Plus: David McBride, Ben Roberts-Smith and the ADF’s legacy.
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Saturday Jun 24
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This week Julia Bergin reported from a coronial inquest into the murders of four Indigenous women in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) where failures of police training for and responses to domestic violence callouts were on full display.

Elsewhere this week, Crikey's writers considered Australia's defence legacy — Maeve McGregor looked at the different experiences of Ben Roberts-Smith and David McBride, and Bernard Keane took aim at the department's spending.

Meanwhile Anton Nilsson spoke to the lawyer who co-wrote Senator Jacqui Lambie's referral of alleged Australian war crimes to The Hague, and Charlie Lewis reviewed the Morrison government's spending after revelations federal Liberal veteran Warren Entsch's wife received a $213,725 grant to teach pottery.

Plus, who was the butt of jokes at the Midwinter Ball?
Gina Rushton Gina Rushton,
Editor
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Seven 000 calls in two hours — why did police take 12 hours to respond to an Indigenous woman’s pleas?
JULIA BERGIN

Emergency services received five calls from Kumanjayi Haywood and two calls from her mother to send police because Haywood's partner was trying to kill her. It took police half a day to respond.

(Image: supremecourt.nt.gov.au)
 
‘Many incorrect bail decisions’: NT police ignored domestic violence history in flowchart error
JULIA BERGIN

A coronial inquest into the deaths of four Indigenous women has heard that police training was scarce and forms were often filled out wrong.

Northern Territory coroner Elisabeth Armitage (Image: AAP/Aaron Bunch)
 
Love, power and secrecy: NSW anxiously awaits ICAC’s Gladys Berejiklian report
ANTON NILSSON

An investigation that's been more than seven years in the making will end next week. Here's everything you need to know.

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)
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Defence eyes school children in nuclear industry push
MAEVE MCGREGOR

Defence is trying to sell the contentious AUKUS deal as mainstream, yet Labor rank-and-file opposition is mobilising.

(Image: Zennie/Private Media)
 
The whistleblower and the war criminal: David McBride and Ben Roberts-Smith
MAEVE MCGREGOR

The conflicting stories of David McBride and Ben Roberts-Smith paint a bloody battle for the nation’s soul.

David McBride and Ben Roberts-Smith (Images: Michelle Kaldy; Dan Himbrechts/AAP)
 
For defence, if you ignore accountability for long enough, it goes away
BERNARD KEANE

A look at the auditor-general's recent reviews of defence reveals a department incapable of managing not just big projects, but the basics.

Defence Minister Richard Marles (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)
 
ABC, Monique Ryan and Crikey roasted at Canberra’s Midwinter Ball
ANTON NILSSON and JOHN BUCKLEY

The prime minister and opposition leader both cracked jokes while the Canberra press gallery sipped wine and munched on striploin steak.

Former ABC political editor Andrew Probyn and Member for Kooyong Monique Ryan (Images: ABC/AAP/Lukas Coch)
 
Boomers are still spending. We need to hike taxes, not interest rates, to fight inflation
BENJAMIN CLARK

A mixture of corporate and consumption taxes would be appropriate, even if it is a solution few people are talking about.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers (Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)
 
‘Low’ threshold for Hague to investigate Australian Army top brass: lawyer
ANTON NILSSON

Senator Jacqui Lambie has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.

Jacqui Lambie in Parliament (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)
 
Totting it up: an incomplete account of the Morrison government’s dodgy spending
CHARLIE LEWIS

The wife of federal Liberal veteran Warren Entsch received a $213,725 grant from the Morrison government to teach pottery. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

(Image: Zennie/Private Media)
 
Media don’t help. They enable violence against women and fuel the backlash 
KRISTINE ZIWICA

Hard-won momentum gained over the past decade when it comes to the media's reporting of violence against women seems to have stalled.

(Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)
 
In a media landscape of fake news, who can you trust?
CHRISTOPHER WARREN

There's misinformation and a miasma of mistrust hovering over the media all around the world. Is the truth still out there?

Donald Trump speaks to the press at the White House (Image: EPA/Shawn Thew)
 
Reserve Bank shocked — SHOCKED — to discover price gouging going on
BERNARD KEANE

Well done RBA for recognising that profits are driving up inflation. Now it just needs to recognise that it's a far greater threat than workers' wages.

Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe (Image: AAP/Bianca De Marchi)
 
ABC considers recourse as it bristles against the Oz’s restructure reporting
JOHN BUCKLEY

A possible formal complaint is a sign of escalating tensions between the national broadcaster and The Australian.

The ABC's now former political editor Andrew Probyn (Image: ABC)
 
White resentment, zero-sum games and the populist politics of Voice opponents
BERNARD KEANE

At the core of populism is the belief that someone, somewhere, is getting more than you. It's also at the heart of the No campaign.

A banner at the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)
 
PwC’s ‘once-in-a-generation PR disaster’: most Australians want contract bans
ANTON NILSSON

Four in five respondents to a new survey believed PwC should be banned from any new government work.

Signage at the PwC Australia offices in Melbourne (Image: AAP/Joel Carrett)
 
Arts shift at the ABC: now is the winter of this content 
ESTHER ANATOLITIS

The ABC's strategy of referring to creative or journalistic staff as 'content-makers' disastrously diminishes and undermines their work.

(Image: AAP/Joel Carrett)