Cricket has always had a difficult relationship with ethics and integrity. This is notwithstanding two things: the game’s pride in the saying “It’s not cricket” to describe anything unfair, and the inclusion in the game’s Laws of a Preamble called “The Spirit of Cricket” to guide player behaviour. Cricket’s Ashes are upon us, and England’s Continue reading »
Arts and Sport
The story behind Jenny Hocking’s epic battle against the Australian Government and HM Queen Elizabeth to access the Palace Letters is being told through a new documentary film. Based on the best-selling book “The Palace Letters” by Jenny Hocking, Scribe 2020. The Search for the Palace Letters follows historian Professor Jenny Hocking as she fights Continue reading »
“You be the bigger person, and you walk away.” AFL Legend and Co-Founder of the GO Foundation, Adam Goodes Gets Real with former Manchester United player and England Football Captain, Rio Ferdinand covering family, leadership, racism, culture and identity, and his love for sport. Former Manchester United player and England Football Captain, Rio Ferdinand sits Continue reading »
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone? – Joni Mitchell How many times have you seen the life of a great Australian eulogised on page 2 of the New York Times? Perishing few, if any, is my impression. Yet that august American journal took time and Continue reading »
On 30 January 2023, the Albanese Government released its new national cultural policy, REVIVE: a five-year plan to revive the arts in Australia. There was widespread pleasure that after a decade of neglect of cultural matters, attention was being given again to this important aspect of Australian life. There was, however, some dismay at the Continue reading »
Historically, Australian sport has been bosom-tied to corrupt administrative and state management. Administrators of the myriad sporting codes are typically conceited in assuming they provide a service for an increasingly obese populace. The sports personalities turn up and play; spectators turn up in their colours, pies and beers; the sporting hierarchs can then claim they Continue reading »
The passing of my distinguished predecessor, Sir Leslie Colin Patterson deserves a tribute. Leslie Patterson was one of Australia’s first cultural diplomats, being posted as Cultural Attache to the Far East by the Whitlam government in 1974, having previously served with distinction as Minister for Shark Conservation and Minister for Drought. (This was before he Continue reading »
It’s the biggest story next door but barged offside by the Australian media for the Trump indictment and the ‘No’. There’s another factor: Soccer’s not our national game. But it is Indonesia’s, and the reaction to the loss of the Republic hosting the Under-20 World Cup because Israeli youth will play is showing the Great Continue reading »
I have known Julian Assange since I first interviewed him in London in 2010. I immediately liked his dry, dark sense of humour, often dispensed with an infectious giggle. He is a proud outsider: sharp and thoughtful. We have become friends, and I have sat in many courtrooms listening to the tribunes of the state Continue reading »
Ukraine was the first purported reason that I should be disinvited or canceled. Although I know the real reason is that Zionists fear our voices, as all colonisers fear native agency. Editor’s Note: The following is the transcript of a message that author Susan Abulhawa published on Twitter on March 4, 2023. The statement comes in response Continue reading »