Social Justice
How to change a bad law
The campaign to repair the single parenting payment was a model of how research and advocacy can push government to face the cruel effects of a policy and change course
The Monthly | Australian politics, society & culture
DAILY OPINION
FEATURED
![Emily Kam Kngwarray, Anmatyerr people, not titled [detail], 1981](http://web.archive.org./web/20231227035955im_/https://www.themonthly.com.au/sites/default/files/styles/frontpage_large_2x/public/Sprague_1223_1140x700.jpg?itok=j0m71HEO "Emily Kam Kngwarray, Anmatyerr people, not titled [detail], 1981")
A clear view: Emily Kam Kngwarray at the NGA
A major exhibition of the late Anmatyerr desert painter is welcome, but the influence of the rapacious art market on Aboriginal art is inescapable
Taiwan’s minority indigenous peoples are being used to refute mainland China’s claims on the island – but what does that mean for their recognition, land rights and identity?
Three overlooked albums of spiritual jazz from 2023
Recent releases by kora player John Haycock, trumpeter Matthew Halsall and 14-piece jazz ensemble Ancient Infinity Orchestra feel like a refuge from reality
The best (and worst) of 2023 on screen
It was a strong year for horror, while lowlights included Martin Scorsese’s mishandled ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and Emerald Fennell’s lazily conceived ‘Saltburn’
Animal welfare concerns have long plagued the greyhound racing industry, but in Victoria a campaign from covert investigators now has a parliamentarian leading the fight
With the Ranger Uranium Mine now closed, Kakadu’s traditional owners want the government to make good on the original promise of a national park in their care
The laureate of the Western Australian surf break sees a task ahead for our essayists, our novelists and our poets alike in the fight against climate catastrophe
Taiwan’s minority indigenous peoples are being used to refute mainland China’s claims on the island – but what does that mean for their recognition, land rights and identity?
From stepping away from tennis as a youth before returning to dominate Wimbledon and the Australian Open, to retiring as world No. 1 at the age of 25, Ash Barty has always owned her career path
Three overlooked albums of spiritual jazz from 2023
Recent releases by kora player John Haycock, trumpeter Matthew Halsall and 14-piece jazz ensemble Ancient Infinity Orchestra feel like a refuge from reality
‘Strife’ is a rollicking, if shallow, look at 2010s women’s media
Plus, a girl-band rises to the top in ‘Paper Dolls’, heartwarming family dysfunction returns in the fourth season of ‘Bump’, and the Stan documentary about Ben Roberts-Smith delves into his defamation case against the media
The best (and worst) of 2023 on screen
It was a strong year for horror, while lowlights included Martin Scorsese’s mishandled ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and Emerald Fennell’s lazily conceived ‘Saltburn’
Tacita Dean and the poetics of film editing
The MCA’s survey of the British-born artist’s work reveals both the luminosity of analogue film and its precariousness
What kind of year has it been?
Was 2023 – beyond the referendum calamity – a year of government timidity or a demonstration of its ability to keep the national conversation on course?
The lost opportunity of the Voice referendum revealed Australians’ poor understanding of the Constitution, and the level of racism in the community
Reviving the Viking mission’s experiments may yet find life as we know it on Mars, but the best outcome would be something truly alien
The local debut of the SXSW film, TV, music and tech fair is a sign the road to Hollywood now runs in both directions
How a lockdown whim turned into a discovery of the purifying power of sea swimming
![Emily Kam Kngwarray, Anmatyerr people, not titled [detail], 1981](http://web.archive.org./web/20231227035955im_/https://www.themonthly.com.au/sites/default/files/styles/frontpage_medium_2x/public/Sprague_1223_1140x700.jpg?itok=4uF8EJ_Y "Emily Kam Kngwarray, Anmatyerr people, not titled [detail], 1981")
A clear view: Emily Kam Kngwarray at the NGA
A major exhibition of the late Anmatyerr desert painter is welcome, but the influence of the rapacious art market on Aboriginal art is inescapable
The rule of threes: NGV Triennial
The sprawling show’s exploration of technologies and pressing politics takes in artificial intelligence and deep-fake photojournalism
The celebrated American author’s latest book, ‘The Vulnerables’, completes a loose trilogy of hybrid autobiographical and fictional novels
Modern Prometheans: ‘Poor Things’ and ‘All of Us Strangers’
Emma Stone seeks a moral conscience in Yorgos Lanthimos’s upended Frankenstein grotesque, while Andrew Haigh delivers a metaphysical coming-out story
Richard Flanagan's ‘Question 7’
A slim volume of big ideas that takes in H.G. Wells, chain reaction, Hiroshima and the author’s near-death experience on the Franklin River
Nathan Fielder directs and co-stars in an erratic comedy about the performative benevolence of a couple creating a social housing reality TV show
The author is challenged on the privilege of the progressive, egalitarian ideals of her ‘multicultural’ generation
‘Machine of violence’: Behrouz Boochani on Australia’s immigration system
Kurdish-Iranian born writer and human rights advocate Behrouz Boochani joins us in the studio.
HOST Ange McCormack
GUEST Behrouz Boochani
For our last show of the year, Michael heads to Fitzroy Pool to find out what people are reading as the weather warms up. Plus, some of our previous guests offer book recommendations for the summer holidays.
HOST Michael Williams
GUEST
The power and influence of Alan Jones
Associate editor of The Saturday Paper Martin Mckenzie Murray on how the influence of Alan Jones was built and why his career has weathered so many scandals.
HOST Ange McCormack
GUEST Martin McKenzie-Murray