News

Between here and justice

“Imagine if you really had power. Imagine, for a moment, all the positive differences you could make if you were attorney-general, or a judge on the High Court, or a professor. Then imagine abusing that position to put your hand on the thigh of the young woman who’s afraid upsetting you will torpedo her career.”

Bri Lee More than 100,000 people joined March 4 Justice rallies around the country. The rage was palpable, as was the desire for reform. Can this energy translate into change?

News

News

Christian Porter v the ABC

Richard Ackland ANALYSIS: Christian Porter’s defamation case against the ABC and Louise Milligan has put a spotlight on Australia’s legal system and our lack of a public interest defence for journalism.

News

Harassment and federal parliament

“Both the government and opposition are scrambling to demonstrate their credentials following Monday’s mass March 4 Justice rallies across Australia.”

Karen Middleton Politicians and their staff still have no mandatory bullying or harassment training, despite a 2012 legal undertaking made in the settlement of James Ashby’s sexual harassment claim.

News

Women’s March 4 Justice

Jane Caro Monday’s March 4 Justice against the sexual abuse and harassment of women sent a powerful message. But for many long-term activists there is also a feeling of disbelief and despair that the same battles are still being fought.

News

Agriculture and species extinction

Mike Seccombe Little is known about the extent of species extinction among insects, but research shows that Australia’s farming practices, land clearing and susceptibility to climate change are making the problem worse.

News

The NDIS and government controls

Rick Morton A win for the government in its push to deny people on the National Disability Insurance Scheme access to sex worker supports may hand the Commonwealth even greater power to control the scheme.

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World

PNG on the brink of Covid-19 catastrophe

Jonathan Pearlman

Australia will urgently deliver 8000 doses of vaccine. PNG to enter a four-week national isolation from Monday. Flights from Port Moresby to Cairns have been suspended.

Opinion

Opinion

Osman Faruqi
A deadly silence on Christchurch

“We are now two years on from the massacre of 51 Muslims in Christchurch, a terrorist attack perpetrated by an Australian man. And once again the responsibility has fallen on members of the community who were targeted to remind Australia that this horrific incident occurred and is still to be reckoned with.”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
Morrison’s problem with women

“All of a sudden, the Morrison government is looking very vulnerable. And the prime minister knows it. Like all governments staggering towards the political abyss, it is not only events beyond their control at play but also, more importantly, their misreading of what needs to be done.”

Diary

Gadfly
Sweating bullets as women march on

Sami Shah Thousands upon thousands of women marched across the nation, holding aloft placards and signs demanding change, demanding justice, demanding an end to the chronic lack of safety endemic in their lives. They asked that the government, with all its power and authority, create that change, implement that justice, forge a safer world for them. The government’s response was, at best, indifferent, and at its worst, malicious.

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

Read

Editorial
Cormann evolution

The moment that has really followed Mathias Cormann into his role as secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development happened while he was still in opposition. It was 2011 and he was trying to frame the calamity of climate change as a cost-of-living issue.

Letters

The source of power

As a graduate of the Elizabeth Boys Technical High School in the 1960s, I can fully appreciate both the gender issues and the economic disadvantages of not attending an elite private school. That said, Mike Seccombe’s …

Stark political reality

As intensely partisan and hierarchical political institutions that typically pursue electoral success above all else, it isn’t surprising that some political parties, particularly the more authoritarian, …

Read More

Culture

Profile

American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Ben Neutze Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins – whose play Appropriate has just opened at the STC – takes the tropes of white playwriting and turns them into Black comedy.

Theatre

Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes

Alison Croggon MTC’s Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes may look familiar on the surface, but this intelligent play contains a devastating portrayal of erasure.

Visual Art

Clarice Beckett: The present moment

Tony Magnusson The biggest retrospective yet of Australian Modernist Clarice Beckett reveals an artist of elusive subtlety.

In Progress

Patricia Cornelius

Maddee Clark Multi-award-winning playwright Patricia Cornelius is working on an adaptation of her novel about the fallout of the Vietnam War, My Sister Jill – when she’s not gardening.

Fiction

Two stories

“She was a bad dog. She couldn’t be told. She ate nothing but touched everything with her mouth, her snout – chewing, sniffing, licking, breathing. She had no respect for objects of value or concepts of hygiene or punctuality or personal space. She stole handkerchiefs. She tore up shoes. She put her paws on the kitchen counter and her nose in the coffee cups and water glasses and left a smear with her tongue on the rim. She slipped between our legs as we moved from one part of the house to another, leaving clumps of brittle white fur in the most unlikely of rooms. She disrupted our daydreams and quiet acts of domestic reverie by barking and whining and sitting unnaturally still on the floor beside us with eyes that said I want I want I want. She didn’t belong in our world of narrow-mindedness and decorum, of carpet and sliding doors. ”

Oliver Mestitz

Books

Isabel Allende
The Soul of a Woman

Rick Morton
My Year of Living Vulnerably

Irma Gold
The Breaking

Life

Food

Crayfish noodles

David Moyle

Life

Into the breach

Alison Croggon A foundering relationship between the author and her sister prompts a painful reflection on upbringing, British colonialism and the patriarchy, and examines how their entrenched structures can become the ties that divide.

Sport

Soccer coach Arthur Papas

Engel Schmidl Melbourne-born soccer coach Arthur Papas has plied his trade in the far corners of the globe. Will his current stint in Japan set him up for a prominent future on the world stage?

Puzzles

The Cryptic

Crossword No. 341

The Quiz

1. Eurovision 2021 is scheduled to be held in which Dutch city in May?
2. Who were the men’s and women’s Australian Open singles runners-up?
3. Is Kansas in the east, west or centre of the United States? (Bonus point for naming Kansas’s capital.)
4. What beginning with ‘s’ is the name for the cartilage wall that separates the nostrils of the nose?
5. American author Emily Post is most famous for writing about what?
6. The study of fungi is called: (a) mycology; (b) dendrology; or (c) phycology?
7. Which actress links the characters Ryan Stone, Margaret Tate and Gracie Hart?
8. What does the abbreviation GDP stand for?
9. “Nessun dorma” is an aria from which Puccini opera?
10. Which Looney Tunes character has reportedly been written out of LeBron James’ upcoming Space Jam sequel?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

Technology

“It might be the worst idea I have all year.”

Mick Fuller

The New South Wales police commissioner walks back his brainwave for an app that would allow sexual partners to sign “digital contracts” giving consent for intercourse. Luckily, with an annual salary of $649,500, Fuller probably doesn’t need to go on Shark Tank.

Grammar

“Stop demonising men.”

Pauline HansonThe One Nation senator offers her criticism of women generally, while lashing out at Brittany Higgins personally for waiting two years to report her alleged assault. Not to be pedantic, but the One Nation leader did forget the comma after “demonising”.

Elections

“We did the heavy lifting.”

Michaelia CashThe acting attorney-general credits the federal Coalition for Labor’s landslide win in the Western Australian state election. And yet, as hard as they tried, the Morrison government just wasn’t able to lift the state’s hugely popular border closure.

Opportunity

“The fact you’ve been invited is really, really exciting. Grasp the nettle and take the opportunity.”

Jane HumeThe Liberal MP implores March 4 Justice organiser Janine Hendry to meet with the prime minister. “Grasp the nettle” is probably an overly glowing way to describe meeting with Scott Morrison.

Honour

“I am proud of this government for the way in which we have kicked these people out of our country.”

Peter DuttonThe Home Affairs minister says Australia is ramping up the deportation of non-citizens accused of crimes. For the crime of repeatedly violating the human rights of refugees, Dutton has been given more power than almost any minister in history.

Solidarity

“I look forward to similar support from Ms Flint the next time I am subject to abuse for being Asian, gay or a woman.”

Penny WongThe Labor senator rebukes Liberal Nicolle Flint, who said Wong hadn’t condemned a strange man who stalked her during the 2019 election. A sure thing, no doubt.