opinion
opinion
diary February 27, 2021
Gadfly: Kelly rocks the boat then jumps ship
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has a complicated relationship with boats. We all know he loves stopping them. He even has a trophy on his desk shaped like a boat with “I stopped these” written on it, lest he ever forgets how much he loves stopping boats. But he also likes making boats go faster, it seems. Once the boat is moving, if he hasn’t stopped it already, he hates things that slow down the boat. Or at least that’s the impression hydroxychloroquine spokesperson Craig Kelly got, as evidenced in his resignation letter handed to the PM this week, which read, “Some of my conduct over recent months has not helped the boat go faster.”
letters February 27, 2021
As Dhanya Mani speculated that the reaction to her allegation of rape was conditioned by the fact that she is a woman of colour, I wondered whether the paternal concern of the prime minister towards Brittany Higgins was reserved for white fathers of...
editorial February 27, 2021
The prime minister says he didn’t know that Brittany Higgins had accused a colleague of sexually assaulting her. He says he didn’t know until February 15 this year, three days after a media inquiry came into his office. But he knows now. This is the moment when a leader would stand up, take responsibility and then face the questions that need to be answered. Instead Scott Morrison’s only concern, it seems, is to avoid at all costs any of this sticking to him.
law & crime February 27, 2021
Craig Kelly’s fulsome praise of Scott Morrison as Kelly quit the Liberal Party this week was akin to the Mafia sending roses to its next victim. Kelly said he sincerely hoped Morrison would “go on to be one of Australia’s greatest and longest-...
law & crime February 27, 2021
Children’s rights suffer in Queensland
As Queensland reels from the deaths of a number of innocent people as a result of car theft by teenagers in recent weeks, community members are, understandably, desperately seeking answers to how such needless deaths can be prevented. But the...
diary February 20, 2021
Gadfly: Jenny will save us all
Being a politician means learning to carefully deliver sentences that have been crafted by experts who know that everything you say will be parsed and dissected. This is why prime ministers employ speechwriters – people adept at reading the warp and weft of social discourse and threading a path for their boss that will offend few and please many. Prime Minister Scott Morrison really should think of hiring such a person.
letters February 20, 2021
The government’s decision to make use of marketing firms to promote the Covid-19 vaccination program instead of the highly skilled experts affiliated with the Australian Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation is symptomatic of a government...
law & crime February 20, 2021
‘I was a staffer, and so was my perpetrator’
Eighteen months after publicly reporting her assault, former Liberal staffer Dhanya Mani explains why this week does not represent ‘progress’.
editorial February 20, 2021
Bridget McKenzie says the Nationals are “very, very keen to make a positive, progressive contribution to the energy and emissions debate”. All the evidence to hand suggests this is not true.
law & crime February 20, 2021
When bad news is dominating the headlines, the best solution for a prime minister is to eclipse it with good news. How fortunate then for Scott Morrison that he was able to finally announce on Tuesday that the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine had been...
diary February 13, 2021
Gadfly: Kick in the Ed for systemic racism
Stunning everyone and overturning centuries of tradition, Eddie McGuire has now become the first white Australian ever forced from his job due to a prolonged commitment to racism. This has confused a country accustomed to the established method of dealing with racism in Australia, wherein the victim is pushed out of their job, hounded in the press and media, labelled a “sook” because our discourse is just barely above “I’m rubber and you’re glue, and what bounces off me sticks to you”, before it’s claimed that racism is a thing that happens only in America.
