This week has signalled a world of changes for NSW and Australia. First there was the inquiry finding Crown unfit to hold a casino license. Our correspondents picked the issue apart, from Crown’s huge donations to political parties, through to its lasting legacy on the Sydney skyline. Meanwhile Eddie McGuire stepped down from his role as Collingwood president after making a clown of himself yet again — something he’s been doing for decades, giving Crikey plenty of material to work with.

Elsewhere, Prime Minister Scott Morrison cut out the middle man and mocked himself by playing the Top Gun soundtrack during a tour of an air hanger, sparking concerns about the death of satire, while we asked some questions about Mathias Cormann’s Senate replacement Ben Small, whose ties to oil and gas giant Woodside are now in the spotlight — a far cry from the spin of his “humble beginnings”.

It was a week of all that and more.

GUY RUNDLE 4 minute read

Any party that genuinely cares about the prospects for a dry and devastated rural Australia would be worried sick.

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 3 minute read

Eddie has been one of those inexplicably famous men with fingers in every pie for decades — which means he’s provided plenty of fodder for Crikey.

JOHN FITZGERALD 3 minute read

When Australia's answer to Joe McCarthy starts attacking Chinese Australians, the CCP just sits back and smiles.

GEORGIA WILKINS 3 minute read

Ben Small, Mathias Cormann’s replacement in the Senate, is no stranger to the oil and gas industry.

JANINE PERRETT 3 minute read

The last thing Opera Australia needed right now was Nicole Kidman getting 'swatted' in the stalls.

TOM RED 2 minute read

Are political leaders all over the world actually starting to take the piss out of themselves?

KEIR SEMMENS 3 minute read

The former US president's guilt will be whitewashed and the conspiring senators should hang their heads in shame.

TOM RED 1 minute read

Why should Tony Abbot limit himself to a portrait by Johannes Leak when he has so many other artists at his disposal?

BERNARD KEANE 2 minute read

Christian Porter's attempts to string out and obstruct Bernard Collaery's defence have again been criticised.

AMBER SCHULTZ 3 minute read

What exactly is 'long COVID'?

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

Labor's relatively modest IR proposals are slammed by the government and employers looking to undermine pay and conditions.

CHRISTOPHER WARREN 3 minute read

The news media bargaining code could make fake news (and the opinion silos it feeds) much worse.