JULY 6, 2019

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If only someone could extricate Labor from its current predicament the way the Swedes were able to get Australian student Alek Sigley out of North Korea. Deftly, quietly.

Instead it seems Labor keeps crashing out, unable to do the right thing by anyone. Scroll down to read Guy Rundle, Bernard Keane and Kara Schlegl on the Labor mess.

Elsewhere, our INQ team followed the money in the busy industry of obesity medicine, and the big pharmaceutical companies looking to get rich by trying to get obesity classified as a “disease”. If you missed this investigation, there’s no better time than the weekend to get stuck in.

As always, send your thoughts and reflections on the week’s stories to boss@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you’d like to considered for publication.

Have a great weekend,

Bhakthi Puvanenthiran
Managing Editor

Betting on Obesity

Obesity, politics, money and a company called Novo Nordisk

DAVID HARDAKER, GEORGIA WILKINS, AMBER SCHULTZ and KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 4 minute read

Novo Nordisk wants to change the way Australians think about obesity. And it is successful, it could make a killing.

Is obesity a ‘disease’? And, if it is, who wins?

DAVID HARDAKER, GEORGIA WILKINS, AMBER SCHULTZ and KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 5 minute read

Getting doctors and medical bodies to classify obesity as a 'disease' would be a huge win for pharmaceutical companies. Here's how they're trying to do just that.

The commercial bet on obesity designed to ‘create the market’

DAVID HARDAKER, GEORGIA WILKINS, AMBER SCHULTZ and KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 4 minute read

The race to find a pharmacological way to combat obesity is on — and in addition to financial pressures, it has proven devilishly difficult to make an obesity drug that is effective, safe and works at scale, across a population.

Winning the hearts, minds (and pockets) of doctors

DAVID HARDAKER, GEORGIA WILKINS, AMBER SCHULTZ and KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 7 minute read

If Novo Nordisk is to fulfil the potential of its anti-obesity drug Saxenda, it needs more doctors to have a new understanding of how obesity really works. And to prescribe. Again and again.

Don’t expect much press freedom from the politicians

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

There's little political will to do anything of substance in relation to media freedom. And the media has been its own worst enemy as basic rights have been eroded.

Saving private citizens: how Australia uses diplomacy to rescue prisoners

AMBER SCHULTZ and CHARLIE LEWIS 4 minute read

Alek Sigley's removal from North Korean detention is a happy ending, but what does the saga say about Australia's ability to extricate citizens?

There are no good choices for Labor

“	There’s a kind of sympathy one feels for Labor in this situation, but it’s not unambiguous. It’s like watching a clown who played your children’s party drunk get hit by a cement truck. — Guy Rundle

The best hope Labor has is that nothing challenging happens immediately, and that it is essentially irrelevant for a year or so.

Adapt or disappear: what is the future of Australian theatre?

ROSS MUELLER 3 minute read

Our main stages are increasingly packed with adapted works, and the peak body for playwrights is mired in redundancy and review. Is there still a place for original storytelling?

In defence of Labor’s brave and original policy direction

KARA SCHLEGL 2 minute read

A close analysis of Labor's most recent manoeuvres proves they are still as much in opposition as they ever were!

‘You always plot’: highlights from Niki Savva’s Plots and Prayers

CHARLIE LEWIS 4 minute read

Niki Savva's dive into the events of the 2018 leadership spill reveals more than a few red-faced ministers.

If the West gets through this it won’t be in one piece

GUY RUNDLE 4 minute read

Startling new data about rapidly thawing ice and permafrost is escalating the sense of inevitability of the climate crisis.

Playing the Palladium: what we know about Julie Bishop’s new foreign aid gig

CHARLIE LEWIS 4 minute read

The former foreign minister says she's long believed "the private sector is the key to lifting living standards". Crikey looks at the complex world of privatised foreign aid.

Meet the crossbenchers of the 46th Parliament

JENNINE KHALIK 5 minute read

The House of Representatives crossbench will have its work cut out to make a dent on the major parties. Who are the MPs filling out the ranks?

The pros and cons of selling Australia’s education to the world

AMBER SCHULTZ 3 minute read

What would selling Australian curriculum like the HSC and VCE mean for our economy, and is it viable? We've done our homework.

How much clout does News Corp have in the fight for press freedom?

CHRISTOPHER WARREN 3 minute read

For all its sins, News Corp has a strong history of using its political clout for press freedom and for standing up for its journalists and whistleblowers.

India’s monumental water crisis should be a warning to us all

4 minute read

The arrival of monsoon season may not be enough to save India from the grip of a devastating water crisis. At what point does national crisis evolve to global catastrophe?

How much does it cost to remove a managing director of the ABC?

“	For an organisation with acute financial problems, the ABC sure knows how to blow up a budget — it spent the equivalent of employing more than a dozen journalists for a year just to remove one managing director. — William Summers and Emily Watkins

Sacking ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie was never going to be cheap. But new documents reveal what the the lawyers alone cost.

We need to throw out defamation law and start again

MICHAEL BRADLEY 4 minute read

The law is a blunt tool we wield to decide arguments that have no obvious answer. But, in the digital age, it has to be sharper than this.

‘No more than 11 minutes’: how long does Dutton take to decide someone’s fate?

GREG BARNS 5 minute read

The Federal Court has knocked back Dutton's cancellation of a visa on the grounds that he didn't make 'sufficient time to allow an active intellectual process'. This isn't the first time it's happened.