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The Whiff of Corruption

Ben Eltham

Why would Scott Morrison be so opposed to a federal integrity agency? It might have something to do with the number of questions that have been raised about his government’s integrity.


The Case For Anger

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

'Anger is a complex emotion, which is exactly why my child-brain suppresses it, and exactly why we as a society are afraid of it.'


The Soft Power of Media

Tim Dunlop

Scott Morrison may well lose the coming election... But given his track record and basic unfitness for the job, the only reason he is even in contention is because of the ability of the media to present him in such a way as to seem legitimate.


On Cancel Culture

Alistair Kitchen

'Censure, not dispassionate disagreement, is how we express our moral selves in the world.'


Defiance

Scott Ludlam

Malice on this scale is hard to comprehend. It’s worth sitting with for a moment, just as long as it takes to feel a spark of pure rage. Kindle that. Help others to find it.


What I'm Reading

A Crowd Favourite

This regular Meanjin online feature is more than 150 posts old ... and counting. Browse the collection.

From The Archive: Daily Readings

RSS Meanjin Daily Reading

  • Election Day by Omar Sakr May 19, 2022
  • M by Gay Lynch May 18, 2022
  • He Will Remember by Mary Gilmore May 17, 2022
  • Clifton Hill: Aesthetics and Local Politics by Simon During May 16, 2022
  • The International Prototype by Benjamin Dodds May 15, 2022

Daily Reading Archive

There’s a Hole
Patrick Marlborough

Yesterday, Senator Hollie Hughes shared a video of a man defacing Coalition election signage in Bennelong. ‘This is absolutely disgusting,’ she tweeted, ‘Australian democracy is strong and robust, but actions like this undermine it.’ In the video, the man moves gracefully down a fence line of signs, lackadaisically spray painting dicks over the bald head of Simon Kennedy, fully aware that he is being filmed, coolly indifferent. He moves like someone who has unburdened themselves of a nagging annoyance, li

It’s Time for a Voices of Journalism Movement
Tim Dunlop

The mainstream media’s coverage of the 2022 Federal election has been a disgrace to the profession of journalism and a stain on our democracy. From the opening day freakout about Albanese’s ‘gaffe’, to the Thursday-morning tantrum six weeks later when the Opposition leader suggested the media pack could go listen to Jim Chalmers talk about budget costings rather than follow him to Queensland, the media have behaved with all the grace and subtlety of rival gangs of goombahs arriving at a new pizza place to discuss security arrangements.

When Representation Falters
Amal Naser, Lina Ali and Amar Hamed

The upcoming federal election on May 21 is a critical moment for young Muslims to reflect on whether our political representatives have thoroughly engaged with the needs of our community and if any plans have been developed to address those needs.

Fury and Nothing
The Piping Shrike

It is hard to believe this election is coming not just at a time when global politics and the economy are in turmoil but when Australia has just emerged from the biggest social upheaval in peacetime. It might seem especially odd since Australia’s response to Covid was so utterly political. ‘Political’ does not just mean partisan political, although it did often descend to that, but political in the sense that there was a cast-iron certainty that of course government could stop Covid—it was just a matter of political will. The pandemic measures may have been proposed by public health officials […]

Essays
Necessity Has No Law
Guy Rundle

In the past six to eight years in the West, and to varying extents throughout the whole world, a massive social and cultural movement has come to the fore. Its participants have adopted no single name for it, though the term ‘social justice’ is common.

Fiction
Zu, or Part Thereof
Ouyang Yu

On this Greek island of white walls and sky-blue houses, they lay in bed, facing the sea through a window large enough to contain the sea from end to end. ‘Do you still remember the saying?’ said she. ‘What saying?’ said he. ‘The saying that goes, zhongren jiezhu wo du qing, zhongren jiezui wo du xing,’ said she. ‘Oh, that one.’ ‘Wasn’t it something constantly on your lips when you were an ambitious university student?’

Memoir
Piscine Epiphanies
James Walton

I got a little pissed last evening. The label said ‘Vote Responsibly’, a fundraiser. The frozen fish and chips were cooking in the oven, yes, I know the contradiction there. Dancing to Nina Simone, in a way that disturbed the cat, unused to a show of less inhibition. Still, I sang along as best I could, a little hop here and there. I realised I don’t know any fish. A deep hypocrisy overcame me.

Poetry
Frieze Frame
Stephen Edgar

Dang, sorry. This is only available to a Meanjin subscriber. But we can fix that. It’s just $100 for a print subscription, $5 for a monthly digital subscription, and $50 for an annual digital subscription. DIGITAL PRINT

Essays
Necessity Has No Law
Guy Rundle
Nothing Good Can Come of This
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Whose Feelings Matter in Literature?
Alice Pung
Going Meta
Mark Pesce
Unhappiness and Related Fields
Martin Langford
Australia in Three Books
Madeleine Gray
Fiction
Zu, or Part Thereof
Ouyang Yu
The Cameleer
Christopher Raja
The Funeral
Jennifer Mills
The Man Who Loved The Persimmon Tree
Arnold Zable
The White Waratah
Carol Lefevre
A Quiet World
Anneliz Erese
Memoir
Piscine Epiphanies
James Walton
The Child in Me
Na'ama Carlin
Exposure
Alexander Wells
A Steady Gamble
Alice Bishop
On Getting a Diagnosis
Andrew Sant
Relaxation Techniques at the Adelphi Hotel
Dominic Gordon
Poetry
Frieze Frame
Stephen Edgar
Teenage Relapse
Anna Black
Aubade
Adam Aitken
First Sighting
Robert Adamson
Peaches
Ashleigh Synnott
Laundry
Junie Huang

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