News

Australian billionaires doubled their wealth during Covid-19

“The government has defended the right of companies to keep excess JobKeeper money, in stark contrast with its vigorous pursuit of welfare recipients for relatively tiny alleged debts due to overpayment. ”

Mike Seccombe

While the pandemic raged, the country’s richest people became vastly richer – due to booming commodity prices, policy failures and sheer luck.

News

News

Higgins police inquiry may extend to parliamentary ‘cover-up’

Karen Middleton As further reports of abusive sexual behaviour emerge from parliament, the AFP may be investigating the aftermath of Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape.

News

Asylum seekers and Medicare access

Rick Morton Asylum seekers are being denied access to Covid-19 tests, Medicare and even schooling because of both deliberate and unintentional flaws in the visa system.

News

Dhadjowa Foundation to help Aboriginal families

Madeline Hayman-Reber Four years after her mother’s death, Apryl Day has established the Dhadjowa Foundation to support families like hers whose loved ones have died – and continue to die – in police custody.

News

The mouse plague in NSW

Justine Landis-Hanley Millions of mice are wreaking havoc across rural NSW. Will the more recent disaster of floods help curb their onslaught, or will the devastation be experienced south in Victoria?

World

EU virus surge sparks fight over vaccine exports to Britain

Jonathan Pearlman Bans placed on China over treatment of Uygurs. Turkey withdraws from international treaty protecting women.

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Opinion

Opinion

Tristen Harwood
Dark Mofo and Union Flag

“I felt elation and deflation in equal parts when a friend messaged me that the Dark Mofo festival in Tasmania had cancelled the controversial performance Union Flag by artist Santiago Sierra. Like so many other First Nations peoples exposed to Dark Mofo’s promotional material, I’d been vexed, stressed and upset by the advertisement announcing: ‘WE WANT YOUR BLOOD’.”

Opinion

Paul Bongiorno
Government’s bailout scuppered

“The Morrison government resembles a sinking ship in one of those pirate movies where practically everything, including the cannons, is thrown overboard in an attempt to stay afloat. And there has been a good deal of ballast unloaded in this sitting fortnight of parliament.”

Diary

Gadfly
Bloody dull Mofo

Sami Shah It’s hard for art world provocateurs these days, especially with all the competition from Canberra. Parliament is so shocking that the populace is evolving to be more shockproof than an old Nokia 3310. So, artists must think of more creative ways in which they can truly disturb our sensibilities.

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

Read

Editorial
Taking the lead

It is difficult to keep ahead of federal parliament’s cascade of scandals. Even for the prime minister, who has been dragged into this fray he so desperately wanted to keep at arm’s length. He is visibly flustered; perhaps he truly did not realise the rot went so deep. But ignorance is not an excuse, not for a leader of a country.

Letters

Women’s fight for equality

Thank you for such intelligent and insightful articles by Karen Middleton (“Training wheels”, March 20-26) and Bri Lee (“Between here and justice”), Jane Caro (“Time marches …

PM not the man for the job

In March 2019, Scott Morrison said he did not “want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse”. Others, presumably, being men. With such an attitude on record, can we seriously …

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Culture

Profile

Performance artist Rakini Devi

Fiona Kelly McGregor Performance artist Rakini Devi’s first solo exhibition brings her classical dance training to a multilayered investigation of how women are erased by misogyny and violence.

Theatre

One Man in His Time

Cassie Tongue

John Bell’s solo show One Man in His Time reveals his mastery of Shakespeare’s language – and the limitations of the classic English writer’s claims to universality.

Music

Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails over the Country Club

Shaad D’Souza Lana Del Rey’s sixth album, Chemtrails over the Country Club, is an exquisitely rendered journey through a dark night of the soul.

In Progress

Ben Salter

Kate Holden Musician Ben Salter is ensconced in a studio at MONA, making music in front of the museum’s patrons as a kind of performance art.

Poetry

anneal this breath

“mine and refine this float of molten
landscape              raw silica-sand and
limestone sites          sliced and stirred
and hot-shop forged               we
witness excavations of targets and
melts       a redaction of origins      of
lives  of lands                    
         see what a breath can do


flux and bubble           rise to fever-
point and sweat             hot flesh on
flesh      so carefully laid           rested
and hung                        body-broken
to sway          see their shadows cast
low in the sun      just what they
wanted            what a breath        what
breath              
         see what her sorrow can do”

Natalie Harkin

Books

Lech Blaine
Car Crash: A Memoir

Emily Maguire
Love Objects

Life

Food

Saddle of lamb

Annie Smithers

Health

Educate then vaccinate

Melanie Cheng A massive global investment produced a Covid-19 vaccine in record time. Now, a similar effort is required to provide evidence-based information to assist vaccine uptake.

Sport

Oceana Mackenzie’s ascent

Linda Pearce The addition of sport climbing to the Tokyo Olympics line-up sees Melbourne teen Oceana Mackenzie on an upward trajectory in international competition.

Puzzles

The Cryptic

Crossword No. 342

The Quiz

1. Australian Laura Peel this month became a two-time world champion in which sport?
2. What is the name of the pilgrimage to Mecca that is one of the Five Pillars of Islam?
3. Do perpendicular lines intersect?
4. Which book by journalist and author Jess Hill won the 2020 Stella Prize?
5. What type of rocks form when molten rock (magma or lava) cools and solidifies: igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic?
6. Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen founded which Australian fintech company in 2015?
7. TV documentary pioneer and filmmaker Michael Apted, who died in January, is known for which long running television documentary series? (Bonus point for naming the 1988 film, starring Sigourney Weaver, Apted directed.)
8. In which artistic field is Australian Bruce Dawe renowned?
9. What is 11 cubed?
10. Who this month won a 28th Grammy, more than any other singer in the 63-year history of the awards?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

Empathy

“This is the difficult part of this. You understand it in a way only you could ... I have a very different experience.”

Scott Morrison

The prime minister fields a question from A Current Affair’s Tracy Grimshaw about why he didn’t understand what women experience before the Brittany Higgins case. He also set the record straight for women who thought the difficult part of this was being sexually harassed and abused.

Recollection

“That bloke, I demanded to be sacked years earlier for disloyalty, for lying, for leaking against his boss.”

Peta CredlinThe Sky News presenter says during her time in politics she sacked the staffer who this week was revealed to have masturbated on a female MP’s desk. Fellow Liberal Warren Entsch says he had fired the staffer, for leaking to Credlin.

Awareness

“The senate’s listened, the house of representatives has listened, and now it’s up to the prime minister to show he’s listened, too.”

Jacqui LambieThe Tasmanian senator calls on Scott Morrison to announce a royal commission into veteran suicide. Unfortunately, no one in the PM’s office has told him about the unanimous vote in both houses of parliament.

Covid-19

“Today I’m pleased to announce the New South Wales government will be easing restrictions. You will be able to dance and sing in any environment.”

Gladys Berejiklian The NSW premier announces the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions. No word yet on whether NSW residents are now allowed to resume secret affairs with backbenchers facing corruption allegations.

Platform

“If I’m prime minister, I will ban fruit being put into beer.”

Anthony AlbaneseThe alternative prime minister offers his first policy idea since stepping into the Labor leadership. Please, no one ask if he’s got any ideas for improving the treatment of women in politics.

Doppelgangers

“Sorry – Norman Gunston is not the PM’s chief of staff. It’s Philip Gaetjens! Easy mistake to make.”

Phillip AdamsThe broadcaster turns to comedy as our nation’s politics turns into a farce. Although anyone who has watched Gaetjens in senate estimates would much prefer talking to Gunston.