Inside Story

Me on One Nation’s recent poll surge, overseas counterparts, and the big fat potential disinformation weakness in our electoral system.

insidestory.org.au/one-nations-...

A rollercoaster of spoilers • Jane Goodall A pacey dramatisation of News International’s phone-hacking and influence-wielding leaves the story necessarily unfinished

““The hardest thing to reckon with about this whole rotten business is that it remains unresolved. Leveson left the inquiry with stern recommendations that weren’t acted upon, despite David Cameron’s promise to do so. Phase two of Leveson has never happened.” Jane Goodall reviews The Hack…

A rollercoaster of spoilers • Jane Goodall A pacey dramatisation of News International’s phone-hacking and influence-wielding leaves the story necessarily unfinished

Time to clean out the stables.
Reopen Leveson.
#HackedOff

insidestory.org.au/a-rollercoas...

Now, down to business • Patrick Mullins “A catalyst, a provocation, and a reassurance,” Asa Briggs combined prolific history-writing with an extraordinary range of other activities

I reviewed a new biography of the historian Asa Briggs, by Adam Sisman, for Inside Story:

insidestory.org.au/now-down-to-...

Whatever happened to the revolution? • Philippa Hawker Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest feature, and the story of an orchestral work said to be performed somewhere in the world every fifteen minutes

“There’s a let-me-entertain-you spirit running through the movie that is sometimes expressed in dynamic, kinetic fashion, sometimes with cartoonish vigour, and sometimes through Anderson’s trademark needle drops.” Philippa Hawker’s review of ‘One Battle After Another’ and Anne Fontaine’s ‘Bolero.’

Are we counting what really counts? • Andrew Leigh Statisticians are struggling to capture the twenty-first-century economy

“Comparing the number of hours the typical British worker had to toil to buy particular goods and services, Coyle reports that the time required to finance a vacuum cleaner halved from 1990 to 2019, while the time cost of beef doubled.”

The populist phantom • Inside Story Democracy erodes from the top

Also — to be honest, I felt the same way for a long time until I stumbled across this essay. It changed how I looked at all of this in a big way:

insidestory.org.au/the-populist...

Toxic emissions • Peter Brent The Australian’s Greg Sheridan is backing Matt Canavan’s electorally dangerous campaign against renewable energy to the hilt

“Hunt is long gone, and these days the object of Sheridan’s besottedness seems to be Matt Canavan, the coal-revering Queensland LNP senator”
Sez me
insidestory.org.au/toxic-emissi...

Wonderful review of Road to October 7 (@versobooks.bsky.social) in Inside Story: insidestory.org.au/how-hamas-ha...

Excellent piece by @peterbrent.bsky.social re Price and "85%" Indian-Australian ALP voting figure nonsense. insidestory.org.au/what-was-tha...

Selling immigration • Peter Brent The weekend’s protests are a reminder of Australia’s distinctive record

Me on immigration as a political issue and Related Matters. Keywords: White Australia, Ruddock, Megalogenis, Trump, boats …
insidestory.org.au/selling-immi...

The closure of Meanjin is real blow to the Australian literary community. We're sad to see the loss of another place where writers, thinkers, and culture-makers have a voice and platform. Our thoughts are with staff and contributors.

An exceptional life in the law • Inside Story Lawyer, educator, judge and royal commissioner Hal Wootten never lost sight of “those on whom the law bore harshly”

“Hal Wootten has often been called ‘brilliant,’ which of course he was, but his brilliance was more than a mental capacity. In the course of his life his intellect fused with boundless energy, growing confidence and broadening sympathies to form a distinctive compound.”

An exceptional life in the law • Inside Story Lawyer, educator, judge and royal commissioner Hal Wootten never lost sight of “those on whom the law bore harshly”

Wow! Inspiring article about an
inspiring man. Well worth reading. What a legacy!
insidestory.org.au/an-exception...

Car pollution is deadly. New research shows us just how much Vehicle emissions may contribute to more than 1,800 premature deaths in Australia each year, according to the nation's first assessment of the health impact of traffic-related pollution.

Traffic pollution in Australia contributes to more than 1,800 premature deaths per year, study estimates
www.abc.net.au/news/science... #aushealth
paper www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How The Leopard changed its spots • James Panichi Netflix’s struggle with Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s deeply conservative novel

“Centuries of marauding foreign invaders; poor infrastructure; organised crime networks; high unemployment — hasn’t Sicily suffered enough? Then along comes Netflix’s adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s 1958 classic, The Leopard…”

Silent terror: Russia’s occupation of southeastern Ukraine • Jon Richardson A chilling account of occupied southeastern Ukraine reveals a systematic program of Russification combined with chaos, brutality and corruption

Very good. And even if they scored well, it would still be illegal and should never be countenanced. Acquisition of territory by force has been successfully made inadmissible since WWII. Read David Lewis on the brutal fascist regime in the occupied territories.

insidestory.org.au/silent-terror/

Fewer births and a smaller population would be good for families and good for the world: my review of After the Spike

insidestory.org.au/i...

A dose of reality for the “realists” • Mark Edele Zbigniew Brzezinski came to resist the tolerance for great-power ambitions that would play out so tragically in Ukraine

Long read on realism, idealism, Russia and Ukraine. Review essay on recent (very good) books by @avindman.bsky.social and @edwardluce.bsky.social . @insidestory.bsky.social insidestory.org.au/a-dose-of-re...

George Johnston’s odyssey of war and peace • Paul Genoni & Tanya Dalziell Eighty years ago, with the Pacific war drawing to a close, the celebrated war correspondent set out on a perilous spiritual journey

insidestory.org.au/george-johns... In search of Shangri-La

Lovely review from @insidestory.bsky.social

Hot night at Town Hall • Ken Inglis What happened when the satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer, who died on Saturday at ninety-seven, came to puritanical Adelaide in 1960?

“South Australia has one of the finest governments of the eighteenth century.” So said the satirist Tom Lehrer when the state government banned five songs he planned to sing at the 1960 Adelaide Festival. Ken Inglis reported on the controversy for the fortnightly magazine Nation.

The jewel in the crown of the ANU • Tom Griffiths & Mark McKenna Celebrated by previous vice-chancellors, the Australian Dictionary of Biography and its fellow national project, the Australian National Dictionary, are threatened by university cuts

Great piece on the bad things happening at my alma mater. insidestory.org.au/the-jewel-in...

How to resist a tyrant • Linda Jaivin If democracy is the goal, non-violence is a better bet

First review essay discussing the book (by Linda Jaivin, also discusses How Tyrants Fall and China book Everyday Democracy): insidestory.org.au/how-to-resis... + 2 earlier reviews in @asiancha.bsky.social bv Sharon Yam‬ chajournal.blog/2025/05/28/m... & Nick Zeller chajournal.blog/2025/05/31/a...

Such an odd man. The essay makes clear the difference between being a conservative and a reactionary.
#auspol

How to misread a referendum • Peter Brent More evidence emerges that Peter Dutton’s electorally toxic impulses were reinforced by misleading polling

“If the biggest surprise of May’s federal election was its lopsided result, a secondary one was the extent to which the Coalition had guzzled down the Voice referendum Kool-Aid. Down to their bootstraps, it seems, they really believed the 60% No vote held great promise for the general election.”

The jewel in the crown of the ANU • Tom Griffiths & Mark McKenna Celebrated by previous vice-chancellors, the Australian Dictionary of Biography and its fellow national project, the Australian National Dictionary, are threatened by university cuts

“As former ANU chancellor Gareth Evans has argued, there is probably no finer or more enduring expression of the university’s nation-building charter than the Australian Dictionary of Biography.”

A post-American world • Graeme Dobell The Australian flag faces the American eagle in the new world disorder

“Canberra’s Trump tactic has been to play nice, talk soft, cling to the alliance and try to ride out these years. The trouble with bowing the head in quiet prayer lies in the refusal to raise the eyes to stare at stark reality.”

Keen as mustard • Anne-Marie Condé What really happened when boffins gathered in Canberra in 1939?

“Any ANZAAS congress would do as a case study, but the one held in Canberra in 1939 seems as good as any because it falls at about the halfway mark of the congresses. Why not crack that one open to see what might fall out?”

John Stone, political activist • Dominic Kelly The former Treasury head was revealed to be an arch-reactionary in his long second career

“Stone was never convinced by Scott Morrison, so the Coalition’s defeat in 2022 came as something of a relief. Counselling readers against despair at the prospect of a Labor government, he immediately foresaw green shoots of recovery under Peter Dutton…”