News

Exclusive: New govt report targets ABC

“Two days before the ABC confirmed that up to 250 jobs will be cut across the organisation, the government finalised a $200,000 offer for consultants to prepare a report on news and media business models looking specifically at the impact of public broadcasters ‘on commercial operators’.”

Rick Morton As the ABC announces massive job cuts, the Morrison government has commissioned a report that mirrors Murdoch concerns about the broadcaster.

News

News

Uni fee hike will fail: HECS architect

“Course costs make almost no difference when students are deciding what to study, Chapman says … The empirical evidence from past changes to the absolute and relative costs of degrees, in Australia and elsewhere, bear him out.”

Mike Seccombe Leading economist Bruce Chapman says the government’s plan to raise fees for certain courses won’t drive students into more ‘job-relevant’ degrees.

News

Home Affairs extends reach in tackling foreign interference

Karen Middleton Amid increasing concerns about foreign interference, particularly through online disinformation, the Home Affairs Department’s role in security matters is growing significantly.

News

Victoria’s spike in Covid-19 cases

“When you get an infection like this down to very low levels of transmission, the impact of chance becomes very significant. We have very low levels and an almost completely susceptible population and so a single security guard becoming infected and then not social distancing is suboptimal.”

Gina Rushton While experts acknowledge that bad luck has played a role in the spread of Covid-19 in Victoria, they also point to the state government’s management and communication failures.

News

How divisions at The Age cost its editor his job

Rick Morton Last week’s shock departure of the editor of The Age was sparked by discontent among staff over editorial direction and leadership. But it seems the warning shots claimed an unintended victim.

World

Wong aims for seat in HK legislature

Jonathan Pearlman Young pro-democracy activist to run for seat in September poll. Himalayan border tensions on hold between China and India. Kiribati president re-elected. Former national security adviser John Bolton spills on Donald Trump in new book.

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News

The jailing of Kylie Moore-Gilbert in Iran

Jonathan Pearlman Some supporters of Melbourne academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Iran, are concerned about the Australian government’s diplomatic tactics to secure her release.

Opinion

Opinion

Bri Lee
Sexual harassment in the legal profession

“When news broke this week that an independent inquiry at the High Court of Australia found former justice Dyson Heydon had sexually harassed six associates during his decade on the bench, my non-law friends and colleagues were incredulous. To them, the allegations of a judge repeatedly breaking the law read as hypocritical. Within legal circles though, friends and colleagues are exchanging theories about who will be exposed next. And we are all wondering whether anything will change this time.”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
Injustices at the High Court

“The shorthand title was the trade union royal commission – and the highest-profile targets were a former Labor prime minister, Julia Gillard, and the then Labor leader, Bill Shorten. And everybody knew it. Undaunted by the howls of foul play from the opposition and the criticism of commentators, then Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott had high praise for the man he hand-picked for the job six years ago, former High Court judge Dyson Heydon.”

Diary

Gadfly
Dicey business

Richard Ackland It’s as though the entire conservative cause in our weird nation has been deracinated. The allegations against Dyson Heydon leave much havoc in their wake. His political sponsors, Little Winston Howard and the Mad Monk, look gormless, while he has blotted the escutcheons of luminous institutions from the High Court to the University of Sydney, where he is an emeritus professor.

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

Read

Editorial
Fighting words

“This is a genuine offer,” Anthony Albanese said of his plea to Scott Morrison to join him in ending Australia’s energy wars once and for all. But it’s hard to call it a truce when one side concedes nothing. There’s another word for that kind of deal.

Letters

Where is the federal ICAC?

Paul Bongiorno’s review of Labor’s branch-stacking woes in Victoria (“I don’t know him from Adem”, June 20-26) is helpful but somewhat two-dimensional. He asks “Who …

Water lacking for basin’s future

As a landholder in the upper Murray–Darling Basin, I can only say that our underlying problem is simple: there is no water (Karen Middleton, “Basin straits”, June 20-26). …

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Culture

Theatre

Belvoir artistic director Eamon Flack

Steve Dow The coronavirus crisis has left many in the arts struggling. But Belvoir artistic director Eamon Flack is determined to use the shutdown as a catalyst for positive change and to push ahead with bringing new Australian works to the stage. “Really early on in this – when we didn’t know how bad it was going to get – we decided that this was going to be a good time to rethink a whole lot of things. We wanted to come out of this crisis, however long it went on for, having fixed some things, and having made some deep, permanent changes.”

Film

Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven

Christos Tsiolkas In his latest film, It Must Be Heaven, Elia Suleiman continues to explore the absurdity and tragedy of being Palestinian, and weaves in a moving contemplation of the ageing body.

Books

Elizabeth Tan
Smart Ovens for Lonely People

Tom Doig
Hazelwood

Richard Cooke
On Robyn Davidson

Life

Food

Beef ktzitzot with pickled turnip

David Moyle

Health

Prescribing antidepressants

Jo Hartley GPs are today better educated about mental health management but many Australians are being put on antidepressants and don’t know how to get off them.

Puzzles

The Cryptic

Crossword No. 307

The Quiz

1. In which general direction does the Nile flow?
2. What is the first fruit to appear in a game of Pac-Man?
3. What is the name of the mythical castled city where King Arthur held court?
4. Name the Victorian Local Government minister who was sacked by the Andrews government earlier this month.
5. What is Britain’s busiest railway station?
6. What is the last letter in the Greek alphabet? (Bonus point for naming how many letters are in the Greek alphabet.)
7. Which word meaning in reality or truth is an anagram of a word that describes having asserted something to be not true?
8. Which football team has won the most UEFA Champions League (European Cup) titles?
9. The Gulfstream G700 is a type of what?
10. Which Academy Award-winning actress was born Vivian Mary Hartley?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

MEMORIES

“I’ve never heard it…”

Eddie McGuireThe Collingwood president responds to former Magpies player Héritier Lumumba’s claim his teammates called him a “chimp”. Lumumba left Collingwood in 2014, a year after McGuire likened footballer Adam Goodes to “King Kong” live on radio.

PHILANTHROPY

“Firstly, I would like to thank you guys, especially you, Prime Minister, for listening … that was evident the other day when we jumped on that Zoom call.”

Guy Sebastian

The 2003 Australian Idol winner appears alongside Scott Morrison at the announcement of the government’s $250 million arts support package, proving once and for all that Shannon Noll was robbed.

SELF-AWARENESS

“Life’s too short to be wading through mind-numbing pages of ill-informed, tendentious bilge.”

Judith Sloan

The Australian’s contributing economics editor launches into her argument against the Covid-19 lockdowns, which could double as an argument against her column.

TINY DANCER

“Getting this CD to Kim remained a high priority for several months.”

John BoltonThe former United States national security adviser details Donald Trump’s efforts to get a copy of Elton John’s song “Rocket Man” to Kim Jong-un and the US president’s failed attempts to forge a friendship with the English singer-songwriter.

STAKEHOLDERS

“No.”

A PM&C spokespersonThe Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet offers a frank response to a question about whether the Office for Women was aware of, or consulted about, a $150 million program to improve female participation in community sports.

DIPLOMACY

“I call on all organisations not to interact with citizens from Melbourne at this stage.”

Gladys BerejiklianThe New South Wales premier dramatically escalates Australia’s long-running interstate feud, by encouraging Sydneysiders to continue ignoring people from Melbourne, as they have been doing for years.