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
Rohan Buettel: The Green Parasol and Fortuna’s Wheel
The Green Parasol
(After the painting by E. Phillips Fox)
The nineteenth century still lingers on
In summer 1912, a wicker chair
A Brisbane girl in Paris c’est si bon
The filtered sunlight tints her auburn hair
And all is peaceful green, it bathes her face
Her hands, her skin, the trees, the garden bed
The creamy dress a shroud with verdant lace
The flowers white and pink and poppy red
She sits so calm, relaxed, untroubled there
Upon her lap she strokes her little dog
Her lustrous beauty shines through limpid air
A sunlit joy before the yellow fog
For few short years remain to live this way
Bloody carnage will blast this world away
Rohan Buettel
Fortuna’s Wheel
(After the painting “Wheel of Fortune” by Edward Burne-Jones)
You lift us high, decide our fate
Fortuna driving with her hand
Then crush us low beneath your weight
The slave in chains in lofty state
He has achieved all that he planned
You lift us high, decide our fate
The king with crown and sceptre great
Is now…
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
