By this author
The Casino Wars
Gambling
In the final week before Echo Entertainment and Crown are due to present their proposals to the NSW government, the state’s casino war should be winding down. NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell doesn’t seem to think it will though, and has …
Dig Up, Eddie!
blog
It was immediately apparent that nobody was going to buy that the four on-air sentences in which Eddie McGuire racially vilified Adam Goodes on Wednesday morning were, as McGuire claimed, “a slip of the tongue.” Instead of releasing a considered statement …
Fun and Games
Asylum seekers
The final minutes of yesterday’s Question Time perfectly summed up the week in politics. Christopher Pyne asked the Prime Minister for her comments on a Sydney Morning Herald article in which an anonymous whistleblower told Fairfax that …
The eucalypt invasion of Portugal
nation_reviewed
Some Australians in Europe have overstayed their welcome
We Don’t Live Here Anymore
Asylum seekers
"Australia is no longer in Australia's migration zone" sounds like an Onion headline, but unfortunately it's straight out of the government's playbook. Yesterday, Parliament voted to excise the Australian mainland from Australia’s …
Women of Calibre
blog
Seemingly every other day now, one of my friends posts something on a social media site about how worried women should be if Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister come September 14. Every time Abbott makes a clumsy comment, the reason I’m filled with …
Waiting on the Barbarians
blog
I’ve been traveling for almost two months now. My boyfriend and I joke that we’re on a tour of economic ruin; the United States, now Portugal, next stop Greece. Now, I’m not the kind of traveler who pretends to learn the local customs …
The Queensland Experiment
Campbell Newman
When you grow up in Queensland, it’s a given that your experience of politics is going to be a little different to the rest of the country. To my friends and I, politicians like Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Pauline Hanson and later, Bob Katter, were like …
White Noise
Asylum seekers
Last week, the Associated Press announced that it was banning the term ‘illegal immigrant’ from its stylebook. Many major news organisations in the United States had already vowed to stop using the term, believing that it dehumanised those …
Sleep No More
Theatre
“Just go,” a friend urged me. “And don’t ask any questions.” I first heard about the show last year, long before I’d booked a flight to New York. As details of my trip firmed up, I remembered my friend desperately …
Culture of Complaint (refrain)
blog
Before the country relaxed into a four-day weekend there was some complaining to do. Best to get it out of the way before the Easter break to free up a bit of time to whinge about bottleshops not being open on Good Friday. Complaint is a long-celebrated …
Death in the Newspaper
Criminal justice
I’ve been overseas for a few weeks now and have pretty much gotten used to being out of sync with the news back home. The daily headlines don’t appear until the sun is setting where I am, and my Twitter feed is full of news from the US and the …
Mardi Gras
It makes a difference when something’s caught on tape. It’s a lesson that NSW police are reacquainting themselves with after 18-year-old Jamie Jackson was thrown to the ground by a police officer during Saturday night’s Mardi Gras festivities. The …
