August 2010
POLITICS
Joe Lyons & Benito Mussolini
Herr Hitler was busy in the Rhineland so Joseph Aloysius Lyons decided to pay a visit to Signor Mussolini instead. It was 1935 and...
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SOCIETY
'Brisbane' by Matthew Condon
John Birmingham
Cities have memories that outlive those who first held them. London will always recall the Blitz, Rome the glories of empire. Some memories...
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SOCIETY
'Rocks in the Belly' by Jon Bauer
Brenda Walker
British–Australian writer Jon Bauer’s superb first novel Rocks in the Belly is a finely drawn vision of jealousy, resentment and self-...
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SOCIETY
Connective Tissue: 'Tangle' (Season Two) and 'Spirited'
Delia Falconer
All the bullies I remember from school had Ben Mendelsohn’s build: heavy-legged, thick-armed and slightly soft around the middle. Or...
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SOCIETY
Theatre of Operations: Richard Linklater's 'Me and Orson Welles' and Nadia Tass's 'Matching Jack'
Luke Davies
If you are looking for signs of the apocalypse, you need look no further than High School Musical, the film franchise that began life as a...
More ...SOCIETY
Strange Beasts: Sonya's Hartnett's 'Midnight Zoo'
Geordie Williamson
Two boys enter a small town under cover of darkness, one of them carrying a baby in swaddling. It is Europe in wartime; even so, the...
More ...Infinite Anthology: Adventures in Lexiconia
Les Murray
Here is a brief sample of words I have submitted to Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary over the last two or three years: pobbledonk –...
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POLITICS
From Berlin to the Bush
Ken Inglis
After eight weeks at sea, the internees were disembarked: some in Melbourne, en route to a camp in Tatura, in northern Victoria, but most...
More ...Duty of Care
Margaret Simons
Pluck an episode from the midstream of human life and it can be hard to glean meaning. Sometimes there is just senselessness and mess. If...
More ...Energy
China's Quarry
Paul Barry
Eighty metres below our vantage point is a flat oblong the size of 15 footy fields. Deep red in colour – because the vegetation has been...
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POLITICS
The States of the Nation
David Malouf
It had of course, in history and in the history books, and we had a constitution to prove it, but not in the many places where Australians...
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POLITICS
The Hollowmen
Mark Aarons
Almost a quarter of a century separates the coup against Hawke from that of ‘Richo’s’ successor, NSW Right faction leader Mark Arbib. But...
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SOCIETY
A Man's Not A Camel
Robyn Annear
An obelisk, I always think, sounds as if it ought to be squat and round. I can’t help knowing otherwise, though, since I live in the shadow...
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ECONOMICS
Beating the Pokies
Kathy Marks
In a room at the back of the Wallan Hotel, a radio station pumping out Blondie’s ‘Atomic’ competes with a chorus of upbeat chirrups and...
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WORLD
Not Rocket Science
Anna Funder
It’s Sunday, 13 June 2010. My phone beeps an SMS: “Successful separation of space return capsule from mothership. Re-entry at 11.21 pm SA...
More ...Greenwash
Guy Pearse
Next time you fly, grab your in-flight magazine or newspaper, carefully rip out a few pages, jot a few words on each, smile knowingly to...
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POLITICS
Comment: Julia Gillard
Julia Baird
When Julia Gillard was sworn in as Australia’s first female prime minister, the greatest plaudits and most excited commentary came from...
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