The first black irony of the PM's letter [to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate] was that in a building full of lawmakers, the police have to write to those lawmakers to point out that if a crime has allegedly been committed, they need to either report it, or, if it is a matter like sexual assault, at least seek advice from the police about what to do about their knowledge a crime has allegedly been committed, if the complainant does not want to come forward. The second irony must be in the Prime Minister circulating this piece of information around the Parliament, given the long list of people in his own government, and his own office, who it appears had reason to suspect a serious crime may have been committed, but didn't say anything.
Laura Tingle
February 27, 2021
Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.
Adam Smith
February 25, 2021
We had lists that we gave to new women who came to the press gallery, of MPs who you should really not go and visit in their office alone.
Lenore Taylor
February 21, 2021
Do you know why we can fly a helicopter on Mars, but can’t turn on a light in Texas? Because scientists are in charge of Mars, and Republicans are in charge of Texas.
Sylvester Tweetycat
February 20, 2021
[On Scott Morrison’s 2021 Opening Speech at the National Press Club] It was the speech of someone who doesn’t think deeply and whose vision extends only to the bathroom mirror.
Dennis Atkins
February 6, 2021
In the Australian of the Year ceremony a man, whose cruel refugee policies still disgrace Australia, presented an award to a refugee advocate. Then a man who trivialises Indigenous objections to the date of Australia Day presented an award to an Aboriginal woman. Then a man whose political party doggedly opposed GST exemption for tampons for 18 years presented an award to a young Australian who supports international distribution of female sanitary products; and finally, a man who has consistently refused to criticise a co-religionist who failed to report child sex abuse presented an award to a sex abuse survivor. Next year, instead of insulting award-winners in this way, how hard would it be to find a presenter who actually cares about some of their causes? (Sydney Morning Herald, January 27, 2021)
Steve Cornelius
January 31, 2021
Just 12 months before Grace Tame accepted her Australia Day award for giving voice to survivors of sexual abuse, the committee gave an honour to Bettina Arndt who sympathetically interviewed Tame's convicted abuser portraying him as the victim of female manipulation.
Virginia Trioli
January 30, 2021
Wall Street and [the] stock market are metaphors for a society rotting from self-indulgence, greed, widening inequality, and financial entrepreneurship that builds nothing, improves nothing, creates nothing, and solves nothing, but merely moves money from one set of pockets to another.
Robert Reich
January 28, 2021
There is a desire felt by tens of millions of Americans, lumped into a diffuse and fractious movement known as the Christian right, to destroy the intellectual and scientific rigor of the Enlightenment, radically diminish the role of government to create a theocratic state based on ‘biblical law’, and force a recalcitrant world to bend to the will of an imperial and ‘Christian’ America. Its public face is on display in the House of Representatives. This ideology, which is the driving force behind the shutdown of the government, calls for the eradication of social ‘deviants’, beginning with gay men and lesbians, whose sexual orientation, those in the movement say, is a curse and an illness, contaminating the American family and the country. Once these ‘deviants’ are removed, other ‘deviants’, including Muslims, liberals, feminists, intellectuals, left-wing activists, undocumented workers, poor African-Americans and those dismissed as ‘nominal Christians’ — meaning Christians who do not embrace this peculiar interpretation of the Bible — will also be ruthlessly repressed. The ‘deviant’ government bureaucrats, the ‘deviant’ media, the ‘deviant’ schools and the ‘deviant’ churches, all agents of Satan, will be crushed or radically reformed.
Chris Hedges
January 21, 2021
Been clear to me for a long time that for Morrison to utter a word of criticism of Trump, QAnon etc would be tantamount to resignation from the circle of his closest friends. He is guided by mysterious forces and beliefs that most of us don’t even begin to understand.
