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Who’ll swing the next election? • Peter Brent

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Inside Story @insidestory.bsky.social · 10h

“It’s easy to forget that Australian governments tend to change not because the opposition has set voters’ pulses racing but because the incumbent has worn out its welcome. We’re talking about voters who elected Tony Abbott as PM with a seriously big majority.”

The electoral pendulum tells only part of the story

One Nation’s warning • Pauline Hanson

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Peter Brent @peterbrent.bsky.social · 9d

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-...

Far-right disinformation has had a limited impact on Australian elections. But it would be wise to plan ahead

A rollercoaster of spoilers • Jane Goodall

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Inside Story @insidestory.bsky.social · 7d

““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 pacey dramatisation of News International’s phone-hacking and influence-wielding leaves the story necessarily unfinished

A rollercoaster of spoilers • Jane Goodall

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Jay Goodall @jaygoodall.bsky.social · 8d

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

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

A pacey dramatisation of News International’s phone-hacking and influence-wielding leaves the story necessarily unfinished

Now, down to business • Patrick Mullins

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Patrick Mullins @patrickmullins.bsky.social · 9d

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

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

“A catalyst, a provocation, and a reassurance,” Asa Briggs combined prolific history-writing with an extraordinary range of other activities

Whatever happened to the revolution? • Philippa Hawker

Inside Story @insidestory.bsky.social · 12d

“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.’

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest feature, and the story of an orchestral work said to be performed somewhere in the world every fifteen minutes

Are we counting what really counts? • Andrew Leigh

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Inside Story @insidestory.bsky.social · 14d

“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.”

Statisticians are struggling to capture the twenty-first-century economy

The populist phantom • Inside Story

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Terrell Johnson @terrellwrites.bsky.social · 20d

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...

Democracy erodes from the top

Toxic emissions • Peter Brent

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Peter Brent @peterbrent.bsky.social · 22d

“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...

The Australian’s Greg Sheridan is backing Matt Canavan’s electorally dangerous campaign against renewable energy to the hilt

Selling immigration • Peter Brent

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Erik Skare @erikskare.no · Sep 11

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

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.bsky.social · Sep 11

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

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Peter Brent @peterbrent.bsky.social · Sep 4

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

The weekend’s protests are a reminder of Australia’s distinctive record

Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing

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Kill Your Darlings @kydmagazine.bsky.social · Sep 4

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.

Crikey @crikey.com.au · Sep 4

Exclusive: “The death of Meanjin is a loss to the country’s cultural memory and a loss to those writers who might have been part of its literary present and future," said former Meanjin editor Jonathan Green.

www.crikey.com.au

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Inside Story @insidestory.bsky.social · Aug 25

“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”

An exceptional life in the law • Inside Story

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · Aug 25

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

Lawyer, educator, judge and royal commissioner Hal Wootten never lost sight of “those on whom the law bore harshly”

Car pollution is deadly. New research shows us just how much

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Leroy @leroylynch.bsky.social · Aug 24

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...

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.

www.abc.net.au

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Inside Story @insidestory.bsky.social · Aug 18

“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…”

How The Leopard changed its spots • James Panichi

Netflix’s struggle with Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s deeply conservative novel

Silent terror: Russia’s occupation of southeastern Ukraine • Jon Richardson

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Jon Richardson @jon-richardson.bsky.social · Aug 15

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/

A chilling account of occupied southeastern Ukraine reveals a systematic program of Russification combined with chaos, brutality and corruption

A dose of reality for the “realists” • Mark Edele

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John Quiggin @johnquiggin.bsky.social · Aug 14

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...

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Mark Edele @edelemark.bsky.social · Aug 12

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...

Zbigniew Brzezinski came to resist the tolerance for great-power ambitions that would play out so tragically in Ukraine

George Johnston’s odyssey of war and peace • Paul Genoni & Tanya Dalziell

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Libby Robin @libbydeq.bsky.social · Aug 1

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

Eighty years ago, with the Pacific war drawing to a close, the celebrated war correspondent set out on a perilous spiritual journey

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James Bloodworth @jamesbloodworth.bsky.social · Jul 30

Lovely review from @insidestory.bsky.social

Hot night at Town Hall • Ken Inglis

Inside Story @insidestory.bsky.social · Jul 28

“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.

What happened when the satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer, who died on Saturday at ninety-seven, came to puritanical Adelaide in 1960?

The jewel in the crown of the ANU • Tom Griffiths & Mark McKenna

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Naomi Milthorpe @drmilthorpe.bsky.social · Jul 25

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

Celebrated by previous vice-chancellors, the Australian Dictionary of Biography and its fellow national project, the Australian National Dictionary, are threatened by university cuts