By this author
Editor’s Note February 2017
blog
The first week of Donald Trump’s presidency may not have revealed anything new about the man, but it did confirm the worst fears for his rule. Any doubts over whether he meant what he said – about immigration bans, voter fraud, building a wall, trade …
Editor’s Note December 2016 – January 2017
blog
The American people elected a candidate who promised to upend their political system. As with Brexit, it was a political result that seemed to come out of nowhere. The politics of rage, of populism, of protest, are overwhelming Western nations. In the …
The Centrelink summer
blog
The government will be scorched unless it acts soon
Editor’s Note November 2016
blog
The election of the most powerful person in the world was always going to be dramatic, but the fascination and disgust generated by Donald Trump has led to democratic effects that few predicted. The campaign has been a circus, and no one, it seems, can …
Editor’s Note October 2016
blog
“In 2016,” writes Alison Croggon in the new issue of the Monthly, “it became clear that Australian arts are facing the worst crisis since before the Australia Council was founded in 1967.” For several years, the Monthly’s …
Editor’s Note September 2016
blog
What is the role of the ABC? This question has never been more important. As commercial newsrooms struggle amid collapsing revenue – as jobs are lost, desks are closed – and their very existence comes under threat, the public will look to the …
Playing charades
Politics
From the census debacle to the Don Dale scandal, politicians and the public have short memories
Editor’s Note July 2016
blog
This month in a landmark essay, the great indigenous leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu writes about his history and culture, and sums up a lifetime of his thinking about relations between settler and Aboriginal cultures. “My father had to sacrifice much, …
Editor’s Note August 2016
blog
As Australia emerges from its post-election stupor and parties begin to evaluate what went right and wrong, this month we focus on the Australian Greens. What did the party deliver in the recent election? It was the Greens’ deal with the government …
Editor’s Note June 2016
blog
Three weeks into the eight-week election campaign, some things are clear. Bill Shorten’s confidence is up, and he seems to be having fun. His party, while vulnerable to the common Coalition attacks, and notwithstanding minor hiccups, has sharper messages …
Editor’s Note May 2016
Politics
“Our prime minister says that we must ‘live within our means’,” writes Don Watson. “The treasurer and the minister for finance both say it. As is the custom, having said it once, they have said it again and again.” It’s …
Editor’s Note April 2016
blog
Prime Minister Turnbull’s announcement last week certainly set the political class abuzz. Parliament would be prorogued, paving the way for a double-dissolution election. It was a stroke of genius. To the Australian public, harder to impress these …
Editor’s Note March 2016
Politics
In 2014, Malcolm Turnbull said Australia’s tax system was “too tough on people earning income, i.e. the entrepreneurs, the people who are growing and driving, younger people in jobs, working hard, making money in their businesses. It is too tough …
