opinion
opinion
diary March 23, 2019
There’s so much that can make people physically sick. Army wallah and boonies Nasty Party senator Linda Reynolds told ABC viewers she was “almost physically ill” when the medivac legislation was passed by parliament. After all, it was Muslims who were on the attack in Bali, if you follow her drift. She’ll make a fine addition to Team Schmo. Other citizens were just as ill with news from New Zealand.
letters March 23, 2019
Firstly, as a Muslim and a refugee I want to thank the wider Australian community for their kind words and affection and for showing their great support in this time of great grieving. And I also thank Prime Minister Scott Morrison for at least...
religion March 23, 2019
Fixing the National Redress Scheme
Although I have worked with victims of institutional abuse and their families for more than 12 years, initially through my doctoral research into sexual assault and the Catholic Church and more recently as a lawyer, I could never have imagined the...
religion March 23, 2019
The Australian white supremacist who allegedly massacred 50 Muslims while they were at Friday prayers in Christchurch, New Zealand has recast the political debate in this country. The cowardly, hate-filled attack has shaken both nations to their...
editorial March 23, 2019
There is an urgent desire to blame internet forums for Brenton Tarrant’s bent interpretation of the world. The bigger concern is that many of the thoughts expressed in his manifesto have appeared, in one form or another, on the opinion pages of most mainstream publications in this country. Tarrant is an aberration, as is all terrorism. But he is produced by a culture that has normalised hate, that is built from division, whose politics routinely exploits fear and whose press caters enthusiastically to it.
diary March 16, 2019
Kerri Judd, QC, the Victorian DPP, defender of the faith and protector of the courts, has possibly up to 100 media organisations and reptiles in her sights for alleged contempt. In her possession is a bristling letter from Justin Quill, whose firm, Macpherson Kelley, is acting for 53 potential media parties. This correspondence is a fallout from the Pell trial suppression orders and headlines after the cardinal’s secret conviction for “historic sexual abuse crimes”.
letters March 16, 2019
I do not write to papers very often but I feel I must congratulate you on “The town with no water” by Nick Feik and “The new underclass” by Mike Seccombe (March 9–15). Nick Feik hit the nail on the head when he wrote that the main reason the Darling...
rural March 16, 2019
Joyce’s war on metropolitan Liberals
“Stare the bastards down, Malcolm, they have nowhere to go.” This was the advice from two of Malcolm Turnbull’s closest allies given to the newly installed Liberal leader immediately after the September 2015 coup. The Nationals were holding out for...
editorial March 16, 2019
To the streets, tens of thousands of students went on Friday, picketing for climate action. We cannot wait, their common refrain. There is no time. Meanwhile, unimpassioned, our leaders squabble still over coal. And the deja vu sets in – the climate battles of the past two decades, hashed and rehashed, an endless circular argument as the stakes and the temperatures rise.
indigenous affairs March 16, 2019
In December last year, Aunty Tanya Day’s death in custody came to public attention with the beginning of a coronial inquest into her death. A year earlier, the Yorta Yorta grandmother was kicked off a train from Echuca to Melbourne by a V/Line staff...
diary March 9, 2019
What is journalism? It’s a question hacks throughout the dry and cracked land ask themselves not infrequently – hoping an answer will arrive. Fortunately, Gaven Morris, the director of Aunty ABC’s news, analysis and investigations department, gave us a clue in his Tuesday memo to the troops.
