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Coalition of the Craven
THERE are times, quite a few of them over the past two years, when the business of politics can only leave the observer mystified. Not the horse-trading and compromises, which are no less than the brush and palette of what is accurately described as the art of the possible, but the folly of valuing tactics above strategy. As a case study, let us take the problem of the ABC and the Coalition’s limp confusion in how to cure it.
Begin the examination late on the evening of September 7, 2013, when the ballots had been tallied and those who voted to banish the clowns of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd circus were buoyant with good cheer, the broadest smiles perhaps worn by those savouring with grim delight the prospect of seeing the national broadcaster thoroughly flushed and sanitised. Surely, with a comfortable parliamentary majority in hand, Prime Minister Abbott understood that he was in the happy position to do well by doing good — enjoy the satisfaction of settling a few scores…
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