THE MONTHLY ESSAYS

“To more Australians, it looks as though we no longer have a real Liberal Party or a real Labor Party – just two big ‘McParties’ selling similar junk that’s getting ever harder to trust. The Greens are benefiting as a result but it’s not as simple as a protest vote … The Greens now look more liberal than the Liberals, more labour than Labor, and – unsurprisingly – far greener than both.”

In “A Green Balance?”, Guy Pearse assesses the Greens’ ascendancy as a powerful force in Australian politics. He argues that the Greens not only offer an alternative to the major parties with their unwillingness to reduce Australia’s spiralling contribution to climate change, but also that they are filling a vacuum in Australian political life. He contemplates a growing sense that the major parties have lost touch with their roots, and contrasts this with the undeniable integrity and gravitas of Bob Brown.

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“Bennelong has now become a marginal seat for the ALP, which won with a majority of just 2434 votes. When he visited in March to open the new Liberal office, Tony Abbott described it as ‘probably as crucial as any seat in this coming election’. If they are to make a speedy return to power, Bennelong is a ‘must win’ for the Liberals, so they have decided to fight star power with star power.”

In “The Battle for Bennelong: Round Two”, Nick Bryant delivers a lively discussion of the state of play in the politically significant seat of Bennelong. He revisits the euphoria of the “change campaign”, as Maxine McKew ousted then prime minister John Howard from his own seat, and interviews McKew about the challenges the Labor Party faces at the close of its first term in government.

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“Malcolm grew up in suburban Perth, well within reach of welfare organisations and schooling, and English is his first language. So why is he statistically 43 times more likely to go to jail than a non-Aboriginal youngster? Why are three-quarters of children who are in detention from Aboriginal families? I wonder if Malcolm’s ‘card’ is already marked ‘do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to jail.’”

In “Life Sentence”, Victoria Laurie spends time with an Indigenous family confronting a multitude of issues in Perth. Through their struggle to stay together in the midst of evictions, court appearances and jail stints, Laurie illustrates how debilitating disempowerment is in the face of Australia’s bureaucracies and criminal justice system.

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“After nearly two decades trying to crack the secret of who made millions of dollars from the famous fire at Offset Alpine, Australia’s corporate cops have finally given up the chase, with the mystery unsolved and the crooks – if there were any – still on the loose.”

And in “Fire Walk With Me”, Paul Barry provides a retrospective of the famous Offset Alpine fire and its aftermath. As ASIC’s 16-year investigation into the suspect fire and the company’s mysterious constellation of shareholders reaches a legal dead end, Barry revisits a plot of corporate  corruption, thuggery, arrogance and lies, and profiles a cast of powerbrokers, stockbrokers, models and investigative journalists who became entangled in the drama.

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“There has been a great deal of speculation about the potential for e-books to change the experience of reading and writing. The micro-fiction and the poem might be resuscitated because of their neat fit with a short train trip and an iPad. Multimedia experiences in which the written word merges with video, voice and animation, may be shaped by the new technology … Who knows where it will lead? To new literary forms, or up the same cul-de-sac as the choose-your-own-ending and flip books of the 1970s?”

Plus, in “The Next Chapter”, Malcolm Knox uses the occasion of the launch of Apple’s iPad to consider the ways in which e-reader technologies will change the way we think and experience books and what this will mean for the Australian publishing industry.

THE NATION REVIEWED

“Mr Kenny, his thick straight hair, combed and parted, his horn-rims. He also wore stout tan shoes. As he talked he smiled, or almost smiled. It was his way of imparting knowledge. When for no reason I let out a laugh he came between the desks and without a pause slapped me across the face. I looked up; I saw how he was unsettled by what he had done. He was perhaps the best teacher.”

In “The Only Things I Remember from School”, Murray Bail lists those poignant moments and personal idiosyncrasies that linger in the mind from school days long gone.

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“In the history of Australian politics there has never been a collapse as dramatic, unexpected and unnecessary as the one experienced by Kevin Rudd during the past two months.”

In the Monthly Comment, Robert Manne analyses the policy choices, and the various ways these have been introduced, that have lead to Kevin Rudd’s political demise.

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Plus, in “Heart to Heart”, Gail Bell shares an unexpected moment with her sibling; and, in “Jewel of Melbourne”, Catherine Ford celebrates the work of the late jeweller and gallerist Mari Funaki.

ARTS & LETTERS

“An appreciation of Burton demands a recalibration of aesthetics. He sketches in the key of twitch. His ink oozes, drips and spatters, not so much a medium as an excretion, like spit, semen and sweat. Art litters his wake like graphic dandruff, the detritus of a fretful mind.”

In “Primal Scenes”, John Baxter enters the rabbit hole of Tim Burton’s dark and brilliant mind, just in time for Tim Burton: The Exhibition, currently on display at ACMI in Melbourne. Exploring themes of isolation, absurdity and horror that run through Burton’s work, Baxter sees the eccentric director, illustrator and craftsman as the custodian of a lineage of artists who find inspiration in places of menace and abiding fear.

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“In design circles it seems to be increasingly understood that design is not just about objects, and indeed not just about solving problems, but about creating designed solutions to the various issues – financial, environmental, social – that confront us.”

In “Food for Thought”, Alan Saunders considers contemporary Australian design and the current preoccupations of the Australian design community in the lead up to the State of Design Festival (to be held 14–25 July in Melbourne). Musing on the current tendency towards overdrive – “design sweatily roaming the world in search of some way of making things prettier, more interesting or just different” – Saunders posits that what is needed is a repositioning of the role of design and a change of pace in the industry’s creative processes.

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Plus, there’s Martin Krygier on Mark Aarons’ The Family File; and Robert Forster on Nick Kent’s Apathy for the Devil.