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
The ABC and SBS: A marriage that won’t happen
In early 2008, during the Camelot days of then-PM Kevin Rudd, SBS management floated the concept of rationalising its transmission and distribution service with the ABC. It was one of the thought bubbles to float out of Rudd’s 2020 “meeting of the minds” summit, but five years, two prime ministers and a lot of hot air about fiscal responsibility later, nothing has happened.
And nothing will happen in 2013 if for no other reason than it is an election year. It is also the year in which the national broadcasters’ triennial budgets will be renewed.
SBS currently receives around $220m a year from the government. The ABC’s budget is around $1billion, including a bit more than $20m which it has been gifted in perpetuity to run Australia Network, the country’s international television service.
The rationalisation strategy was interpreted at the time as a toe in the water by the SBS to test Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy’s response to the broadcaster’s policy of…
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
