Australian Notes

7 April 2012
Peter Coleman

Some radio shock jock calls a female journalist ‘a fat slag’. The Australian Communications and Media Authority imposes restrictions on him. Cheers all round. The same week Germaine Greer declares on television that the Prime Minister has ‘a big arse’. The country falls apart applauding her brilliant wit. But when Tony Abbott jokingly tells a group of women, who are deploring the Prime Minister’s dress sense, that Greer is right about that, all hell breaks loose. It was off-the-cuff banter and should have been accepted as such. But even Abbott’s apology does not appease his critics. The established moral is...

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Diary

7 April 2012
Sam Lipski

Tel Aviv
In Hebrew, going from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport to Jerusalem you ‘ascend’, literally — Israel’s capital is about 800 metres above sea level — and religiously. When you come back to Tel Aviv, just an hour by road, you ‘descend’; literally, because it’s down on the Mediterranean coast, and by universal agreement, religiously. Having ‘ascended’ after flying in from Hong Kong, and jet-lagged at 2 a.m., I read that Traveller’s Digest has just ranked Tel Aviv in the Top 10 ‘Sexiest Cities’ for 2012. It’s tenth for the best men, and seventh for ‘the hottest women’,...

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No messiah for Labor

7 April 2012

The search for a messiah to lead the party out of the doldrums will certainly intensify within Labor ranks, if not before the next election then certainly the following day. Call it the curse of Gough, but Labor, more so than any other political party, constantly seeks a great leader capable of inspiring the masses. Whether it be the Light on the Hill or the Tree of Knowledge, the ‘greatest moral challenge’ or ‘true believers’, Labor mythology likes to imbue events and personalities with qualities above and beyond those of mere mortals. However great the Left’s heroes may or may...

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Memo to Russell Hill: the F-35 won’t fly

7 April 2012
Phil Radford

Few of us get through life without having to navigate traumatic loss. Letting go of that thing we love is excruciating, because we have to cut out part of our core, our identity, our purpose. But it’s necessary because the alternative is endless, irrevocable waste. Nothing is more ghoulish than that poor, useless wreck who can’t let go.

It’s odd to see governments get themselves into the same frightful state as mortals, but the Australian government has managed it. The truth, plain to everyone not involved, is that the country’s decade-long infatuation with the US-designed F-35 fighter is doomed. It’s...

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Imitation without flattery

7 April 2012
Christopher Akehurst

In the days when Australia’s gratitude to the United States for defending us in the second world war was still undimmed, Australians did not call each other ‘guys’. They didn’t exhort each other to ‘have a great day’. Nor did they live on estates at an address on such and such a street from which each morning they made their way to the train station. If someone made a decision they didn’t like they might have protested against it but they didn’t protest it, and if they sought to have it rescinded they didn’t appeal it.

They didn’t shout...

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Latham’s law

7 April 2012
Mark Latham

A common lament in political commentary is how parliamentary life has changed beyond recognition. The end of Cold War ideology and rise of the 24/7 news cycle are among the many factors blamed for this transformation. It is reassuring, however, to know some things in public life remain constant. During the last parliamentary session, Jessica Wright from the Fairfax stable reported how:

Politicians are being driven to drink to cope with the demands of the hung parliament, according to the only medically qualified MP in federal politics, the West Australian Liberal MP Mal Washer.

What does he mean...

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