February 12 — 18, 2022

Scott Morrison after his statement of acknowledgement of harassment in parliament this week.

News

Image for article: Minister’s citizenship powers go to High Court
Image for article: Tasmania searches for solutions to house vulnerable women
Image for article: The story of a life behind the aged-care statistics
Image for article: Moscow denies Macron’s claim of securing Ukraine pledge

Comment

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

ReadCartoon image, links to full cartoon page

Editorial
Let me be me

The strategy, finally, was that of a school bully: find the most vulnerable child on the playground and make their life worse. This is where the religious freedom bill ended up, sweaty faced and shirt untucked, laying into a kid behind the bike sheds.

Letters

An absence of caring

Rick Morton’s exposé of the inept policy behind “living with Covid” is appallingly unsurprising (“Exclusive: Robo-debt call centres take over Covid hotline”, February 5-11). …

Workplace ‘casuals’

It’s bad enough the Covid hotline is outsourced to the robo-debt company using mostly poorly trained and underresourced workers in difficult working conditions. But these “casuals” …

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Culture

Books

Image for article: Suspended Passion

Marguerite Duras (translated by Chris Turner)
Suspended Passion

Image for article: Cold Enough for Snow

Jessica Au
Cold Enough for Snow

Image for article: Only a Monster

Vanessa Len
Only a Monster

Life

Image for article: Upside-down peach, almond and polenta cake

Food

Upside-down peach, almond and polenta cake

Image for article: How to lose yourself on the Bondi-to-Manly walk

Travel

How to lose yourself on the Bondi-to-Manly walk

After almost two years of life shrinking to a single postcode, Sydney’s Bondi-to-Manly walk feels as though it’s opening up whole new worlds – if only you don’t get lost.

Image for article: Wilderness of the imagination

Life

Wilderness of the imagination

A painting by a forgotten artist, glimpsed in an auction catalogue, opens a world of intensity and connection.

Sport

What have we learnt from the Justin Langer saga?

Justin Langer was a dogged opener over many seasons for the Australian men’s cricket team. But after ascending to the role of head coach, that same gritty determination brought him undone at the hands of an arrogant Cricket Australia.

Image for article: What have we learnt from the Justin Langer saga?

Puzzles

Quotes

Race

“I never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist.”

Joe RoganThe podcast host apologises after a video compilation surfaced of him using racially offensive language. This is the impeccable logic of a man who made his fortune selling powdered masculinity to lonely adults.

Politics

“Now we have Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police spying on members of congress.”     

Marjorie Taylor GreeneThe Georgia lawmaker accuses the United States house speaker of monitoring politicians. Gazpacho or not, Pelosi is always ice cold.

Strategy

“All Anthony would have to do is none of the things that Scott’s done.”

Grace TameThe former Australian of the Year offers her advice to Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Unfortunately, Labor’s strategy is to do everything Scott Morrison does, just a little less.

Faith

“I just want to start by saying that Citipointe church is no longer Brisbane’s best-kept secret.”

Mark RamseyThe senior global pastor of Brisbane’s Citipointe megachurch addresses worshippers. Most people would prefer recognition didn’t come from being associated with a regime of contracts used to bully trans teenagers, but you can’t have everything.

Romance

“If you’re a six and they’re a 10, it might not be your looks that they’ve been charmed by.”

James PatersonThe Liberal senator warns that foreign intelligence agencies might be using dating apps to access classified information. As always, the former Institute of Public Affairs staffer is speaking like a true four.

Messages

“Every family’s got this crazy uncle that wakes up from the rocking chair and sort of in a startled way shouts out something.” 

Peter DuttonThe Home Affairs minister rejects Bob Carr’s assertion that he was behind the text message calling Scott Morrison “a psycho”. Speaking of which, Carr once chose to publish a diary in which he described his own ambition “to have a concave abdomen defined by deep-cut obliques”.

ISRAEL–HAMAS WAR