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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · 5d

Me on the Australian Ballet's joyous program of contemporary dance, Prism. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2025/10/04/t...

The Australian Ballet’s Prism has moments of pure joy

The Australian Ballet’s latest production, Prism, is a triple bill that brings moments of austere beauty and pure joy.

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au

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Reposted by Alison Croggon

Rick Morton @squigglyrick.bsky.social · 10d

What a ride. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Writing the book on Robodebt drove Rick Morton mad. Now it's won him $80k

Journalist Rick Morton didn't want to write a book about Robodebt. Now that book, Mean Streak, has won the Prime Minister's Literary Award for non-fiction.

www.abc.net.au

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · 9d

So pleased for you Rick. Congrats! 💖

Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · 22d

"Gamergate never ended. It put on a tie and went to Washington."

Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 23d

I wrote about the firing of Alan Sepinwall, which is awful. And I tied it into what's happening all over in the media, why it's scary & what we can do to help. I used my words, but it's definitely Hulk Mo dialed up to 11, if that's a thing you would like to experience: www.moryan.com/on-the-firin...

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Reposted by Alison Croggon

Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 22d

A really great piece from @nickfeik.bsky.social.

Who killed Meanjin?

And why won’t Melbourne University Publishing engage with efforts to save it?

www.crikey.com.au

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Reposted by Alison Croggon

Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · Sep 8

If Melbourne University Publishing doesn’t want to keep publishing Meanjin, they should hand over the journal to someone worthy of the responsibility. Me in The Conversation theconversation.com/the-decision...

The decision to close Meanjin misunderstands its wider importance. Australian culture deserves better

The decision to close Meanjin is the latest in a string of recent decisions that suggest universities are not safe harbours for priceless cultural institutions.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Alison Croggon

Andy Fleming @slackbastard.bsky.social · Sep 8

Why should accountants, human-resource managers & real-estate developers be interested in promoting Australian literature?

Crikey @crikey.com.au · Sep 8

Opinion | Melbourne University Press says it shut down Meanjin for "purely financial reasons". Perhaps the university could have used some of its $273 million surplus to safeguard the seminal journal, @catrionamp.bsky.social‬ writes.

Meanjin's 'financial' shutdown doesn't add up

www.crikey.com.au

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 7

Thanks Chris - me too, dammit! So annoying

Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 7

Ah, I can see it not being someone’s cup of tea

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 7

Anyway, please read, it's free and Tanz is an excellent magazine.

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 7

“There hasn’t been any perspective for a while now,” says another respected choreographer. “One cannot plan, funding is extremely uncertain, and demoralisation characterises the independent professional scene all around, artists, critics, venues and festivals included."

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 7

“Lack of funding acts as a form of censorship. It may not be explicit, but its effects are undeniable.” says choreographer Márta Ladjánszki.

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 7

“There are financial sources that are gone or drying up, reduced budgets, the starving out of artists and communities, and subtle manipulations of ownership or institutional background... Most artists lost their access to public funding and decided to stop or reduce their activity"

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 7

There the problem is authoritarianism. Here the problem is corporatism. But the effects are basically identical. Some quotes from Hungarian artists below that could all be said (and have been said) by Australian independent artists.

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 7

Well worth the read: a report on contemporary dance and censorship in Viktor Orbán's right wing Hungary, where independent artists are struggling to survive. A situation unsettlingly parallel with what is happening in Australia.

tanz.dance/the-city-of-...

The city of open wounds - Shifting the arts

It was actually an inspiring few days in the Hungarian capital: invited by Lena Megyeri, a dance writer living in Budapest, I gained an insight into the deeper layers of the independent scene in Budap...

tanz.dance

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 7

In that you disliked it or did everyone else? (Just got back from Brisbane and have caught a cold and am slightly sideways today)

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 6

Thanks Keith 🙏🏻

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 6

“In Della’s contradictions, Marillier portrays the internalisation of decades – nay, centuries – of brutal authoritarian power. Apartheid was, after all, only the culmination of a process that began with British and Dutch colonisation.” www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea...

South Africa’s apartheid era in focus in Destiny

Kirsty Marillier’s play Destiny captures both the menace of South Africa’s apartheid regime and the joyous energy it sought to stifle.

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 6

sydneyreviewofbooks.com/reviews/bast...

Bastards! | Sydney Review of Books

From economic rationalism to libertarianism, neoliberalism appears under many guises. Reviewing Quinn Slobodian’s new book on neoliberal thought, James Ley shows that what its founders share with latt...

sydneyreviewofbooks.com

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 4

Me and so many others!

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Reposted by Alison Croggon

Rick Morton @squigglyrick.bsky.social · Sep 4

So much I could say about the Robodebt Class Action re-settlement. But I am tired and in another time zone and will simply leave this here instead.

Rick Morton @squigglyrick.bsky.social · Aug 15

Commonwealth Ombudsman already smashed them and now not even govt's chosen auditing firm can say if the house of cards system of punitive mutual obligations is legal. Quite literally, they say, it is indefensible. Yet it persists. Even after Robodebt. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politic...

Exclusive: Government warned over ‘legal basis’ of welfare system

Despite being warned in 2018 that jobseekers were being exposed to unfair and excessive decisions, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations ‘chose to continue with the status quo’.

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au

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Reposted by Alison Croggon

Seb Chan @sebchan.bsky.social · Sep 4

It is easy to dismiss this as a single publication ending, but it’s a wider _infrastructural_ loss - and as Louise Adler says, easy to close, very hard to rebuild. These decisions have disastrous long term consequences beyond a single slice of the cultural sector

Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 4

This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing

Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.

www.crikey.com.au

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Reposted by Alison Croggon

Andrew Trevillian @tresvillain.bsky.social · Sep 4

I was Meanjin's Designer in the early 00s for years. Laid out and typeset every page and cover. Tiny budget but a great opportunity for young me and for those who came before and after. Even then Melbourne Uni was an existential threat. They'll save very little and lose a great deal through this.

Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 4

This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing

Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.

www.crikey.com.au

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Reposted by Alison Croggon

Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · Sep 4

The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers. Always meant so much to see my work there. Some of my best experiences of being edited. An entirely avoidable disaster.

A stack of Meanjin issues that contain my fiction and non-fiction

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Alison Croggon @alisoncroggon.bsky.social · Sep 4

This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing

Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.

www.crikey.com.au

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