AUGUST 24, 2019

GIVE THE GIFT OF CRIKEY | TIP OFF | VIEW IN BROWSER

Two months ago, INQ launched by examining the pathology of predators in the Catholic Church.

Fast forward to this week and George Pell, darling of the powerful from Canberra to Rome, is in a cage for the foreseeable future.

This week, we stood outside the courtroom where it all happened, we took a gander at the legal ruling and its implications and we sought to understand the politics of Pell’s demise.

Elsewhere INQ took a deep dive into the world of Australian submarines.

As always, write to boss@crikey.com.au to let us know what you made of the week’s news. Please include your full name if you wish to be considered for publication.

Have a great weekend,

Bhakthi Puvanenthiran
Managing Editor

Pell's appeal quashed

Cheers and confrontation outside court as Pell’s appeal is dismissed

CHRIS WOODS 3 minute read

Pell's return to the Melbourne Assessment Prison is, for survivors at least, a wonderful day that “upholds hope”.

George Pell and the meaning of ‘reasonable doubt’

DAVID WARD 4 minute read

George Pell's verdict was decided and affirmed on the question of reasonable doubt. But what exactly does that mean in this case?

Pell is guilty. The law has spoken. Again.

MICHAEL BRADLEY 4 minute read

Anyone attacking the trial verdict, attacking the appeal decision, or ignoring the facts is recklessly undermining the rule of law. There can be no place for it.

The Pell culture war rolls on…

GUY RUNDLE 4 minute read

The appeal result has drawn progressives and leftists even tighter into an embrace with a justice system they would and should be suspicious about.

Morrison turns bureaucratic stump speech into a meaningless daggy dad BBQ

BERNARD KEANE 4 minute read

In Scott Morrison's view of public service, transparency and integrity are irrelevant — and so are the views of middle Australia, unless they line up with his own.

Are Australia’s subs duds?

GEORGIA WILKINS and AMBER SCHULTZ 10 minute read

It looked like the deal of the century. Now the $50 billion Future Submarine contract is coming under intense scrutiny as costs mount and timelines balloon.

Behind the demise of Playwriting Australia

BEN ELTHAM 5 minute read

Playwriting Australia is an organisation devoted to improving the nation’s scripts. But the drama lately has all been in the board room.

‘We have wasted too much time doing heavy lifting for white Australia’: Stan Grant

DANIEL JAMES 4 minute read

The Australian Dream is a story about Adam Goodes. But, more broadly, it's the story about being blackfella in Australia.

How Home Affairs made millions by rejecting foreign workers

CHRIS WOODS 7 minute read

The visa scheme that essentially gave Home Affairs a licence to print money.

How Aussie kids’ TV is leading the world in kindness

EMILY WATKINS 4 minute read

Diversity, representation and 'Australianness' were all once considered too risky in kids' TV. In 2019, the exact opposite is true.

Tim Fischer, maverick and curate’s egg, stared down extremists

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

Tim Fischer was a genuine maverick, with very good and very bad points, but he leaves a legacy of real achievement in public life.

Yes, men can write about Me Too. But they must have a point to make.

“

To be clear, this book is not a trainwreck. Leser makes no excuses for his gender and doesn’t shy away from the horror of sexual violence. This is not a book that comes rushing to the defence of men everywhere, but one that unreservedly admits their fuck-ups. Leser leaves the impression of a man coming to terms with the magnitude of terror men have wrought — a sorrow, he notes, 'women have always carried'.

Still, I can’t help but feel that a female author would have been able to push past these obvious truths and into something more analytical. — Katie Cunningham

David Leser’s new book isn’t a trainwreck, but it’s not clear what it actually achieves. Who is this dossier of male awfulness for?

Alan Jones is on thin ice? Don’t count on it.

GLENN DYER 3 minute read

Macquarie Media has threatened to sack Jones if he offends again. But that threat was missing some important details.

Australia’s economic bullying still soars above rising Pacific sea levels

BERNARD KEANE 4 minute read

Australia's history in the Pacific is about imperialist exploitation. Now the government has baldly stated that our economic interests come ahead even of the existence of Pacific island states.

State of the union: what next for the ACTU?

BENJAMIN CLARK 4 minute read

In the face of eroded union powers, failed campaigns and blurred class lines, young workers are turning to new ways of organising in the fight for their rights.

The kids of News Corp’s culture wars

CHRIS WOODS 4 minute read

Innocent or guilty? The culture wars often drag children up in waves of confusing messaging from the News Corp commentariat.

When do Australian priests have to report child abuse?

CHRIS WOODS 4 minute read

The question of which states do and do not require ministers to report child abuse is a complicated one — and it goes all the way to the Vatican.

Our reliance on foreign students is at crisis point

BERNARD KEANE 4 minute read

A new report shows the extraordinary extent of dependence by Australian universities on Chinese students. But that's just one way in which our addiction to this revenue stream is harming us.