The sixth ‘c’ shaping Australia–India relations: China
On December 30, the Australian’s business section reported that China is cutting Australian wheat imports. Meanwhile, a front-page story said that in…
France’s Covid response is a source of national shame
France is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council not to have developed a coronavirus vaccine, and it…
Is Joe Biden’s administration fit for the 2020s?
Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees have been warmly received by the massed ranks of anti-Trumpists in Washington. But the warmth stateside…
Is the one shot jab a game changer?
The UK’s decision to lengthen the gap between first and second doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines has been…
Covidintimacy for covidiots
“There is no greater glory than to die for love” cries Florentino Ariza in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s, Love in the Time of Cholera.…
Finally, something to keep Malcolm and Krazy Kev off the streets
Is there a better reason to export Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd? They can go and consult to the US…
Covid maniacs running the asylum
It seems passing strange that the Victorian government’s arbitrary detention of its citizens, desperately flying home after Christmas, appears to…
Brown study
Fortunately, I came clean long before the US election and said that Trump would lose and probably should. It became…
Euro notes
Brexit Boost for Boris Having won a thumping majority a year ago, Boris Johnson keeps squandering the early, widespread good…
Xi’s Big Red Book
As well as micromanaging the lives of 1.4 billion Chinese, Xi Jinping is becoming a prolific author. His latest book,…
Aussie Life / Language
Simon Collins Can you remember when ‘We live in interesting times’ was an acceptable response to the disruptions caused by…
Bridgerton
Who would have thought that Netflix would score so sumptuously with a Regency soap that flaunts colourblind casting like a…
Banks, the new biography of Joseph Banks by Grantlee Kieza reviewed
One of the most eligible bachelors in England, he was strong, handsome, well-educated, adventurous and a fabulously rich young man.…
Portrait of the artist as a young woman
One of Barack Obama’s favourite books of 2020, Raven Leilani’s debut comes acclaimed by a literary Who’s Who that includes…
The right balance
When lockdown was first proposed in March, one of the many arguments against it was that people would tolerate being…
In the land of the lemur
Madagascar. There are so many delightful incongruities about the island. Despite being off the coast of Africa, because of the…
Life and death decisions
Thanks to the Booker Prize, Richard Flanagan is probably the only Tasmanian novelist British readers are likely to have heard…
