Politics
The pandemic and the shrinking of Australian politics
Rather than prompting reform, the COVID emergency has hardened the major parties’ neoliberal ideology

Federal politics
New public management and why the Commonwealth government can’t do anything anymore
The strange and beautiful world of orchids and how they’ve seduced us
Art
A shock of renewal: ‘Hilma af Klint: The Secret Paintings’
The transcendent works of the modernist who regarded herself not an artist but a medium
Books
Desire’s conspiracies: ‘The Right to Sex’
Philosopher Amia Srinivasan’s essays consider incels, consent and sexual discrimination
Books
The meanings of production: ‘Beautiful World, Where Are You’
Novelist Sally Rooney returns to the dystopia of contemporary life while reflecting on her own fame
Film
True to form: ‘No Sudden Move’
Steven Soderbergh’s Detroit crime movie is another formal experiment with commercial trappings
Books
‘Harlem Shuffle’ by Colson Whitehead
The author of ‘The Underground Railroad’ offers a disappointingly straightforward neo-noir caper set in the early ’60s
Books
‘Beirut 2020’ by Charif Majdalani
The Lebanese writer’s elegiac journal captures the city’s devastating port explosion