Comment

It is little wonder, then, that when the embattled former cabinet minister Alan Tudge finally announced his inevitable departure from parliament on Thursday, Liberal leadership speculation flared.

My office is now the custodian of literally thousands of stories of gaslighting, derision, invalidation and bemusement on the part of healthcare providers, of misdiagnosis, mistreatment and misery. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these stories largely belong to folks who are not middle-class white men.

Bail laws are the chum of state politics. They are dug out of the bucket after every major crime and during every election campaign. They light up talkback radio and provide easy headlines in the tabloid press. The laws and their arbitrary tightening satisfy an unsettling truth about Australia: that this country loves prisons.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has written an excellent, thought-provoking essay in the latest edition of The Monthly. It attempts to set his budgetary process, which he began last October and will advance in May, against the background of recent crises and in the context of the broader economic, social and environmental circumstances of our time.

The Albanese government’s second year in power is shaping up as a wild ride. The prime minister is intent on using every opportunity to establish a legacy as a Labor reformer ‘changing the nation for the better’ Leader of the house Tony Burke has guaranteed we will notice what the government is up to. He is promising that, unlike the Morrison government, Labor will not spend 61 hours of parliamentary time moving motions to shut down debate.

The choice of the Esplanade hotel in Melbourne’s bayside St Kilda this week to launch Revive, a new national cultural policy, was pointed in its symbolism. The hotel was – for 20 years before his death in 1904 – the home of Alfred Felton, the country’s greatest arts philanthropist and the source of the National Gallery of Victoria’s famous Felton Bequest.

In the detention centre at Villawood, in the west of Sydney, there are two concrete cells where asylum seekers are locked up alone. The guards call them “cool down rooms”. In prison argot, these are dry cells. They have no toilet and no water. There is a single mattress and a closed-circuit camera.

Although Australian governments have set ambitious targets for recycling – overall 80 per cent of waste is to be recycled by 2030 – we are transitioning slower than other global players and, at 60 per cent overall recycling, are falling off the pace to meet our targets. A recent ABC news report emphasised our lags in three areas: glass, food and plastic recycling.

The federal government response to crime rates in Alice Springs dominated federal politics this week. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a better-late-than-never visit. His sombre expression contemplating the conditions there was a reminder of just how heavy a responsibility leading a nation can be.

The EPBC Act was set up by John Howard in 1999 with the intent of giving the Commonwealth some jurisdiction over matters of environmental law. It provided a framework for the protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and culturally significant places. It did not include water.