From 16 January, I’ll be hosting Evenings on ABC Local Radio in NSW and the ACT. But don’t worry, in the admittedly highly unlikely event you were in fact worrying, the blog will be updated at least once a week as well. Yes, that’s right, I said weekly. More soon.
The Hamster Wheel
I’m not updating the site at the moment because I’m working on The Hamster Wheel, a show about the media that we’re doing on ABC-TV. Expect more updates from December!
Here endeth the ethics lessons?
Fred Nile is now the longest serving member of the NSW Parliament, having stuck around in Macquarie St for even longer than his own eyebrows. In what he promises will be his final term, either God, fate or the folly of the NSW electorate has granted him the balance of power. And Rev Nile has celebrated by proposing an “Ethics Repeal Bill”, whose name would surely be too absurd even for the writers of The Thick Of It. He’s argued for the cancellation of ethics classes in NSW schools by claiming that they have been shown to bring about Nazism and, simultaneously, communism. All of which would seem a terribly jolly farce if he wasn’t in a position to pass his bill by cutting a deal with Barry O’Farrell. Continue Reading →
Hard questions for those who ask hard questions
Julia Gillard’s claim that News Limited has “hard questions” to answer because of the phone-hacking scandal is disingenuous. Rather, it has a very simple question to answer: have its journalists hacked any phones or paid off any police in Australia? Like whether her colleagues are happy with her performance as Prime Minister, it’s a straightforward question whose answer is almost certainly no. Continue Reading →
I believe you Juliar
The claim that Julia Gillard is a liar is now as widespread across Australia as rabbits and Andre Rieu, and almost as devastating, at least to her approval ratings. Tony Abbott has been gleefully claiming that her pants are on fire for months now, and Alan Jones, that bastion of civility, called the Prime Minister “Juliar” to her face, his Wildean wordplay reminding me of those halcyon days when primary school wags named me “Domadick”. Continue Reading →
Twelve tips for those home alone
So, you’re living alone, like more Australians than ever before. Perhaps you’ve had a breakup, or moved to a new town? Perhaps, like Richard Roxburgh’s character in Rake, you’ve systematically alienated everyone who ever cared about you and have ended up alone in a dingy bedsit? Or perhaps you’re just weird. Continue Reading →
In defence of books, and bookshops
With parents who are voracious readers and a grandmother who taught kindergarten teachers, and loved to use her eldest grandchild as a guinea-pig for roadtesting children’s books, reading has always been a big part of my life. So the suggestion by Nick Sherry that bookshops would disappear within five years came as something of a shock, especially since he’s the Small Business Minister. Way to make businesses smaller, Senator. Continue Reading →
Bob Ellis in the line of fire
Yesterday I appeared on a panel at Sydney Uni with The Drum’s editor Jonathan Green to discuss free speech, along with Steve Cannane and Jack Marx. (And yes, it was noted that we are all white, middle-class men, a group whose access to free speech is generally pretty darn unrestricted.)
I said a lot of faintly pompous things about the value of freedom of speech, so would be remiss of me not to go into bat for that same principle 24 hours later with respect to Bob Ellis’ controversial article on The Drum this morning. Continue Reading →
No smoke without ire
I hate smoking with a fury that few people who aren’t self-righteous, hypochondriac asthmatics like me could muster. Whenever it’s banned from another category of public place, or an additional tax is imposed, or cigarette companies are required to include even more disturbing health messages on their packs, you will find no cheerleader more willing to perform a high-kick in support than me. And when we factor in just how inflexible my limbs are, that’s a pretty deep commitment.
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