Latest Articles
In the Senate, a very queer notion of free speech
Sep 20 2024
2 mins
Researchers posit an irrefutable link between suspensions and incarceration. A harder look reveals this simply isn't true
Sep 19 2024
14 mins
Used as cudgels in divorce actions, domestic violence orders all too often reward perjurers and ruin innocent lives
Sep 19 2024
36 mins
Western Yellow Robin; Waterbird Beak Tanka
Western Yellow Robin
When the Almighty
spoke yellow-bellied robins
into bright being
and told them to multiply,
he already knew
I would observe this robin,
this gentle-grey bird
too shy to wear its colour
on its petite breast,
this yolk-yellow-under bird
drawn from the forest
by the feather-grey and -fine
smoke of my campfire—
and he also foreknew that
I would by virtue
of his implanted image
want to celebrate
and recreate this bird by
speaking it into a poem.
Waterbird Beak Tanka
1. Innovation
Linking Zulu and
Aboriginal know-how,
the hunting egret
has fixed a stabbing spear to
the woomera of its neck!
2. Offset
That brolga posture
and egret plumage—so grand!
Yet the effect is,
dear spoonbill beside the lake,
quite offset by your namesake!
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
