AusAID bomb victim’s treatment ‘a disgrace’
“It was shameful that it took so long and needed the intervention of a number of people to get David the support that he needed.”
After seven years, David Savage finally received compensation for injuries sustained in Afghanistan. Defence dismissed a video of his attack as not relevant, but used it for training.
News
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Lambie’s secret medevac bargain
“What makes it so deeply problematic – beyond the way it betrays our democracy and the will of the majority of Australians – is that it has been done without anyone knowing what has been traded off here.”
While the government celebrates the medevac repeal, Labor and the Greens push for detail – and documentation – of the pact struck with Senator Jacqui Lambie.
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As the ACCC inquires into the data use of digital platforms, the government is caught in a faceoff between News Corp and the tech giants.
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The reality of Australia’s free public education
“Australia has one of the most inequitable, opaque and dysfunctional education funding regimes in the world. In the past 20 to 30 years, the dominant purpose of education has been the economic purpose.”
Facing funding shortfalls, public schools have turned to fundraising and parental contributions, prompting debate about whether our education system remains free.
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As governments and police increasingly rely on algorithms and automation, legal experts warn these systems could undermine key discrimination protections.
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Gas pipeline between Russia and China opens
Russia–China gas pipeline opens. New Zealand bans foreign political donations. Britain goes to the polls. United Nations climate conference in Spain.
Opinion
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Josh Bornstein
Underpaid workers and wage theft
“The recent mea culpa by Woolworths of a decade-long underpayment of thousands of its employees came as an embarrassment to the workplace regulator, the Fair Work Ombudsman. The record-breaking underpayment of $300 million to some 5700 employees appears to have unfolded right in front of the regulator’s eyes. Then this week a class action was launched alleging the figure could be as high as $620 million.”
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Paul Bongiorno
Playing hide and seek on medevac deal
“Gone in a cloud of bluff and bravado is the compassionate medevac law that gave doctors the major role in transferring sick refugees to Australia for treatment. The senate and the people of Australia were told by the Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie that she had put to the government a proposal ‘to work with me to secure my support’ for the medevac repeal. And then it got very strange.”
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Gadfly
Smoking out a reality check
Citizens of Sydney and nearby parts wake each morning to the smell of their environment going up in smoke. Trees, leaves, animals, fences and homes are ablaze. The sky is a sinister colour, the rivers are empty, the air is dangerous, the oceans are filled with junk, islands are disappearing, the Earth is on its knees and the price of bread has gone up.
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
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The prime minister speaks of taking action. “Practical, meaningful action.” To buoy our economy, protect our land, lower emissions and create new jobs. On Thursday, as parliament hurtled to a close for the year, he took action – moving ruthlessly to push his union-busting bill through the house of representatives once more, undeterred by last week’s shock defeat in the senate.
Culture
Performance artist Tania Bruguera
A pioneer of the arte útil movement – in which art goes beyond aesthetics and is a tool for social change – Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera aims to transform audiences through her politically charged work. “I have been fighting not only for my ideas but also to break this illusion that art to be art has to be useless, has to be apolitical.”
Tommy Murphy’s Packer & Sons at Belvoir examines the inherited and inherent misbehaviour and barbarism of Australia’s best-known media dynasties.
Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines
A world-first double exhibition creates a spirited conversation between the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, and reveals how their art resonates with today’s political climate.
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Maxine Beneba Clarke
Indiscretions
my grandma, she loved diana:
the people’s princess, after all
she’d say
that was no accident;
how convenient for the royals
squinting knowingly into the distance
in her eerie seer’s way
the princess more adored than royalty
and her brown sweetheart,
out of the way
history tells us
british royalty are accountable
to none
Life
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While reviving her garden after its recent woes, the author is reminded of a handy way to deal with summer weeds – using a trick she learnt from her mother.
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The WNBL turned 40 this season and stands as Australia’s oldest semi-professional female sporting competition. But with women’s AFL, rugby league and cricket surging, is it losing ground?
Books
Puzzles
1. Name the Australian science broadcaster who last month was awarded the prestigious Kalinga Prize by the United Nations cultural body UNESCO.
2. Which singer-songwriter was born Paul David Hewson?
3. In 1868, the All England Croquet Club was established in which London suburb?
4. I is the chemical symbol for what element?
5. Name the Sydney-born actress who plays Beth March in the upcoming remake of Little Women? (Bonus point for naming the film’s director.)
6. Who is the chief executive of Hong Kong?
7. Where in the human body are the innominate bones?
8. Prince Andrew is also known as the Duke of …?
9. Giffnock, Hillhead and Shawlands are suburbs of which British city?
10. In the fairytale Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother transforms what into horses to pull Cinderella’s carriage?
Quotes
ACCURACY
“Dark Emu Exposed Team vs Adam Morton.”
The News Corp columnist publishes his rebuttal to The Saturday Paper’s fact-check of his reporting on Bruce Pascoe, written by senior reporter Rick Morton.
MEMORIES
“Angus Taylor recalls me in a fever dream at Oxford in 1991 among those warring on Xmas … I love Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa.”
The author disputes a claim made by the embattled Energy minister that they were at university together. Historical accuracy, it seems, is something they both struggle with.
RITUAL
“We’ve got to start enjoying and living in Western culture.”
The Young Liberal volunteer says Australia needs to stop “celebrating a culture that couldn’t invent the wheel” during an interview filmed at Schoolies, which is, of course, Western culture’s proudest and most sacred invention.
FAIR WORK
“Folau settlement numbers are confidential but numbers being speculated are wildly inaccurate.”
The Rugby Australia chief executive disputes reports Israel Folau was given an $8 million payout in his unfair dismissal case. Well, here’s hoping it is a wild overestimate.
CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
“It is entirely up to the US what Christmas gift it will select to get.”
The North Korean official hints the nuclear power may restart long-distance missile tests in late December after talks with Washington stalled. America has suggested “no gifts this year”.
MEDEVAC
“Like Senator Lambie, like everybody, I don’t want people, the prime minister does not want any of these people, on Manus or Nauru.”
The Home Affairs minister says the government has worked day and night to get people out of offshore detention, except for temporarily transferring them to Australia for desperately needed medical treatment.
