News

Exclusive: Doctors ignore terminal cancer

“If I hadn’t taken action and if I hadn’t seen a doctor then, you know, then where I am is just where I am. But because I did do those things, I am probably going to be upset about it when I am laying in the hospital bed at the end.”

Rick Morton A scan might have found the cancer now killing Daniel van Roo. Instead his doctor gave him 50 STI tests, which van Roo believes was because he is gay.

News

News

Five days inside the Melbourne nine block lockdowns

Santilla Chingaipe Residents in the public housing towers had no warning they would face some of the world’s toughest restrictions, as the state undertook a Covid-19 testing blitz.

News

The impact of Victoria’s second wave

Karen Middleton As Treasurer Josh Frydenberg prepares to unveil a mini-budget on July 23, the Covid-19 outbreak in Victoria has put the country’s economic recovery in jeopardy.

News

Public schools still missing out on funding

“If government funding for public schools had increased by a meagre $306 for each student, Catholic schools had seen their funding grow by $1620, while independent schools recorded an average increase of $1603.”

Royce Kurmelovs New analysis shows funding for Catholic and independent schools grew more than five times that of public schools in the past decade.

News

The case of Yang Hengjun

Linda Jaivin Amid rising tensions between Beijing and Canberra, the fate of Australian academic and writer Yang Hengjun, imprisoned in China on espionage charges, hangs in the balance.

World

Covid-19 cases in US exceed three million

Jonathan Pearlman Trump congratulates US on ‘good job’ on pandemic. New Zealand limits numbers of returning Kiwis. Law professor and China critic Xu Zhangrun arrested in Beijing. Ethnic tensions rise in Ethiopia after singer’s murder.

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Opinion

Opinion

Ed Husic
Ben Chifley’s legacy

“While taking my young son on yet another visit to Canberra’s Questacon last year, I decided to walk him past a pair of statues of John Curtin and Ben Chifley. Watching the winter sun warm Chifley’s bronze face, I wondered, momentarily, what my son would have thought of me representing the seat named after Joseph Benedict Chifley. After all, I am the son of migrants from the former Yugoslavia, the same migrants who had been fair game politically in the late 1920s when Chifley first entered politics.”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
Labor scrapes through in Eden-Monaro

“Four days after the voters of Eden-Monaro kept the marginal seat in opposition hands, the Reserve Bank governor summed up the nation’s predicament: we are all flying by the seat of our pants. Scott Morrison, too, put it succinctly: ‘This is a global pandemic. There are no guarantees in a global pandemic. You have to deal with the situations that are in front of you.’ It is how you deal with these situations, or rather how lucky you are in dealing with them, that can mark a leader up or down.”

Diary

Gadfly
Just squawk away, Renee

Richard Ackland The Australian Federal Police has sent to the prosecutors its brief of evidence about the ABC’s reporting on the Afghan Files, the big story about alleged killings of unarmed civilians by Australian soldiers. It looks as though reporter Dan Oakes could be in the frame for bringing us the news, but not so his colleague Sam Clark. Anyway, it was the first big AFP announcement, following its raid on the ABC’s HQ, since former Bowen Hills Bugle political reporter Renee Viellaris took over as the federal plod’s director of strategic communications.

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

Read

Editorial
A second chance

Re-entering lockdown, Victoria has an opportunity to correct the errors and overreach that marked its first failed attempt to contain Covid-19. The state was unlucky, no doubt, but its leaders were also unwilling to countenance any criticism. There was little patience for communities confused by mixed messaging, or the concerns of those who saw a law-and-order response when they hoped for one led by public health. Vital information was not shared in languages other than English until far too late, while Victoria Police issued fines in far higher numbers than any other state. It is not hard to imagine there was a relationship between the two.

Letters

Sydney council to consult on statues

For many people in our city and across Australia, James Cook symbolises the lie of terra nullius, and the onset of violence against First Nations peoples, and centuries of dispossession (Open letter, …

Hiding history doesn’t help

There is something really disturbing about the idea that historical statues should be removed from public view because they upset people. Why does this “community of experts” assume …

Read More

Culture

Fiction

Winner winner (Part one)

“The Emerald Queen was just beginning its second loop of the Tasman Peninsula when Phil, Ellen, John and Karen were seated for their standing 7 o’clock dinner reservation in the smaller of the two grand dining rooms. ‘Isn’t it so much nicer in this one?’ Ellen asked, leaning back a few degrees as a linen serviette was placed across her lap. She looked to Karen. ‘And I’m sure it’s easier for John to hear us all talking in here, without that music they keep so loud near the buffet upstairs.’ ‘Oh, John can hear fine,’ Phil cut in, dismissing his wife’s jab. She was switched on, but sometimes a bit harsh. ‘The doctor said that now, with his implant, he can hear better than most 50-year-olds,’ Karen replied, firmly but smiling. They picked up their menus and read as though it wasn’t the same laminated list they had been scanning every night for almost three weeks.”

Bri Lee

Books

Jonathan Green (ed.)
Meanjin, Winter 2020

Imbi Neeme
The Spill

Winnie Dunn (ed.)
Sweatshop Women: Volume Two

Life

Food

Whole roasted cabbage with smoked pipis and garlic cream

David Moyle

Health

Diagnosing cancer

Sophia Auld Screening can lead to early detection of cancers and save lives, but sometimes innocuous abnormalities are picked up. The potential for harm in treating these ‘indolent’ cancers needs to be balanced against the benefits of diagnosis.

Puzzles

The Cryptic

Crossword No. 309

The Quiz

1. Which of the Tiwi Islands has the highest population: Bathurst or Melville?
2. Currants, raisins and sultanas are all a dried form of which fruit?
3. What nationality is tennis player Grigor Dimitrov?
4. The ampersand appears above what number on a standard keyboard?
5. Who writes the fictional adventure series Wolf Girl?
6. What are the first names of British economist Baron Keynes?
7. How many black keys are on a standard piano: (a) 36; (b) 40; or (c) 44?
8. Name Australia’s minister for Communications and the Arts.
9. Militants attacked the Pakistan Stock Exchange in which city late last month? (Bonus point for naming the capital of Pakistan.)
10. What is the mean of these numbers: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

JUSTICE

“Hasn’t anyone told you about bathrooms?”

Roger ClisdellThe ACT magistrate scolds two men who snorted cocaine in front of police officers outside a Canberra pub. Proof that life is getting back to normal in the ACT after lockdown: the charges against the pair, friends from their time at an exclusive private school, were dismissed.

DEBTS

“Our experience indicates that won’t be the case but Australians will take time and update their details progressively.”

Stuart RobertThe minister responsible for the robo-debt scheme, well known for its tact and patience, suggests Australians owed money by the government will be relaxed about getting it back.

MUSIC

“We had heartfelt discussions with her about how we can all come together and make something special and beautiful out of this moment.”

Lady AThe band that changed its name from Lady Antebellum after “reflecting on the Black Lives Matter movement” files a lawsuit against Anita White, a Black artist already performing as Lady A.

ENERGY

“I know what Tesla was getting at. What he didn’t have in his era, though, was the capability of putting a huge copper ring around the world.”

Paul HoganThe Australian actor suggests harnessing the energy of the Earth’s rotation using copper wire and satellite stations to provide unlimited free energy. Ending our reliance on fossil fuels, making Americans watch Australian films – is there anything he can’t do?

MEDIA

“A report on Ghislaine Maxwell during FOX News Channel’s America’s News HQ mistakenly eliminated President Donald Trump from a photo alongside then Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell.”

Fox News statementThe right-wing media giant apologises for accidentally editing Trump out of a photo. But no apology for keeping Melania in it.

COVID-19

“Our state has to be on high alert.”

Gladys BerejiklianThe New South Wales premier urges residents to exercise caution as coronavirus cases spike in Victoria. This includes the planeload of Jetstar passengers from Melbourne allowed to disembark at Sydney Airport on Tuesday without any health checks.