The bizarre planning scenario playing out in Sydney
We are at a crossroads regarding the Sydney of the future, and we must choose well.
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Elizabeth Farrelly
Elizabeth Farrelly is a Sydney-based columnist and author who holds a PhD in architecture and several international writing awards. A former editor and Sydney City Councilor, she is also Associate Professor (Practice) at the Australian Graduate School of Urbanism at UNSW. Her books include 'Glenn Murcutt: Three Houses’, 'Blubberland; the dangers of happiness’ and ‘Caro Was Here’, crime fiction for children (2014).
Greed is good is yesterday's mantra
For decades, belief in The Market as divine presence – guaranteeing fairness and quality and providing a universal template for everything. Now, at last, this is starting to reverse.
The brutal truth: we're trashing Sydney's heritage
I write this as much in sorrow as in anger. What kind of culture refuses to value its own treasures?
What these two portraits reveal about our world view
Among the 50-odd portraits in this year's Archibald, two are stand-out, although not in a good way. Both depict sitting politicians but together they reveal us, or what is embarrassingly close to becoming an Australian world-attitude: dominate, exploit, go. Eat, shoot, leave (the rubbish).
Our culture of separatism leads to a life of fear
Can a man be a feminist? A year 12 student asked me this recently for a school project, and I was thinking, duh.
Rudd's not the man for the UN: there's a better choice next door
We need to talk about Kevin. We face a choice; wildly inexperienced but bumptious and bullying male versus wise and experienced female, accomplished, respected, fit for purpose. And we act like this is even a contest?
Why there's hope in the ambiguous election result
Right now, for Australia, I reckon a Parliament hovering between the hung and the hapless is the best possible kind.
We're starving our culture with cut after cut
Australia seems determined to crush its nurseries of thought.
Sydney's planning storm is building to a tempest
Conditions in Sydney right now conspire toward a perfect planning storm of unprecedented ferocity, and the power tie-ups across three levels of government are critical enablers.
The great tragedy of Malcolm Turnbull
Another day, another solemn prime ministerial hypocrisy: climate change and the Reef, Centennial Parklands and trees, Orlando and homophobia, Indigenous recognition. In a trajectory of doom that is positively Shakespearean, Malcolm Turnbull seems emptier and drier with each appearance. The man who had everything (but wanted more) is already a husk of his former self. Where will it end?
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