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A sense of exhausted déjà vu hung over Court 22A last week as it settled in for the latest round of hearings in the Lehrmann defamation case. Justice Lee had put the final touches on his judgment during Lent, “entirely appropriate”, he said ruefully, as he resignedly agreed to let Channel 10 and Lisa Wilkinson…

On the May 2018 Barrie Cassidy iteration of ABC’s ‘Insiders’, a clip resurfaced of Anthony Albanese speaking about killings in Gaza. With fuller cheeks and a fuller heart, he spoke with conviction: “Those people who have guns on one side, and on the other side have rocks – the people with guns have the responsibility…

Journalism In Australia hit new depths this month as the federal press gallery became increasingly frothy-mouthed about the politics of non-existent nuclear subs and has-been pop stars and something called religious freedoms and well, largely fuck-all else, madam, really. Holly Somebody in the UK said something and then Nigel in the UK said something, before…

Deep within Canberra’s soiled halls, where sellouts*, drunks, psychopaths and megalomaniacs roam, strategically weaponised bullshit is conjured up for our consumption. Soundbites, slogans, dog whistles and distractions – “announceables” that fall well short of being actual policies. Or even things that might plausibly happen one day.  This is what Peter (“He’s not a monster” –…

At first glance the images seem fairly innocuous.  Bunches of people holding placards at this month’s Dunkley by-election, suggesting significant ground-level support for US-style aggressive political disinformation outfit “Advance”. Kind of a Where’s Wally, but an edition for special students.  Advance, which ran the anti-Indigenous Voice “No” campaign, claims to be a “grassroots” movement of…

As you definitely would know, unless you’ve been in a coma for the past month, musical superstar Taylor Swift toured this fair nation, and instead of going ‘that’s great for her fans’, Australian media went into a meltdown that brought loyal swifties and Swift haters together in feeling completely embarrassed by the joke that is…

Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths post consistent annual profits of more than a billion dollars, hold 60 percent of the market, and enjoy a stranglehold over a vital supply chain of essential items. And with this power they squeeze ordinary Australians dry, from farmers to latte-sippers to marginal families. The supermarkets, under the cover of…

As a young boy I once had to flee a toy store, hurriedly dragged along by my panicked but in hindsight admirably still functioning dad, through London’s eerily empty streets. The IRA had phoned in a bomb threat. From a sea of endless forgotten memories, I can tell you unequivocally that one will stay with…

We’re back. We’re back in federal parliament for another year and only a week in, the Liberal National Coalition are already fresh out of ideas and morals. The Coalition’s only major achievement last year seems to have been reminding Australians why they voted the Coalition out of office and why the Libs desperately need to…