Martin McKenzie-Murray In the wake of this week’s High Court ruling, details emerge of Victoria Police’s unprecedented use of a top criminal lawyer as an informant during Melbourne’s gangland wars.

Karen Middleton Amid a chaotic final sitting week of parliament, conservative Coalition MPs are furious at the prime minister for what they perceive as his betrayal over religious freedoms in schools.

Charis Palmer Unwise decisions made when privatising our electricity grids, permitting companies to spend excessively on the networks’ ‘poles and wires’ and pass on the cost to consumers, are the driving force behind our exorbitant power bills.

Andy Hazel As The Native Cats, Julian Teakle and Chloe Alison Escott make poetic and unusually stripped-back music that riffs on gender and sexuality by way of a James M. Cain pulp novel. “Life after transitioning is the closest that you ever get to time travel, in a way,” Escott says. “You try to be somebody that you wish was there in the past. You see people who remind you of yourself at a certain time, so you think, ‘What’s the thing that I can say or do for this person?’”

Hannah McGlade Black women know the Australian state was built on such violence and that the instruments of law, the police and courts, can never really be trusted to protect black women’s bodies. We know that the Australian legal system’s tolerance of sexual violence towards Indigenous women is deeply seated in Australian history.

Paul Bongiorno The prime minister denied the intervention was in light of Craig Kelly’s implied threats, made to several media outlets, to similarly quit the Liberals if he was disendorsed. It is the most logical explanation, although some in the party suspect Morrison is far more sympathetic to Kelly’s climate change scepticism and social conservatism than he lets on.

Richard Ackland The long arm of the mining industry is everywhere, sticking its shadowy fingers into as many pork pies as it can find. The Saltbush Club is the latest conspiracy-theory entrant into the climate wars. Among its directors are legacy mining men Hugh Morgan of Western Mining and Jerry Ellis, previously on mahogany row at BHP and a former grand fromage at the Minerals Council of Australia. Old favourite Ian Plimer is also a member of the club, which recently received a rousing endorsement in the Pied Piper outlets of similarly aged media gnome Lord Moloch.

Amid the chaos that was parliament’s final sitting day for the year, Tony Abbott got to his feet and cleared his throat. “Back when prime minister,” he said, introducing himself with a descriptor as unnecessary as it was telling of what was to come, “I used to observe that to live in Australia is to have won the lottery of life – and that’s true, unless you happen to be one of those whose ancestors have been here for tens of thousands of years.”

Bri Lee Advocacy organisations and academics argue Queensland’s proposed bill of rights will enshrine procedural unfairness in court for survivors and victims of crime.

Hamish McDonald Theresa May suffers defeats on Brexit. Trump backs down when facing Xi Jinping at G20. Trump’s former lawyer pleads guilty. Philippine journalist charged with tax fraud.

Christos Tsiolkas What starts as a dance film to rival Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz switches to giallo horror as the diverse cast of Gaspar Noé’s Climax descend into a lysergic hell.

Peter Craven Simon Phillips’ MTC production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night may lack a little of the comedy’s melancholy, but in Tamsin Carroll and Richard Piper it has performances as good as seen anywhere.

Romy Ash A walk through Kuranda, Queensland, with Indigenous fire practitioner Victor Steffensen.

Annie Smithers

John Denton Making the case for restoring confidence in the quality of Australian design by stipulating that for major projects, half of all design tenders or competition entrants be local.

Tim Rushby-Smith Wollongong Roller Hawks coach Brendan Dowler on winning gold and silver at the Paralympic Games.

Cindy MacDonald Test your general knowledge with our weekly quiz.