Hypocrisy, insincerity and bigotry: not exactly light topics to kick off your weekend, but they’re words that describe how this week went down.

Bernard Keane covered how Prime Minister Scott Morrison tried to distract us all from the dying planet with a dig at “inner-city wine bar elites” (perhaps forgetting there’s a wine bar underneath his own electorate office). The Coalition admitted coal is killing the planet but denied the government had any duty of care for those affected, while Morrison’s campaign for extra funding for fossil fuel power and carbon capture was eaten up by the media.

It’s not like the opposition offers anything better, wrote Tory Shepherd, with Labor watering down its stance on climate change. We also shouldn’t expect much more from our prime minister, said David Hardaker, considering Morrison’s past history. Meanwhile, Crikey’s newest addition Cam Wilson looked at how neo-Nazis are using the media to recruit new members, and tackled how The Chaser is taking a chunk out of News Corp’s bottom line.

Elsewhere, Guy Rundle wrote a stunning tribute to late pop genius Jim Steinman, whose work balanced genius and madness, and Bernard Keane covered Victoria’s torn-up Belt and Road Initiative agreement.

DAVID HARDAKER 5 minute read

The PM's behaviour with Christine Holgate has strong echoes of his role in a political furore that played out in New Zealand 20 years ago.

TORY SHEPHERD 2 minute read

Labor's spruiker on resources Madeleine King is pulling a fast one. No one is calling for the coal industry to shut down overnight.

CAM WILSON 4 minute read

A far-right group's hate-filled manual offers duplicitous methods to get their cause right where they want it — in the press spotlight.

AMBER SCHULTZ 4 minute read

Prospective parents who have received IVF treatment abroad face a tough decision: keep their embryos in storage or abandon their family plans altogether.

GUY RUNDLE 5 minute read

From one angle Steinham's work was ridiculous. From another it was a triumph, wringing from mainstream American popular culture one last conquest.

CAM WILSON 2 minute read

The satirical publication's unsubscribe campaign is going great guns — and now it's set itself an ambitious new target.

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

The federal government is right to axe Daniel Andrews' Belt and Road deal with the Xi regime. But it also faces a similar challenge itself...

DONALD HELLYER 2 minute read

Christine Holgate's $20,000 spend is pretty tame when you consider the Liberals squander $450,000 a year on Australia Post directors.

ADAM SCHWAB 4 minute read

Eradicating COVID-19 from Australia, let alone the world, is practically impossible. So what exactly are we shooting for here?

AMBER SCHULTZ 3 minute read

Belittled for being angry, Alison Pennington is breaking the mould of boring economists

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

The long-term transfer of power from the states to the Commonwealth has been abruptly undone over the last twelve months, and the vaccine rollout debacle will put things in reverse.

JANINE PERRETT 3 minute read

With reports that both the South Australian and Victorian legal establishments see widespread sexual misconduct, what hope is there for reform?

CAM WILSON 4 minute read

Legal and privacy groups worry that Australians' 'intimate and sensitive' information could be used for enforcement.