THE NATION REVIEWED

"Politics is a game with two sticks of equal length – principle and pragmatism – and successful politicians are those who wield them in combination ... What the German sociologist Max Weber called 'charismatic authority' is partly made of this. And it's what Julia Gillard lacks in spades."

In the first Monthly Comment, Don Watson observes the spectacle of the Labor Party's ongoing decline, as it suffers "anaemia" – in the words of Senator John Faulkner – and is ruled by a "cancer" – in the words of Kevin Rudd – and highlights the value of true leadership. Whitlam, Hawke and Keating, who led by force of personality and big ideas, were able to drag their party creaking and complaining along with them. Why can't today's leaders do the same? 

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In a second Comment, Peter Mares revisits the Tampa affair ten years on. Mares discusses why the Tampa was a "circuit-breaker" for the Coalition in a very difficult policy area, and argues that attempting to pursue a similar policy of returning boats now is not only inhumane but will prove no solution to the refugee crisis.

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Plus, in "Coal's Next Alibi", Guy Pearse imagines a supermarket filled with coal-based algal foods and products; and, in "Gourmet Gore", Benjamin Law bares his fangs to discover the joys of nose-to-tail eating.

THE MONTHLY ESSAYS

"'The biggest story in politics at the moment is the relationship between News Limited and the government,' a veteran Canberra-watcher says. According to a News Limited insider, 'Mitchell has inculcated a view [at the Australian] that they are there not only to critique and oversee the government, [but also that] it is their role to dictate policy shifts, that they are the true Opposition.'"

In "The United States of Chris Mitchell", Sally Neighbour interviews the editor-in-chief of the Australian. What is it to be "loved" by the Murdoch "Mafioso"? In this 8000-word exclusive Neighbour also talks to over 70 Australian journalists and politicians, including Kevin Rudd, to discuss Australia's most influential news-maker. Mitchell candidly discusses his role in the 'Kevin 07' campaign, his turbulent relationship with the former prime minister and the power he wields in Australian political life.

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"Julia Gillard's exhortation to the country to keep 'moving forward' had all the urgency of a cop hustling rubbernecks from the scene of an especially messy homicide. 'Moving forward, folks – come on, nothing to see here, moving along ...'"

In "Prime Minister, Interrupted", Annabel Crabb tells us the story Julia Gillard can't herself impart. The collective silence of Gillard and her ministers on the events that led to her prime ministership continues to stunt the public's understanding of her. Trying to hold her own in an ongoing political Mexican standoff, Gillard is yet to inspire confidence in voters.

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"The system of disability care is fundamentally broken. John Della Bosca, the former NSW minister for disability services and current campaign director for the National Disability and Carer Alliance, is blunt: 'It needs a wrecking ball, and starting over.'"

In "Two Nations", Anne Manne argues the case for disability reform in Australia. Manne outlines the current injustices in the provision of assistance to people with disabilities, and highlights the inadequacies of a system that requires a virtually unsupported carer economy to make up for a lack of government funding. Drawing from testimonies to the Productivity Commission – which handed its anticipated final report on the state of disability care in Australia to government at the end of July – Manne calls for decisive action, and the development of a National Disability Insurance Scheme.

ARTS & LETTERS

"Lally Katz's voice, leached of generic American, still sounds pure New Jersey. 'People think I'm loud,' she bawled into my face in the deserted foyer. 'In New Jersey this is normal.'"

In "Out of the Box", Peter Robb meets the talented and exuberant Lally Katz, one of Australia's rising young playwrights. Katz had her first big hit at 25, going on to win prizes at two successive fringe festivals in New York. Robb joins her at the rehearsals of her new production, Neighbourhood Watch, at Belvoir Street Theatre to talk about life and inspiration.

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"Fred Williams' vision of Australia is literally anatomical. Scrub resembles hair sprouting in bodily crevices, and he makes a muddy stagnant pond in a forest at Kallista look like an internal organ, with its reservoir of blood and bile."

In "Under the Skin", Peter Conrad looks to a retrospective of Fred Williams' work currently showing at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Williams' landscapes depict a "hostile" and "irrational" Australian environment with ingenuity and abstraction, for which he is regarded today as one of our greatest artists.

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Plus, in "Maybe Baby", Robert Forster reviews the compilation album Rave On Buddy Holly; in "After Life", Louis Nowra examines Wim Wenders' documentary Pina and Alain Corneau's Love Crime; in "What's Sex Got To Do With It", Anne Summers watches the SBS series Sex: An Unnatural History; and in "Air Traffic Out of Control", Lindsay Tanner sums up Satyajit Das's Extreme Money.