Turnbull’s parliamentary circus
“Every parliamentary session devolves into incompetence, scandal and white-anting, and every legislative achievement is overshadowed by scandal or made insubstantial by its pettiness.”
The legislative record of the 45th parliament is hidden behind a sideshow of scandal and division – and even then it’s not very impressive.
News
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ASIO changes hidden in ‘sloppy’ amendments process
“In the 40 years of ASIO’s existence, legislation related to its operations has always been made public to enable scrutiny before it is passed.”
As questions continue over new powers for the Home Affairs Department, a suite of legislative amendments goes missing.
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As terrorism and politics collide in the southern Philippines city of Marawi, evacuees go hungry while new battlelines are drawn.
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Two years since Barnaby Joyce became deputy prime minister and three months since his byelection victory, a look at the spectacular flame-out that put the former Nationals leader on the back bench.
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“The 2018 Australasian Environmental Law Enforcement and Regulators Network (AELERT) conference asked the question, ‘Is being right enough?’”
In the wake of the murder of NSW compliance officer Glen Turner, environmental law enforcers are tackling resistance to regulation born not just of corporate greed but of human nature.
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Duterte to miss ASEAN summit in Sydney
Australia and Timor-Leste finally sign treaty; Italy’s poll results.
Opinion
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Natalie Cromb
The economics of reparations
“The success of the Australian economy is not down to economic management. Despite what the constant political posturing would have us believe, it is because a benefit has been derived from the Indigenous people and cultural lands without any payment. Only a small portion of the cultural lands have been returned to traditional owners and almost all of the land “returned” is vulnerable to native title extinguishment for mining if they are not already subject to the 99-year lease provisions.”
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Paul Bongiorno
Malcolm Turnbull’s poll count looms
“Of course preferred prime minister is not an indicator of an election outcome – it is not unusual for a premier or prime minster to be preferred right up until the time voters dump them and their party. But this metric was for a long while a morale booster for Turnbull and his team. Now even that shield has gone and the PM is left languishing with Shorten in deep negative territory of disapproval.”
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If you’ve never been to one of those newspaper chat things where celebrity journalists talk about the same stuff they bang on about in print, Gadfly is here to fill you in on what you’re missing. With $25 in his pocket, our field agent wended his weary way to the Maritime Museum in Sydney, where in close proximity to the sharks, stingrays and groupers, Janet Albrechtsen and Caroline Overington were on stage.
An insider’s outside view
A new podcast from Schwartz Media
Join Richard Denniss, The Australia Institute’s chief economist, as he tackles Australia’s most important political and economic issues in a new weekly podcast.
Find The Lucky Country on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
Letters & Editorial
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Here is a headline from Tuesday: “Australia to train Myanmar military despite ethnic cleansing accusations”. And here is one from Wednesday: “Australian spy who revealed bugging of Timor-Leste cabinet under ‘effective house arrest’ ”. Here is a headline from 2014: “Axe falls on foreign aid spending, nearly $8 billion in cuts over next five years”. Here is Australia, irresponsible neighbour and opportunist.
Culture
Gail Jones and the art of words
Author Gail Jones’s latest novel, The Death of Noah Glass, reflects the cross-cultural interests of an enthusiastic traveller who finds inspiration in getting lost. It also revisits her original passions of art and art history.
‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ and ‘The Show Goes On’
While the cast of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical fails to deliver an uplifting experience, Bernadette Robinson, in her solo performance of The Show Goes On, is transcendent as she channels the great women of song.
Food
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“Kasoundi is like a magic addition to so many things. It’s a sort of spiced tomato sauce, originating in the Bengal region of India but bastardised and plagiarised until it became a sort of staple on school fete counters the country over. Or so I thought. Kasoundi, it seems, is not recognised by some of my colleagues. ”
Life
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Attending a conference on elder abuse, the author is confronted to realise how readily a carer’s frustration, or the ingratitude of an aged cohabitant, can escalate to a harmful relationship.
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Looking into the eyes of humpback whales in the seas off Tonga can make a visitor feel omnipotent and inconsequential all at once.
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Full board: Joany Badenhorst, 23, Para-snowboarder
Champion snowboarder and Australia’s Winter Paralympics opening ceremony flagbearer Joany Badenhorst on the joys of proving her doubters wrong.
Books
The Quiz
1. Which former Australian senator’s memoir is titled Rebel with a Cause?
2. In Greek mythology, what did Narcissus fall in love with?
3. Richard Umbers was forced to step down as CEO of which Australian company last month?
4. Roger Federer regained the ATP world No. 1 ranking last month. In which year did he first become world No. 1? (Bonus points for naming Federer’s current age and the year in which he most recently was No. 1.)
5. Which three pieces does each player have a total of two of at the start of a chess game?
6. Which singer’s debut studio album, The Kick Inside, was released 40 years ago last month?
7. What word means dinner in Italian?
8. Lumiere and Mrs Potts are characters in what animated film?
9. The condiment turmeric turns white rice what colour?
10. Which Lord of the Rings characters live in the Shire?
Quotes
POLITICS
“Am so sorry. Guess that’s why I have few friends who are politicians. He seemed very open and excited about Mardi Gras and LGBTI community.”
The singer apologises for posing with Malcolm Turnbull at Mardi Gras. Turnbull learnt a simple lesson: don’t leverage politics off celebrity, or subject an entire community to a debate on their worth, purposely giving voice to decades of suppressed homophobia.
FINANCE
“How many Mongolian models did we have to bury in the jungle for this pricing.”
The prime minister’s son complains of a shadowy deal done to benefit Malaysia’s elites while he was at Goldman Sachs. The negotiations were still only slightly worse than Julia Gillard’s refugee swap with the country.
TAXATION
“Look, once you start having these sorts of exemptions, where does it end? Where does it end?”
The former prime minister questions Labor’s commitment to remove the tax levied on tampons. Where it ends is something approaching financial equality, which is admittedly terrifying.
LANGUAGE
“Rick Morton’s article in The Australian today highlights braod multicultural agreement that English is key to intergration.”
The citizenship minister continues his campaign for a strengthened English test to exclude migrants. You can’t misspell “broad” and “integration” without also spelling “bigot” – and “inbred” if you use the “b” twice.
LEADERSHIP
“I’m a little worried about what often sounds like an anti-man agenda.”
The former prime minister expresses his fear of quotas. And women. And progress. And, probably, birds.
CONDUCT
“I must be the only one not in the bonking circle because I’m certainly not getting any.”
The former senator reflects on the prime minister’s changes to the ministerial code of conduct. Elsewhere, she said Nick Xenophon took her on a date to KFC – a claim Xenophon denies, although he admits they shared chicken nuggets.
