Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
Ivan Head: ‘Australian Icon’
Australian Icon
Grown men weep on cue to camera
when the young god dies pre middle age.
Hair transplants work wonders
but we are spared the naked Olympics
where immortality was on show.
Immortal is still a club award
to which the best aspire.
Phar Lap’s heart is venerated.
Is it oozing perfumed blood?
We see no fraud, only the good,
and had a bet on it and won.
What’s the surf like at Bondi?
The key-test on the wicket
never reached what lies beneath,
except in retrospect when death’s heavy roller went over it.
In the Ladies’ Stand a poet
is removed for sledging.
She keeps calling out
“Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me.”
She is excused as mad.
We ask no questions of the dead—
good blokes and mates instead.
Ivan Head
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins
