Arts
Brian Benjamin
Is the Victorian government's review of arts funding short-changing the arts?
Brian Benjamin Last year, the Victorian Ombudsman expressed concern about Arts Victoria's, ''lack of management and auditing [which] contributed to a culture that allowed ... corrupt conduct to go undetected''.
Elizabeth Farrelly
Rarely has a renaissance hurt the arts so much
Elizabeth Farrelly If, as they say, we are but the sum of our prejudices, then having them subtracted, or extracted, should be painfully reductive.
Kate Middleton
Arts cuts will reward only the unthinking
Kate Middleton In 2009, my first book won the West Australian Premier's Award for Poetry. The book, which took shape over the course of eight years, was eligible for an advance of just $500 from my publisher.
Matt Wade
The need has gone out of the needle arts
Matt Wade Economic change has shifted the wifely arts from a mainstream household practice to a subculture.
Chris Berg
Hey Mr Garrett! Time to get off our arts and do nothing
Chris Berg Australia needs a national cultural policy like a fish needs a bicycle.
Liberals' unhealthy dose of purging threatens
Andrew Leigh This willingness to use public servants as political playthings is pretty shocking.
New broom can make a mess
Jack Waterford Nothing erodes effectiveness more than constant reorganisation, rebadging and reshuffling at the top
Clones? Who needs them in our Parliament
Tim Soutphommasane One way to get fresh blood into politics may be through primary preselections.
Explicit emails a reminder some in army still don't get reform
Elizabeth Broderick I was appalled and saddened to learn that a number of members of the Australian Army - of varying ranks and who had been there for many years - had allegedly produced and distributed explicit emails...
Faceless men forced to confront own uncertain futures
Mark Kenny Like the carnivorous Dasyurus (quoll), Factius Powbrokius is mostly timid and rarely sighted in the open.
Fraser's green spin won't stop with Abbott win
Gerard Henderson Until the advent of the 24/7 news cycle, there was no clear role for former political leaders, including prime ministers.
Labor's electoral fortunes rest on a turn
Mark Kenny Julia Gillard remains resolute, determined to lead the government into the September election despite voter sentiment portending an electoral bloodbath, and despite a flurry of speculation both...
Shorten stuck between a rock and a hard place
Tony Wright It is a measure of the Labor Party's current desperation that a single minister, Bill Shorten, has emerged as an emblematic figure supposedly invested with almost super powers.
Gillard standing firm but her fate rests with unions
Mark Kenny Julia Gillard remains resolute, determined to lead the government into the election despite voter sentiment portending an electoral bloodbath, and despite a flurry of speculation both inside the...
Powerful '90s nostalgia sweeps nation, or so politicians hope
Jacqueline Maley 'Our next speaker doesn't take any introduction,'' said David Morris, national director of the Australian Republican Movement, at a Parliament House book launch on Monday.
Ice queen Gillard must thaw or be carved up by slogans
Jacqueline Maley When Julia Gillard addressed her first caucus meeting as Prime Minister after the 2010 election, her Labor colleagues gave her a standing ovation.
Asbestos dust-up overcooked as pollies turn up heat
Tony Wright Material no longer prized for its fireproofing ability also fails to reduce the scorching of politicians.
When you bring the script, then throw it away
Judith Ireland In the bloody wake of the Labor leadership spill in March, Joel Fitzgibbon said it was a time for ''healing''.
Labor MP goes rogue on Gillard, down to the letter
Tony Wright Paul Keating in the 1980s became fond of a theory called the J-curve, sold to him by the Treasury, suggesting an initial fall in the fortunes of the dollar would create a lovely and satisfying...
ON THE QT
Good time to listen in naughty corner
Judith Ireland You have to feel for Anna Burke. Is there a more tedious job in Australia than being parliamentary Speaker?
