FEBRUARY 2, 2019

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It’s been a heavy week in the media and publishing world. We saw the neutering of Louise Adler’s Melbourne University Publishing due to its investing too much in “airport trash” (though I certainly don’t know anyone who goes to airport bookstores for in-depth journalism or essays).

Then there was the sad news of staff losses at BuzzFeed worldwide, and a less than illustrious contribution to morning television by Kerri-Anne Kennerley. We covered all three issues along with stories you might not have thought about in a while: like the dismal “progress” of the NBN.

As always we’d like to hear what you think, email us at boss@crikey.com.au.

Have a great weekend,

Bhakthi Puvanenthiran
Managing Editor

Morrison’s ‘major’ speech showed an empty man with nothing to offer but noise

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

Scott Morrison's speech on the economy was marked by complete silence on the three biggest issues facing the government.

We need a major demolition job on multinational tax evasion

WAYNE SWAN 5 minute read

Global inequality has reached a point that requires drastic action. As the saying goes: pay taxation, buy civilisation.

Coalition of the wilting

The independent wave rises, but washing out the Liberals won’t be easy

WILLIAM BOWE 3 minute read

With Labor poised to take conventional battleground seats, the prospect of an independent blue-ribbon rebellion means the Liberal Party is facing a calamity unlike any it has suffered before.

Who’s staying is as big a problem for the Libs as who’s leaving

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

The deeper problem for the Liberals is the talent gap departing ministers leave behind in a party cluttered with dead wood.

The media pick sides in the Kerri-Anne Kennerley racism debate

EMILY WATKINS 3 minute read

The Kerri-Anne Kennerley v Yumi Stynes stoush has highlighted something Australian media is obsessed with: when you can and can't call something "racist".

How one think tank poisoned Australia’s climate debate

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 5 minute read

One of the Institute of Public Affair's greatest successes has been to stitch climate denialism into the very fabric of the conservative political identity.

How many years (and how many PMs) will it take to fix the NBN?

CHRISTOPHER WARREN 3 minute read

Who's benefited from this? Ultimately, nobody. We’ve lost six years, and are left with a great failure of public policy.

Scott Morrison, a leader utterly out of touch with history

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Our British history may genuinely inspire John Howard (born 1939) and Abbott (whose head is a Rubik’s Cube of reactionary obsessions) but Morrison is Gen X. He may look like he’s the dad of people who are 10 years older than him, but he’s born in ’68. Like all of us Xers, and many either side, the myths lived by are those of American popular culture: Star Trek, Jaws, Star Wars. He came of age during the cola (not the culture) wars, and Brothers in Arms was number one on his 18th birthday. No generation was so completely wrapped in pop culture mythology. — Guy Rundle

Is our PM a slavering servant of the empire or a suburban goofball? The Libs are trying everything.

The face that has divided (and defined) a community

CALEB TRISCARI 3 minute read

If continuing controversy is a metric of success in Australian public art, then this Perth work is a masterpiece.

BuzzFeed trends down

The revolution will not be trending

GUY RUNDLE 4 minute read

The troubles of one website don’t amount to much, but the trouble at BuzzFeed perversely fulfils the site's mission of letting us know where things are at.

How BuzzFeed makes its money

EMILY WATKINS 3 minute read

BuzzFeed brings in more than 690 million readers per month, but the company is still missing its revenue targets. Are these business models no longer sustainable?

Will BuzzFeed Australia follow the playbook of its US counterpart?

CRIKEY 4 minute read

It looks like the US BuzzFeed office is employing some tricky tactics around staff cuts. Keep your eyes on the Oz newsroom.

DFAT is a dawdling joke of a department

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The detention of Chinese-Australian writer and blogger Yang Hengjun has sent ripples of fear through the Chinese-Australian community, the media and parts of the broader business community. In response, Canberra has decided to use a playbook that has, over the past decade, proven decidedly useless. — Michael Sainsbury

The Australian response to the recent detention of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun exposes the risk-averse dead hand of DFAT for what it really is.

Silencing MUP’s ‘loud voice’ was not part of review: publisher

EMILY WATKINS 3 minute read

Adler's personal talent for finding and publishing new and important voices will be missed, say those in the industry.

The NSW government attempted to muzzle GetUp and failed spectacularly

MICHAEL BRADLEY 4 minute read

The NSW government didn't bother finding a reason for restricting contributions from third party campaigners like GetUp. The High Court wasn't happy.

Billion-dollar rort: how governments allowed Murray-Darling irrigators to rip us off

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It’s been known for years that irrigation efficiency spending is a rort, particularly when used to meet water savings targets, which can be much more cheaply met with market mechanisms such as water buybacks. In 2010, the Productivity Commission — then chaired by Coalition favourite Gary Banks — criticised the use of irrigation efficiency funding, saying it was 'a poor use of taxpayer funds. — Bernard Keane

Irrigators have been getting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer handouts to return water to the Murray-Darling when far less expensive, and more effective, ways of achieving the same goal have been ignored by governments.

How Jacinta Price became a darling of the (alt) right

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 4 minute read

The NT politician is favoured by TV producers, supported by alt-right trolls and will soon run for federal office. How did her star rise so high?