February 18 – 24, 2023
News
Comment
Comment
Hugh White
The most profound shift in defence in two centuries
“The ultimate reason for that is the big brutal fact that the DSR almost certainly evades: we will face the dangers of the decades ahead alone. The Albanese government doesn’t understand this any better than the Morrison government did. Richard Marles often talks about ‘self-reliance’, but he doesn’t mean it.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Apologies on the way to Tudge byelection
“Dutton has decided to leave any final decision on the Voice referendum until after the Aston byelection. His carefully crafted apology does enough to leave the impression he is more sympathetic to the referendum than his naysaying would suggest, without locking him in to supporting it.”
Comment
John Hewson
On the road to corporate responsibility
“The issues of sustainability and the environmental and social impacts of their activities are certainly now on the agendas of most businesses, and corporate boards are having to lift their game to recognise these longer-term responsibilities.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Singer-songwriter Martha Marlow
A lifetime of chronic pain has shown celebrated singer-songwriter Martha Marlow the real meaning of beauty.
The Influence
Lally Katz
For playwright Lally Katz, David Lynch’s excavation of the strangeness of ordinary suburbia pointed the way to her own uncanny work.
Fiction
A burial
“I try to remember her like that, coming home from the train tracks, full of love, of that orchid blue, but she always ends up in the hole. Her boss, those cops, telling this drunk woman that she didn’t work for the council anymore and she needed to move on, to hand in her uniform, her knowing she had nowhere to go, pulling soil over herself, saying, No. Don’t take this away. Bury me.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Politics
“I failed to grasp the significance.”
The opposition leader acknowledges he was wrong to boycott the apology to the Stolen Generations. At the time he thought it was only about stealing Indigenous children.
Elections
“No one is perfect. I’ve made a number of mistakes in life.”
The NSW premier responds to news Liberal MLC Peter Poulos circulated nude photos of a colleague. Poulos’s punishment will be to run as an endorsed candidate at the upcoming state election.
Medicine
“What the fuck are you crying about?”
The brain surgeon allegedly confronts a patient, according to evidence at the Health Care Complaints Commission. We’re not doctors, but probably she was crying about her prognosis.
Faith
“The allegations in the complaint are absurd, ridiculous, scurrilous and blatantly false.”
The Church of Scientology spokeswoman responds to a human-trafficking case brought against church leader David Miscavige. Remember: she is calling this absurd in the context of having also read the works of L. Ron Hubbard.
Courts
“I have finally been acquitted after more than 11 years of suffering, of mudslinging and incalculable political damage.”
The former Italian prime minister is acquitted of witness tampering in one of several ‘bunga bunga’ court cases. To be clear, the mudslinging was in an inflatable pool and he kind of liked it.
Conspiracy
“Our assessment has concluded that Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train acted as an autonomous cell and executed a religiously motivated terrorist attack.”
The Queensland deputy police commissioner announces the findings of inquiries into last year’s mass shooting. The Trains killed two police officers and a neighbour.
ISRAEL–HAMAS WAR
