July 8 – 14, 2023
News
Comment
News
Helen Haines
The NACC is about vigilance
“When former independent member for Indi Cathy McGowan introduced her bill in November 2018 to create a national integrity commission, then prime minister Scott Morrison dismissed it as a ‘fringe issue’. Less than three weeks later, he would unveil his model for what he called the Commonwealth integrity commission.”
Comment
John Hewson
A rudderless Coalition
“Coalition strategists have tended to assume that an ageing population is to their advantage, electorally. It is obviously a factor behind their support for Peter Dutton and his strategy to drag the Coalition to extremely conservative policy settings, as their best chance of winning the next election.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Singer-songwriter ANOHNI
In My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross, her first album with The Johnsons since 2010, the acclaimed singer, visual artist and activist ANOHNI sets her sights on biblical patriarchy.
The Influence
Danny Estrin
From listening to triple j as a Perth teenager to Eurovision stardom, the metal band Type O Negative has always been there for Voyager’s Danny Estrin.
Fiction
New year of the trees
“Even on gentle days, waves thrash up the front beach without ceasing. But the estuary is a flat, bright thread of quicksilver that advances and retreats, traversed by geese overhead and stingrays below.
Bits of your old life resurfacing, as if: Ready yet?
And didn’t you live or dream this already?
For instance, years ago, when you thought you were writing about another town, but it was clearly this one:
the girl with the dog on the beach
the strangers’ weekender filled with gaudy holiday house tack
the ungendered narrator doing a bad job of drying out, recovering from some unspecified wreckage”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Politics
“The prime minister’s obsession with the Voice … [is] why you’re paying more for your mortgage.”
The opposition leader tries to link the Voice to interest rates. To be clear, when Dutton says “cost of living” he is deciding how much he thinks a person’s life is worth.
Voting
“The childless have little stake in the future.”
The billionaire appears to suggest suffrage should be limited to people who have children. When Musk gets his staff pregnant or has triplets he’s really just expressing his love for democracy.
Travel
“It is with deep embarrassment that only after what regrettably happened did I learn of the antiquity of the monument.”
The British fitness instructor apologises to the people of Rome after carving his name and his girlfriend’s into a wall. The building was the Colosseum.
Faith
“The next school excursion going to the Sydney Sea Life aquarium is surely one to miss.”
The former head of the Australian Christian Lobby claims the aquarium has manipulated two of its penguins into a gay relationship. What he needs to understand is that all sea creatures are gay, especially orcas and dugongs.
Celebrity
“He didn’t get cancelled. He’s just a big baby, who isn’t very popular.”
The Home Affairs minister explains that Donald Trump Jr postponed his Australian tour because of poor ticket sales. He says it was because of problems with immigration but he says that about everything.
Race
“Ultimately, I think people will vote in the referendum based on what is fair and useful, not based on fear and hate.”
The member for Curtin responds to an anti-Voice ad that depicts her sitting on her father’s lap while an Indigenous campaigner dances for money. Anyway, the “No” case insists their objections are not about race.
ISRAEL–HAMAS WAR
