Wednesday, May 15, 2024

May 11 – 17, 2024

Chalmers targets second Labor term with strategic budget

Karen Barlow Labor’s budget confirms the election priorities of the energy transition, housing and cost-of-living support, while securing a second consecutive surplus. Its targeted spending is intended to avoid a rebound in inflation.

Image for article: Chalmers targets second Labor term with strategic budget

POST May 15, 2024

Budget targets cost of living

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced a medley of cost-of-living relief measures in the federal budget, …

Riches offered to green industries

Power bill relief a ‘bandaid’

Savings carved from NDIS

McBride sentenced to five years

LISTEN

News

Anthony Albanese and Micaela Cronin at a press conference.

Five-month delays for counselling of violent men

Rick Morton As Australia struggles with a surge in calls for help to domestic violence services, treatment programs for violent men are also struggling to meet demand.

News
Performers on stage.
Apartment buildings in the Melbourne CBD.
A Victoria Police officer on duty.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton greets lobbyist and former Liberal minister Christopher Pyne at a National Press Club event.
Displaced Palestinians travel on a cart in Rafah.

Comment

Letters, Cartoon & Editorial

Cartoon

ReadCartoon image, links to full cartoon page

Editorial
Future proof

Two months ago, Steve Christou was lifted onto the shoulders of two men outside Cumberland City Council. Holding a loudhailer, he led a group in chanting “Hands off our kids.” Others in the crowd shouted about “poofs” and “trannies”. A man beside him accused the mayor of satanism.

Letters

No surrender

“We are fighting the same battles our grandmothers did” (Chanel Contos, May 4-10). Who were these battles fought against and has the defeated enemy accepted the outcome? Since the suffragette movement, …

More protection

Thank you, Bob Pease, for your insightful suggestions (Letters, May 4-10). I was pregnant with my third child when my then husband put a knife into the kitchen table and told me he would kill all of us if I left. …

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Culture
Kim Gordon in a leather jacket.

Profile

Kim Gordon and the wall of faceless men

Romy Ash At 71, alternative rock and riot grrrl pioneer Kim Gordon is still making experimental music and visual art – and still refusing to please.
Richard Gadd as Donny and Jessica Gunning as Martha in a scene from Baby Reindeer.

Television

Netflix’s Baby Reindeer

Joseph Earp Comedian Richard Gadd’s whip-smart Netflix hit, Baby Reindeer, is compelling because it refuses to simplify the realities of trauma.

Fiction

The position

“There was something ahead, dimly visible. A change in the light. She trod carefully on the soft dust, compressing underfoot like sand. A kind of structure jutted out. Shreds of orange against the grey. She thought it was her own life craft at first, that she must have got turned around, but this one had been here much longer, was already half buried. Empty, of course. Too late to look for footprints.”

Jennifer Mills

Image for article: Goran Stolevski’s <em>Housekeeping  for Beginners</em>

Film

Goran Stolevski’s Housekeeping  for Beginners

Christos Tsiolkas Goran Stolevski’s latest film, Housekeeping  for Beginners, shows his trademark daring as a filmmaker but stumbles over the plot’s increasing implausibility.
Christopher Sommers and Zoë Houghton perform on stage in The Norman Mailer Anecdote.

Theatre

Big Scary Animal’s The Norman Mailer Anecdote

Yen-Rong Wong The first production in Queensland Theatre’s independent program – Big Scary Animal’s The Norman Mailer Anecdote – is a winner.

Books
Image for article: Ghost Cities

Siang Lu
Ghost Cities

Image for article: Datsun Angel

Anna Broinowski
Datsun Angel

Image for article: Detachable Penis

Sam Elkin
Detachable Penis

Life
Image for article: Fish pie

Food

Fish pie

Andrew McConnell

Image for article: A seat at the domestic violence roundtable

Life

A seat at the domestic violence roundtable

Kristine Ziwica A crisis meeting convened by the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner shows frontline workers and advocates seizing a rare opportunity to push for meaningful change, learning from mistakes – and triumphs – of the past.

Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert.

Travel

The Mojave Desert in a Mustang

Chris Johnston The Joshua Tree National Park in the United States is a desert landscape replete with wildlife and cultural significance, including its own musical catalogue.

Sport

The AFL’s box-ticking response to gender-based violence

Martin McKenzie-Murray

The coinciding of the AFL’s round eight stand against gender-based violence and the NSW Hall of Fame’s plan to bestow ‘Legend’ status on Wayne Carey highlights the yawning gap between platitudes and action.
Richmond and Fremantle players, coaches and umpires form a circle as a show of support against gender-based violence

Puzzles

The Cryptic

link to this week\'s crossword

Crossword No. 499

The Quiz

1. What is the birthstone for May?
2. Actress Amber Heard first met Johnny Depp while auditioning for which 2011 film? (Bonus points for naming whose novel the film was based on.)
3. Eddie Vedder is the lead singer of which Seattle-born rock band?
4. Serpentine National Park is in which Australian state or territory?
5. Which Irish actor links The Sapphires, Bridesmaids and This Is 40?
6. Name the most-capped Australian international netballer, former national captain and television personality who was recently appointed to the board of Netball Australia.
7. The Moonstone (1868), by Wilkie Collins, is often considered to be the mother of which hugely popular fiction genre?
8. Which of these is not a fish: golden perch, silver birch or bronze corydoras?
9. Bohemian crystal comes from which country?
10. Which song by The Rolling Stones begins: “She would never say where she came from”?

Click through for answers.

Quotes

Medicine

“A worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”

Robert Kennedy JrThe United States presidential candidate explains the cause of his memory loss and mental fogginess. The disclosure was made during divorce proceedings, where a worm is one of the few things that can be split evenly in two and survive.

Relationships

“The reason I got with young men is because men my age are older – well, now they’re all dead.”

CherThe singer and actress explains how she came to be dating a man who is almost four decades younger than her. Looked at another way, he’s the same age as her face.

Television

“It’s very early days, but it’s not out of the question.”

Daryl SomersThe former television host announces he has been in talks to revive Hey Hey It’s Saturday. It’s these sorts of conservative programming decisions that take opportunities away from the next generation of racist entertainers.

Politics

“Vladimir showed me a violent nature that I didn’t imagine in such a kind and rational man.”

Silvio BerlusconiThe former Italian prime minister describes a hunting trip with Vladimir Putin, relayed in a memoir by Fabrizio Cicchitto. Putin apparently offered Berlusconi a deer’s heart, which caused him to vomit behind a tree.

Aviation

“This is the least that Qantas could do after they misled their customers.”

Jim ChalmersThe treasurer reprimands the airline after it was fined for booking customers onto cancelled flights. Not flying was the only way they could be certain not to lose luggage.

Climate

“Frustration, I think, is about the fact that the way it’s been handled and presented does not reflect the work the government is doing.”

Kate ThwaitesThe Labor politician complains about her party’s plan to continue investment in gas. The problem is that it reflects exactly what the government is doing.

ISRAEL–HAMAS WAR