big head
who loves god, and hates migrants
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In America, they’re already apologising. A spokesperson for Fox News said comments broadcast by the network were “disgraceful”. Earlier, a guest had called Greta Thunberg a “mentally ill Swedish child who is being exploited by her parents and by the international left”. In Australia, it doesn’t matter. The Murdoch press ridicules Thunberg’s age and mental health. They express anger at her for telling the truth.
Culture
Actress and director Rachel Griffiths
Throughout her illustrious acting career, Rachel Griffiths has often spoken out against injustice. She discusses power and its abuses, her upcoming ABC series, and how Catholicism informs her feature-length directorial debut, Ride Like a Girl. “I think my faith is aesthetically Catholic, not through any allegiance to Rome. I have no faith in the Catholic structure or any structure that doesn’t include women and is designed to entrench power using secrecy and threat.”
Combining sculpture, installation and augmented reality, Simon Denny: Mine is a thought-provoking exhibition that challenges our relationship to technology and the environment.
Rapper and hip-hop artist GoldLink
“What we don’t talk about is first-generation immigrants that come here to America and come to France and then migrate to London. People don’t even understand that struggle in America and then a lot of people may not understand being a second-generation black person and not even understanding that they’re from Ghana. That’s actually a bigger conversation that actually needed to be had that no one was having.”
Life
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Following an energy-sapping hike through sublime Utah scenery, a conversational impasse is broken by talk of Mormons and mass shootings. A strange choice for small talk? As the author discovers, everything comes down to timing.
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Peggy O’Neal’s eye on the Tigers
As the first – and still only – woman to serve as an AFL club president, Peggy O’Neal is keenly aware of her role as a groundbreaker, and of her responsibility to the future of her beloved Richmond FC.
Books
Puzzles
1. What is Boris Johnson’s first given name? (Bonus point for naming the city in which he was born.)
2. According to the saying, sarcasm is the lowest form of what?
3. Is Victoria’s longest river the: (a) Murray; (b) Yarra; or (c) Goulburn?
4. What day of the week does New Year’s Day 2020 fall on?
5. In 1965 the Four Tops sang, “It’s the Same Old …”?
6. True or false: Malawi is landlocked.
7. City of Girls is the latest novel by which author?
8. Which team won this year’s Suncorp Super Netball grand final?
9. Who was leader of the Liberal Party before Malcolm Turnbull assumed the position in 2008?
10. Name the solar system’s four terrestrial planets.
Quotes
PROPORTIONALITY
“Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong couldn’t have put it better themselves. They’d be so proud.”
The Liberal likens The Conversation’s zero tolerance of climate denial to fascism.
TRAVEL
“Adelaide’s a shithole. No disrespect, no disrespect. I can say that because I’ve travelled there multiple times and I didn’t enjoy it. I found it to be incredibly dull and boring.”
The SBS presenter, who was born in Canberra, delivers her blunt assessment of the City of Churches.
FREEDOM
“I am absolutely disgusted that an RSL club – a place whose members fought overseas to defend our right to freedom of speech and religion – would do this.”
The New South Wales Liberal MP vents his outrage that North Ryde RSL cancelled his Conservative Q&A Pro-Life Edition function.
PETS
“I opened a Pandora’s box and released a Frankenstein’s monster.”
The dog breeder, a man as liberal with genetics as he is with metaphors, expresses his regret at creating the labradoodle.
TV
“When I was the first one out, I thought ‘Oh, good’. I was lonely! The octopus wanted to have a chat.”
The TV host expresses her enthusiasm at getting voted off Australia’s newest “talent show”, The Masked Singer.
AMERICA
“The President of Ukraine said that he was NOT pressured by me to do anything wrong. Can’t have better testimony than that!”
The United States president addresses allegations made by a whistleblower that he tried to induce Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic Party 2020 presidential campaigner Joe Biden.
