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July 2007

  • Comment
    Judith Brett | The Nation Reviewed | July 2007 | Politics

    The knack of successful political leadership in parliamentary democracies is to balance the politics of unity with those of division, to put yourself forward as the representative and protector of the nation as a whole while using every trick in the book to attack and...

  • Waterworld
    Kate Rossmanith | The Nation Reviewed | July 2007 | Environment

    A hundred kilometres off the coast of Gladstone, on the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef, is a tiny island made from the bones of coral. The four-hectare white-limestone mound is the remains of thousands of generations of polyps, minuscule marine creatures forming reef...

  • I Got Nothin’ for You
    Richard Cooke | The Nation Reviewed | July 2007 | Society & Culture

    Dave Panichi is one of the greatest jazz trombonists Australia has produced. He is also the straight man in one of the greatest unintentional comedy routines ever recorded. "I could live to be 150 and cure cancer, and I'd still go down in history as the guy from the...

  • The Big Cheese
    Gay Bilson | The Nation Reviewed | July 2007 | Society & Culture

    In 1837 Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, ordered that a 1400-pound cheese be placed in the foyer of the White House for those who were hungry and voiceless. The cheddar cut at the traditional welcome for the well-fed and empowered participants in...

  • Veritable Listeria
    Charles Firth | The Nation Reviewed | July 2007 | Society & Culture

    My sister recently became the minister for cancer, women and climate change in the New South Wales government. That is an absurd thing for any person to become, but it's especially absurd when the person is your big sister. In fact, I lied about her title, which...

  • Australian Exceptionalism: The Bali Nine and the future of the death penalty
    Daniel Hoare | The Monthly Essays | July 2007 | Foreign Affairs

    Since 1973, when the death penalty was abolished in Australia, the nation has taken a reasonably consistent international stance against capital punishment. In 1990 Australia signed a UN protocol that called upon all signatories to abolish the death penalty in their own...

  • A Letter to the Prime Minister from Death Row
    Richard Bourke | The Monthly Essays | July 2007 | Foreign Affairs | Politics

    Dear Prime Minister,

    I think it is wrong to kill people. It has become apparent that you and I differ on this. In particular, I think it is wrong for the state to kill prisoners under a scheme of capital punishment. Despite occasional protests to the contrary, you do...

  • Who’s Afraid of Macquarie Bank?: The story of the millionaire’s factory
    Gideon Haigh | The Monthly Essays | July 2007 | Business

    You are most likely to find Macquarie under your wheels. It has made its name as a long-term holder of big infrastructure assets, and its chief fame is in toll roads. Interests in a host of them - from the Chicago Skyway to Britain's M6 Tollway; from Highway 407 in...

  • Political Courage: Some Australian examples The Online Monthly - subscriber only access
    John Hirst | The Monthly Essays | July 2007 | Politics

    My Australian collection begins early, at Sydney Cove in 1789, the second year of the convict settlement. The nature of this anomalous society is still not well understood. Since the population consisted of convicts and military it is assumed that the military controlled the...

  • Pop Producer in B-Grade Movie Actress Murder Trial: Mick Brown’s 'Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector'
    Robert Forster | Books | July 2007

    On 23 May 2005 Phil Spector entered a courtroom in Los Angeles to hear evidence to be admitted to his trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson. He arrived wearing a permed ash-blond afro, the top of which stood nine inches from his head. He was nattily dressed in a blue shirt...