It was a variation on the elevator pitch.  Treasurer Josh Frydenberg agreed to bounce a table tennis ball on a bat whilst he offered reasons for supporting the Morrison government.  An Australian variant on Gerald Ford farting and chewing gum at the same time. Demeaning? Juvenile? Lacking gravitas?  All of the above.  That’s day-time television: cheap and banal. There was more of it over Easter. Online loons suggested the prime minister gave a Nazi salute whilst swaying in church. He called them ‘grubs’.  A One Nation candidate doctored a photo and claimed a Muslim plot to burn down Notre Dame. […]

What is the point of elections? Given how this campaign has begun, it seems a reasonable question to ask. Recent history has not provided much of an answer. Elections in the last decade accounted for only one of the last five changes in Prime Ministers. The other two elections were so inconclusive that voters almost immediately turned on the government that hung on, leaving it to spend the rest of the term in miserable minority. The parties would, of course, say elections are about choosing them and their policies. But parties have been undermining their own argument every time they […]

In an age in which Australia’s richest man, packaging heir Anthony Pratt, embarrasses himself almost daily on social media, it can seem rather humdrum to be reminded of the mediocrity of our cultural, political and financial elites. But every now and then comes a shining example to focus the mind on the incessant ordinariness of our ruling class. On Tuesday night the State Library of Victoria hosted the eighth Keith Murdoch Oration. The library, Melbourne’s bibliographic and architectural jewel, was cleared of its patrons so that the city’s elites could play dress-up, enjoy some food and wine, and hopefully raise […]

The theatricality of an election campaign is unavoidable. A nationwide appeal to fifteen million voters needs a touch of showmanship. A good act helps to alert voters to their civic responsibility. Throwing the switch to vaudeville, in Keating’s memorable phrase, is a useful skill for the leading actors in the drama. But the six-week election campaign, with its frantic movement and manufactured events is an elaborate confidence trick. A conspiracy between political parties and their willing accomplices in the media, abetted by myriad barrow-pushing groups, the campaign is not what it pretends to be. Voting is compulsory, after all. Most […]

I wake to news of Notre-Dame de Paris burning. The feelings come in a blur, hard to tell apart. I withdraw and recognise shock, sadness, a sense of loss. Then confusion at the dimensions of this response, followed by resentment at the ways people are quick to minimise it. It is a building. No one has died. It is not the sum of culture. It might yet be restored. Perhaps it is a feature of our time to be so stoic. It is not long ago that the Bamiyan statues of Buddha were destroyed, and the ancient Semitic city of […]

Sooner or later white nationalists are coming for me.  I have done nothing to them but it doesn’t matter what I do; whether I resist them or not they will eventually try to kill me and mine.  The reason for this is simple and it can be understood from even a shallow interpretation of white nationalism and its stated aims. The version of white nationalism we know, is predominantly a phenomenon of westernised, colonial nations: the United States, Canada and Australia.  All three have Indigenous or Native populations who were displaced by invaders from Europe. It is those invaders, the […]

There was speculation this week about the possibility of Labor state governments jumping the gun on Scott Morrison and issuing writs for the Senate elections in their states. Absurd as it is to imagine that Daniel Andrews, Annastacia Palaszczuk or Mark McGowan would put their state governors in such an invidious position of breaking all convention, it seemed strangely apposite. The election silliness has begun. The week began with frothing over Morrison’s failure to call the election. Hands up if you’ve been approached by an outraged voter robbed of a May 11 election. Then the debate about two opinion polls […]

This bibliography collates a sample of op-eds, commentary, radio and TV interviews, podcasts and spoken word performances created and authored by Australian Muslims on the subject of Islamophobia, race and ‘the War on Terror’ from the early 2000s to now. The purpose of this bibliography is to offer a resource to researchers, teachers, students and journalists that reflects the diversity of opinions and interventions among Australian Muslims. The Muslim authors and creators of the works below come from a variety of professional backgrounds: academics, journalists, social workers, religious scholars, activists, creative artists, writers and lawyers. The range of works clearly […]

It must be a tough time to be a political satirist. While most of us were grappling with the truly shocking news that Ray Hadley might not be a very nice person, the Morrison Government decided the hill it was going to die on was the Labor Party’s civilization-ending plan to have half of all new cars sold in Australia be electric by 2030. I know we’re well past the point where reality has anything to do with what comes out of the mouths of our Prime Minister and his cabinet, but it’s probably worth at least mentioning a few […]