Craig Kelly should be fired out of a cannon into space. Now wait a minute, hear me out… When Scott Morrison personally intervened to ensure Craig’s pre-selection before the last election, I’m sure he felt he’d earned Craig’s undying loyalty. Man, did he back the wrong Ivermectin-infused horse there. That Craig is a complete and utter splonk there is no doubt. I’m sure Craig himself would be the first to admit it. And I’ve got nothing against splonks. We’re all like that from time to time about certain things. It’s what it is to be a Human at this moment […]

I’m not interested in dictating what people should or shouldn’t write. I’m interested in how we include truth in works of fiction. How we write narratives that honestly portray First Peoples, settlers and refugees living on stolen land.

It’s easy to think in stereotypes about people who refuse vaccinations. Anti-vaxxer… conspiracy nut… whackjob! That might be true of some people who fear vaccination, but it’s certainly not all of them. Elizabeth is a cheerful, athletic-looking hospitality worker in her thirties. She says she is careful, but not obsessive about living a healthy life. ‘I like the taste of fresh food much more than processed food, so that’s what I tend to eat. I prefer organic food because I don’t like putting weird chemicals into my body, but it’s a preference not a rule.’ She follows several wellness influencers […]

Those who dismiss claims about the influence of pro-Israel lobbyists often demand ‘evidence’ akin to a smoking gun; proof of a chain of causation between ‘lobbying’ and ‘self-censorship’. There are plenty of smoking guns, but to focus on those alone would ignore the far more insidious way pro-Israel lobbying efforts work on media organisations: the culture of self-censorship lobbying campaigns slowly and cumulatively entrench; the unspoken rules which become dogma, such as the necessity of ‘balancing’ Palestinian voices; the ‘common-sense’ frames that slowly start to reproduce: two-state solution, Hamas, ‘right to exist’ etc. John Lyons’ latest book, Dateline Jerusalem: Journalism’s […]

A particularly cheerful bank worker once told us to expect a letter in ‘five business sleeps’. The phrase tickled me, but it also seemed quite useful. Children count in sleeps because it lends a degree of agency to waiting. You can’t make the days go faster, but you can always go to sleep. As I write this, Melbourne has just overtaken Buenos Aires as the most locked-down city on earth. The Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, has now announced target dates for when lockdown is finally expected to end. In this house, we are counting down the sleeps. Not the days, […]

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, a thread. I put it to you that a great rabble of opinion writers, especially on the right, in the interest of criticising Australia’s lockdown policies, have magically and mindlessly transformed Sir Peter Ustinov into Clive James. On 12 September 1978, Peter Ustinov spoke at the National Press Club of Australia, where he told the following story. This is an extract from the 2014 book Stand and Deliver: Fifty Years of the National Press Club of Australia. For what it’s worth, the comment was also reported in the Sydney Tribune’s ‘1 Minute Parking’ column […]

We’re still here in Melbourne
where we held our breath and forgot how to exhale

Months before the release of Melbourne author Jennifer Down’s third book, Bodies of Light, the local literary scene was baited with breathless assessments of the book’s impact. Those fortunate enough to get their hands on Down’s tome shared poignant missives from their experiences reading what had come to be known as ‘The Big, Sad Book’. My favourite review comes courtesy of Down’s younger sister, whose text message Down shared on Twitter back in July: [https://twitter.com/jenniferdown/status/1414734955075096578] ‘bro…. this book is fucking sad as’ Bodies of Light, which is Down’s second novel (her second book, Pulse Points, comprises fourteen piercing short stories), […]

AFL is unavoidable in Melbourne. The state’s pastime, it’s a sport that transcends class and social boundaries, weaving its way into almost every community. Anyone from the shit-kicker to the CEO, from the tradie to the poet, can apparently get behind it. Everyone’s got a team, and if you don’t, you better choose one quick. Since moving to Melbourne in 2020, I’ve felt accosted by AFL culture. Unlike country NSW, where I moved from, footy-talk is everywhere. My first week in Melbourne a woman in a café remarked ‘you bloody tigers’ fan’; carelessly, I’d worn a black and yellow scarf […]