November 11 – 17, 2023
News
Comment
Comment
Jennifer Rayner
Put climate at the heart of environment law
“Our national environment law does not deal with greenhouse gas emissions or the dangerous global warming they produce. To be blunt: the law that is meant to protect our environment offers no protection whatsoever against the biggest threat it faces now. ”
Comment
Chris Wallace
Albanese’s China dream and poll reality
“Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong got the fruits for Australia from 18 months of serious, grown-up diplomatic work together on the critically important Australia–China relationship. This is a credit to Albanese and Wong personally and a reassuring reflection on the capabilities of DFAT.”
Comment
John Hewson
Australia’s IMF report card: Needs work
“I still get social media pile-ons over my failure, in the lead-up to the 1993 election, to explain the likely price effects of the then proposed GST on a birthday cake … I fell into the ‘No’ case strategy – ‘If you don’t understand it, don’t vote for it.’ ”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Singer Margret RoadKnight
For more than 60 years, Margret RoadKnight has been interpreting songs in the folk, blues and jazz traditions. Her new album, LONG TIME…, is her latest attempt to preserve songs from extinction.
The Influence
Jessie French on Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison
The work of groundbreaking eco artists Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison has informed Jessie French’s exploration of a world without petrochemicals.
Fiction
Altar
“Outside is a collapsing quarter of shuttered banks, checkpoints, brothels, beaches, ruins, sites of worship. Inside was once a sanatorium to treat respiratory and skin conditions by the sea. The building is now a camp, a ward, a shelter, a pill press, a meth lab, a rehab. This place is now nameless because it is already gone.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Acting
“So I said, ‘Oh, finally they’re getting me in a James Bond movie.’ ”
The actor explains that he signed on to the reality television show 007: Road to a Million believing it was a Bond film. Wait until he finds out Succession was not about Quebec’s push for independence.
Communications
“That would indicate potentially a deep network problem and one that is significant.”
The minister for communications explains the Optus blackout. It’s rare for the blatantly obvious and grossly understated to exist so comfortably together in the one sentence, but there it is.
Diplomacy
“People were saying that we have a handsome boy coming from Australia.”
The Chinese premier welcomes Anthony Albanese to the country. You can’t be that picky about lobsters and then salivate over the first Australian prime minister who washes up in a Matildas jersey at The Bund.
Tax
“We don’t have any intention to change them.”
The assistant minister for employment explains that the stage three tax cuts will still be implemented. It’s proof that even the smartest person in the party has to defend its dumbest positions.
Returns
“He’s not an idiot.”
The columnist advocates for Scott Morrison’s return to the front bench, possibly as foreign affairs spokesman. Honestly, the only real reason to move him would be to redistribute weight on a flight.
Politics
“Given that this is going on, I think it is appropriate that names are now put on the record.”
The former Liberal staffer says Eric Abetz is behind a push to replace Bridget Archer with a right-winger. Abetz sleeps hanging upside down like a bat and the blood was bound to go to his head at some point.
ISRAEL–HAMAS WAR
