Australia isn't as secular as many of us believe.
APRIL 20, 2019
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While it’s easy to think of Australia as a secular country, the fact most of us are currently observing a four-day Easter weekend suggests otherwise.

Caretaker PM Scott Morrison is a Pentecostal Christian and Labor leader Bill Shorten was raised Catholic but converted to Anglicanism. Need more proof? Earlier this week we mourned with much of the Western world after a famous cathedral’s roof was roasted in flames. Meanwhile, the 800-year-old Djab Wurrung birthing trees, collectively a deeply sacred site, are still likely to be destroyed to create a highway.

As election campaigning takes a pause, we hope you can do the same and have time to dive into our coverage over the last few days, especially Charlie Lewis’ dispatches from Warringah, where deep belief and fervour abound.

Crikey is also now on Instagram. Come join our Crikey Instagram community and be kept up to date with all of our new articles, sales and big announcements. Follow us at @crikey.news.

 

Have a great weekend,

Bhakthi Puvanenthiran
Managing Editor

 

The Warringah Bureau

Welcome to the fight for Warringah

CHARLIE LEWIS 5 minute read

Tony Abbott is in danger of losing his seat for the first time in 25 years. The implications for the Liberals and, beyond that, our understanding of Australian politics are huge.

Zali Steggall at the business end of Warringah

CHARLIE LEWIS 5 minute read

What do the locals make of Abbott's competition? They quite like her. Or at least they want to like her.

Climate change debate and the empty chair

CHARLIE LEWIS 5 minute read

As the campaign proper gears up, climate change is being pushed as a front and centre issue by almost every candidate. But where's Tony?

 
The political business model of angry white men

BERNARD KEANE 4 minute read

There is now a small but lucrative niche on our politics for angry white men to attack women. And One Nation is effectively exploiting it.

Which major party politicians are avoiding Q&A?

EMILY WATKINS 3 minute read

We take a look at the stats: who's on high rotation at the national broadcaster, and who is steering clear completely?

The WikiLeaks arrest is about the journalism, not the journalist

CHRISTOPHER WARREN 3 minute read

The debate over whether Julian Assange is a journalist or not serves no purpose other than to undercut future press freedom.

How Morrison squandered his high ground on disability rights
A few months ago as I was walking through the Melbourne CBD, a visibly inebriated woman kicked out towards my elbow crutch and yelled 'Can you get your stick out of my way before I shove it up your fucking arse?' The man who was with her sniggered. None of the other peak-hour pedestrians saw fit to intervene. — Shakira Hussein

Disability advocates are calling for the royal commissioners to step aside, the Medicare levy to be reinstated and yes, to stop being used a political football.

The right’s fragmentation problem is causing cracks

WILLIAM BOWE 3 minute read

Divided votes and increased competition — David Leyonhjelm's recent failure may be a bellwether for things to come on May 18.

What does it take to run for federal parliament?

ELIZA BERLAGE 4 minute read

Australians are often told if they don’t like how politics is going they should do something about it. But how?

The clock is ticking for the Coalition and time is short

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

The Coalition has to turn around the polls — and the the election is approaching even more rapidly than it might initially seem.

All about the oil: a history of Australia’s relationship with Timor-Leste

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 4 minute read

Australia views itself as Timor-Leste's liberator. But the reality is that Timor-Leste has suffered for decades because of Australia's pursuit of oil revenue above all else.

This could be Australia’s stupidest election ever
In an election campaign that has brought us Captain GetUp, stupidity is always likely to be well to the fore. But while big-ticket items like Advance Australia’s bafflingly offensive superhero get all the attention, there’s plenty of idiocy on the bubble at the fringes too. In fact, all in all, this might turn out to be the stupidest election Australia has ever had, and that’s saying something. — Ben Pobjie

It’s been a stupid election campaign so far and all signs point to it getting stupider.

Punk, Iggy Pop, and bringing down the House

DAVID JAMES YOUNG 3 minute read

Iggy Pop may be known as the godfather of punk, but he's returned to Sydney at a time where punk is one of the hardest things to be.

Australians deserve an economic debate of substance, not dogma

DANIEL ALLMAN 3 minute read

Groundbreaking economist Alan Krueger, adviser to two US presidents, died last month — but his work lives on in local debates about minimum wage and inequality.

Morrison boasts how the Coalition fixed our ‘climate deficit’

BERNARD KEANE 2 minute read

Australia had a "climate deficit" under Labor, says Scott Morrison, but that's now been fixed by the Coalition. And he's absolutely right.

Gaffe tracker: how politicians stumbled through the start of the campaign

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 3 minute read

A look at the long list of awkward and regrettable moments from the first weekend of the campaign.

News Corp boss lashes NYT ‘hatchet job’, ignoring his own papers’ scandals

GLENN DYER and EMILY WATKINS 3 minute read

News Corp CEO Robert Thomson attacked the New York Times and social media platforms in making the annual Keith Murdoch oration in Melbourne on Tuesday night.

The slow burn of the gilets jaunes 

GUY RUNDLE 5 minute read

Our correspondent-at-large reports on the simmering tensions in Paris amid the yellow vest movement.

 
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