Friday Review

A party swept from power. A shock jock who’s still shocking. Nannies. Surf lifesavers. Climate change.

The Hunger Games. Stupid landmarks. City life. The Greens. The clever(est) football code. Arts degrees. A thousand Anzac ideas down the drain. A big week.

Say hello to Friday. What’s on your mind?

The electricity was crackling in the comments section this week after a Brazilian student died after being Tasered by the NSW Police Force. Tory Shepherd kicked off the discussion asking why Tasers are still classified as a “non-lethal” weapon. A serving NSW police officer explained why Tasers are an important and mostly safe police tool.

It wasn’t a good week in the “crazy antics” department. A mining billionaire gave conspiracy theories a bad name by accusing the Greens of being funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency. The man behind the preachy Kony videos had a naked meltdown, news.com.au reporter Claire Connelly writing that it was really all our fault. Germaine Greer launched a bizarre and germane smear on the Prime Minister’s rear.

In the ideas department, Jonathan Sobels suggested mining companies should endow universities. The NRL should dump cheerleaders. Anthony Sharwood’s thirst wasn’t quenched by modern day beer ads. L-platers need emotional training, not just driving tutoring, Lucy Kippist wrote. McDonalds strained our cardiovascular systems by linking up with Krispy Kremes. And I took us into the Sydney shop that your GPS and Google Maps have pushed out of business.

On the news-front, nobody could excuse the murders of Afghan civilians by a US soldier. Vale Jim Stynes. The Queensland State Election will be held tomorrow. An opinion poll found yesterday that Campbell Newman, the candidate for Premier that the LNP are trying to install in the seat of Ashgrove, is on track to win the seat. The party is predicted to sweep State Parliament. But who will you be voting for and why, Queenslander Punchers?

Definitely a meaty week to commemorate National Bacon Week. It’s Friday. What’s on your mind?

Joseph Kony. Remember that guy? We started the week with a piece from SBS journo Aaron Lewis on how he joined the hunt for the Ugandan warlord. Closer to home, Bob Katter set off a furore. Meanwhile, in something you’re sure to bring up at the pub, Sam Canavan explained why the camp lisp exists.

1400 years is no excuse for sexism, Penbo wrote about Islam. Lucy laid out how the Rinehart family were breaking the rules every family have. Ant Sharwood discovered that a lot of people actually like Eddie McGuire (who knew?). The world was a stage for Bobby J. Carr. And I explained why the birds and the bees is a stupidly outdated concept.

It’s finally Friday. What’s on your mind?

Much of the country was deluged by rain this week, but spirits remained fiery at The Punch.

Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella outlined why she thinks political correctness is a grave threat to our freedom of speech. Steve Williams defensively put his hands in the air and said that while he has no problem with breastfeeding, some people need to be more discreet about it. Another Steve, Defence Minister Smith, wasn’t raising his hands in surrender - although he was certainly cursing Bob Carr.

Penbo welcomed the new Foreign Minister to hell. Tech reporter Claire Connelly found a 3D film with a “3D” component that isn’t lame. Lucy hailed the men behind the women and I argued that we need to value the health of the head as much as the heart. Political guru Malcolm Farr called bullshit on people crying “class warfare” about political attacks on billionaires. And Tory Shepherd likewise called it on playing heroes and villains with the Kony 2012 campaign.

It’s Friday. Finally! What’s got you talking today, folks?

It’s been a big week. At the top: the Labor leadership clusterpunch. We liveblogged the leadership showdown as it happened. You can find all of our Labor leadership coverage here.

The Monkees’ Davy Jones died and our Helen Parker, a friend of Jones, explained just what she found inside his locker. Steve Kryger sparked a comment storm when he wondered why comedians always take a hard line against religion. news.com.au reporter Claire Connelly set out to write an article about trolls and walked us through her somewhat ironic experience of getting trolled in the process. The Circle issued one of those non-apology apologies over Yumi Stynes and George Negus’ slur on VC recipient Ben Roberts-Smith’s name.

Formed NSW premier Bob Carr briefly re-entered the political scene. A couple of billionaires got into a stoush over kicking balls around a field. Erick explained what he loves about women. And you’re kidding if you think all women should be mothers.

It’s Friiiiiiiiiday! What’s on your mind?

Well, the week certainly took a turn on Wednesday when the Labor leadership time bomb finally blew.

Earlier, Liberal MP and regular contributor Sophie Mirabella had mocked the PM for her attempts to shoot down the leadership rumours. It reminded her of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Information Minister, she wrote. When the ALPocalypse finally began, we were all over it. Yesterday we live-blogged the Gillard press conference and our reporter on the scene, Tory Shepherd, wondered why Gillard couldn’t always be that convincing. Editor Tory Maguire detailed the respective camps’ scorched earth tactics. And Malcolm Farr, our chief political guru, previewed what a Rudd administration would look like. Incidentally, many of the ministers that announced for Rudd yesterday were on that list - and vice verca.

In other news this week, Ant saw Ricky Ponting channel Seinfeld, Lucy thumbed her nose at airline snobbery, T-Shep pondered what she’d miss if all men vanished form the earth and Sunday Mail reporter Jason Tin wrote an open letter to The People Who Write Open Letters.

Sky News sports reporter Sam Squiers implored us to lay off Nick D’Arcy, we debated internet piracy (here and here), and I showed how the tide of technological change is sweeping some of our jobs away.

Huge apologies I didn’t get around to addressing the very important matter of the Thursday Word yesterday! Politics was spilling all over the keyboard instead. The word was parsimonious.

Happy Friday. What’s on your mind?

It was a week of love and grief. Whitney Houston died, and journo Greg Barila channeled many when he explained how Whitney was responsible for his, ahem, sexual awakening. Love showed a different face in Tory Shepherd’s tale of love in a land of sharia law. And author Jack Marx came out swinging in defence of the lonely on Valentine’s Day.

Qantas reeled yesterday and Ant wondered who in their right mind would want to be their CEO anyway? The private health insurance rebate passed the house, although Tory M noted the debate had descended into a shoddy class war. The odds shortened on a leadership challenge, our political guru Mal Farr wrote. Penbo explained how the only people in Australia who own guns ended up being crooks. And I explained how Gina Rinehart could take us to infinity and beyond—and improve her reputation infinitely at the same time.

News.com.au journalist Chris Paine slammed his head into a desk when he found out there are people who exist who don’t know who Paul McCartney is. Writer Emilia Terzon made many of us feel like throwing up describing the animal abuse scandal in our own backyard. And Lucy showed grace and poise in disarming the latest round in the war over multiculturalism.

It’s Friday. Happy weekend. What’s on your mind?

It was a week of leadership tensions, talk of economics and debate about sexism. To kick off the week, I explored why leadership spills seem to backfire on political parties most of the time. Mal Farr went hunting for the government’s surplus. Lucy analysed all four corners of the debate over whether the PM has been treated poorly because of sexism.

Our obsession with interest rates isn’t all that interesting, Tory Shepherd claimed. Stop expecting Facebook to be your friend, because it’s not, Ant wrote, hoping to chasten those of us under 30. And cabbies soliciting sexual favours for payment? A bogus trend, wrote Tory Maguire.

The supermarket price war is hurting those who need the most help, World Vision CEO Tim Costello wrote. The Sunday Mail reporter Jason Tin urged us to tap into reality and switch off the television. Research scientist James Heathers explained the psychology of Punch-ing on, right here. And you had an excellent discussion about the way technology has changed over the course of our lives.

It’s Friday, it’s excellent and it’s all happening. What’s on your mind? Have a sensational weekend, Punchers.

The fallout from the Australia Day incident continued. The PM’s leadership was further destabilised by silly media errors. Penbo said pollies should just sack their staffers. Our Lucy Kippist followed up our coverage with an expose of the volunteering medal that the PM was handing out on Australia Day. On the flipside, the ALP saved the alps.

New contributor James Heathers broke down why alternative medicines aren’t scientific. Sue O’Reilly didn’t get the response she was looking for when she asked Tony Abbott to meet with a child with disabilities and their carers. Tory Maguire wondered why Sydney gets so sooky about the weather compared to elsewhere in Australia, Jason Tin decried the end of the internet and Tory Shepherd warned of the dangers of home births.

Elsewhere in the world, a man planned to wrap a river in fabric. How about that?

It’s Friday. What’s on your mind, Punchers?

It’s Friday the 13th. But in some good luck for you, here’s this week’s Friday review.

In the news this week: a trio of anti-whaling activists were imprisoned boarding a whaling security vessel. Tory Maguire asked whether their problem was our problem. A Coalition MP caused a bit of a stink (and one too many smell-related puns in the media) with remarks about deodorant. And breast implants exploded.

Father Paul Kelly kickstarted a heated legal debate over “gay panic” legal provisions, which continues here today on The Punch. Emma Jane left some readers of The Punch in tears laughing about the iPhone’s AutoCorrecting software. The feminist/meninist debate continued to rage.

Farmhand Lucy Kippist ploughed into the future of agriculture in Australia. Tracey Spicer wondered why women on the front covers of magazines just can’t keep their clothes on. And wouldn’t it be easier if we just pretended our leaders are Glorious And Defenders Of All That Is Good And Excellent Who Descended From The Heavens At Birth? asked Jason Tin.

What else is on your mind, folks?

Ah, summer. This week we brought in the New Year - and honestly, there wasn’t a whole lot else when it came to the world of news. Kate Winslet painted her toenails. The weather was hot, sometimes dangerously so. And hey, how are those 2012 resolutions treating you? Lainie Anderson reminded us that we CAN keep them.

In other news, Ricky Ponting scored a century, as Christopher Bantick analysed for us, and some other guy scored three, as I wrote today. Tracey Spicer fired up about Y txtn whyl u dryv is stupid. Lucy tackled those selfish people who dump their unusable crap at charity bins. Marriage equality campaigner Alex Greenwich warned Labor not to take a shot-gun approach to gay marriage. And The Punch Team aired (some) of its dirty laundry in the hope that a new scientific discovery that enables events to be cloaked would handily gobble them up. 

We also welcomed Tory Maguire back to The Punch. Let the good times roll.

It’s Friday. What’s on your mind?

The week before Christmas was ruled by grief. Associate Professor Felix Patrikeef explained what the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il meant. The Punch team examined the curious and disturbing degree of public grieving in the isolated state. Another asylum seeker tragedy occurred. And TV journalist and anchor Hugh Riminton remembered Christopher Hitchens.

Cairns Post journo Chris Harrison decried the over-technologification of the cricket. Nicole Dungan, mother of three, rallied readers to end the puppy farming industry. Womens’ advocate Melinda Tankard-Reist wrote about Pussy – the energy drink, thanks very much – in a piece that probably sparked the greatest debate of the week.

Radio host Derryn Hinch described what it was like to be under house arrest. Tory called bullshit on the Men’s Rights Extremists. The first weekend of cricket’s Big Bash was a smashing success even if some old school journos were too snooty to admit it, Anthony Sharwood wrote. Regular Jo Thornely had a laugh at the expense of Christmas carols. And Labor MP Richard Marles called on politicians on both sides of the aisle to join together in the spirit of Christmas.

Our Biggest Moments of 2011 series, which has come to its grand Osama-based finale today, wrapped up. The floods throughout Australia, Gaddafi’s death and the Arab Spring, the Fukushima crisis, and Cadel Evans’ victory in Le Tour rounded out the top 5.

The Punch Team wish all our readers and contributors a very happy Christmas. Rest assured we’ll be right here for your summer reading throughout the holiday season. Check out the next of our “coastal holidays of your dreams” series here.

It was a big week in science. CERN scientists caught a glimpse of the Higgs Boson. What is the bloody thing? Read a great explanation by news.com.au’s Peter Farquhar here and Caroline Hamilton of the ARC Centre for Particle Physics’s piece on why it’s so exciting here. Ant compared the science behind the Higgs with that of the climate, and Tory Shepherd utterly ripped Ian Plimer to shreds for his kids book about climate scepticism. I revealed that the future is already here (except for the hovercars).

But it was also a week about values a little closer to home. One of the pieces that got you talking this week was by broadcaster Tracey Spicer exposing the school that banned Christmas. And the girl who was banned from attending a Broken Hill Catholic school for having homosexual parents sparked a tumultuous debate about equality in the comments on Walkley Award winning journo Jack Marx’s account for us from on the ground in Broken Hill. Our Lucy tackled civic virtue in her piece defending the existence of juries in courts. And the Angry Cripple spun a yarn about the heroic banker who is crusading to protect the disabled.

The political story of the week was the Gillard government reshuffle, here’s political expert Mal Farr’s take on that. Meanwhile, academic Stephen Harrington joked that we should just get rid of Santa, the fat, obnoxious home intruder. And our biggest moments of the year countdown continued, this week including: the Christchurch quake, Occupy Wall Street and global financial turmoil, Charlie Sheen and oh, the “death of democracy” in Australia. The list wraps up next Friday!

It’s Friday, Punchers, and The Punch is recovering from a karaoke-and-cheap-Nepalese-centred Christmas party. What’s on your mind?

It was a cracker week in Punchland. And not just ‘cos Hillary Clinton has joined our stable of intrepid writers. The Punch is putting in a request for President Obama to write next Monday’s Open Thread too. We’ll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, here’s our weekly review of the top Punch pieces of the past week.

Forget over the counter, give us the pill for free, the talented Lucy Kippist demanded. Why did an Argentinean student on exchange to Australia desperately want to get the hell outta here? Our man in the United States, Paul Toohey, told us the story of Carlos Miceli. Channelling the frustrations of restaurateurs around the nation, Daily Telegraph restaurant critic Simon Thomsen cried: if you book a table at a top restaurant and then give them the slip, at least have the courtesy to cancel your booking. Doddery old drivers shouldn’t be a protected species, wrote David Penberthy. And look wowsers, sexting is no big deal. That’s what I think. A lot of you disagreed.

The Bali boy arrived back home this week. Sending goldfish to people as a PR stunt didn’t work. Using a respected church leader as part of a pokies PR stunt is not on, wrote another respected church leader. Swanny needed to go medieval on the banks when they didn’t lower our interest rates. He didn’t, our Ant wrote. But our resident top consumer advocate Frank Zumbo went medieval on the petrol companies as they shafted regional Australia at the bowser.

Continue reading "Punch on: Friday review 09/12/2011" »

This week heralded the beginning of The Punch’s 23 biggest moments of the year countdown. Which is lucky, because not a whole lot happened in the news this week. Yeah, there was the mini-budget, which Mark and Mal told you all about. And the Murray-Darling report dropped... Not a whole lot else, though. Feel that summertime laziness in the air?

However, while the news cycle may have needed a defibrillator, The Punch was firing. Lucy was in top form nailing who the real dopes are when it comes to pot and why good body image is a fat myth. Schoolies was a hot topic. Penbo raised his fist at the youngens and cried: “hell no you flamin’ mongrels” and on the other side, a Gen Y-er put his foot down and saying, look Mr Penberthy, sir… hell yeah to boozin’ and rootin’. The headline of the week was without doubt: “Bugger it, let’s talk about my bottom”.

Kids are digital, but that doesn’t mean they’re savvy, I pointed out as Australians got a bit panicked about internet addiction. The Brisbane Roar, forever underrated, finally got rated by Triple M Director of Sport Dan Ginnane. And TV industry veteran Helen Parker revealed why Kyle & Jackie O’s televised careers haven’t been particularly successful.

It’s Friday, Punchers. What’s on your mind?

This week’s Punchy goodness revolved around Kyle Sandilands and sneaky political shenanigans.

Penbo pulverised Kyle on Wednesday for his vile attack on news.com.au reporter Alison Stephenson. As company after company pulled their sponsorship, Tory said Austereo should just lance the boil and sack him. The Federal government barrelled the mining tax through the House with the helping hand of the Greens and in an astonishing political manoeuvre, Labor picked up another vote in that same chamber later in the week.

This week we brought you a snapshot of the life of a miner and we painted a picture of the Pilbara, Ant argued that the climate debate has undercut the broader environmental movement, Melinda Tankard-Reist raised her fist at violence against women and Lucy commented on the power of the Twitter mob. Tory declared: “Stop the planes!”,  Kyle Pollard told the sombre story of a motor accident and Australia couldn’t catch its breath from playing host to a batch of globetrotting superstars.

Jason Tin wrote about not writing Twilight, Daniela Elser was not impressed by Matthew Newton’s ACA appearance and there were rainbows, happiness and lamprophony in the open thread. Oh, and we all like Michael Clarke now. Except those of you who don’t. Which is quite a lot of you actually.

Happy Friday folks, have an excellent weekend. But first, tell us what’s on your mind!

I probably don’t have to tell you what the big story was this week. Obamarama reigned. I explained the Obama magic, Mal examined US forces getting the nod to hang with the crocs, David Lundberg analysed how we’re entering the Asian Century and Tory harvested the opinions of the voiceless on Obama: all six people occupying that beating hub of capitalism, Adelaide.

Also in the news: gay marriage and selling uranium to India. We had an important piece about gay health and marriage from Paul Martin, and we got the facts for you on India and uranium from Professor Stephen Lincoln from the University of Adelaide.

Through the week, Lucy calmly laid out how the best way to address binge drinking isn’t to stop drinking but encourage sensible consumption, Penbo crossed his fingers that these terrorists wouldn’t be released into the public, Amy Crutchfield explained why the best chefs cook naked, Tory raised her fist at way-too-beautiful youngsters and Greg Hunt and I duked it out over the meaning of the polls.

Also, Jason Tin, the sonofa, had an excellent holiday. And I hope you have an excellent Friday. What’s on your mind, folks?

The carbon tax passed the Senate this week, meaning it will hopefully feature less prominently in the Friday Review over the next few months. Mal Farr explained how its passage might put an end to a beautiful friendship.

Alan Joyce may just save Julia Gillard’s prime ministership, but just her luck, a giant asteroid was hurtling towards the Earth around the same time. Another soldier went rogue in Afghanistan, and Jim Nolan and Ian McPhedran reacted. And the Michael Jackson case came to an end. 

Ant explained the rules of arseholery, Lucy asked #sowhatifmensaybadthingsaboutme and Banksy explored a first world problem.

It’s a Friday and Remembrance Day. Lest we forget.

The week started with a variety of events that stopped the nation. A regular one, the Melbourne Cup. And an unexpected one: the Qantas debacle. Mal and Geoff Lemon were all over the latter. Our best piece about the Cup, however, didn’t have much to do with the Cup at all - instead, it was a heart-warming tale about the world’s most hopeless horse finally having a moment in the sunshine.

Also this week, Lucy pointed out that young women haven’t gone to the dogs, Tory unleashed upon an absurd corner of feminism and made good use of the office’s word of the week, “heteronormative”. Dan Ilic wrote a cracker two-part report on his comedy tour of Afghanistan (the second piece is up today), Jason Tin demanded we wear more costumes and Ruby Hamad wondered about Kim Kardashian and gay marriage. And so much more.

Also, yesterday’s Thursday Word teaser was too vague for anyone to actually guess. Victory!

It’s Friday. What’s on your mind, folks?

The final week of our Festival of Obvious Ideas has come to an end. This week’s entries included: We binge on everything, we should listen to the experts about stuff, the catapostrophe of the apostrophe should be put out of its misery and mobile phone numbers should be listed in directory form.

Also in this week’s news, the Queen was hitting several towns, Penbo painted a picture of an Australia that has no interest in republicanism and CHOGM, the sound of a spluttering Commonwealth, was held in Perth. The Australian Occupiers ran into trouble in Sydney and Melbourne. Tory sliced-and-diced Bob Katter over his party being funded by gun-toting giraffe-killers, and still on the animal front, Captain John Silberberg wrote how the myth of the man-eating shark is just a great white lie. As for us mere humans, Peter Strong asked what life would be like if we could live to 150 and the team of boganomists behind Things Bogans Like provided us with insight into why bogans like Harvey Norman.

It’s Friday, ladies and gents. What’s on your mind?

The first week of our Festival of Obvious Ideas has come to an end!

We kicked off the week with profoundly obvious ideas like: don’t go to Bali, organ donation should be automatic and loyalty cards don’t make you feel special. Others from the obvious file included: Jason Tin’s bold idea that we should stop trying to be famous, news.com.au’s Lincoln Archer on how if employers want their employees to behave then hey, they shouldn’t treat their workers like crap; Luce on why Facehaters should dump Facebook and Tory on why parliamentary terms should be slashed, at least in the Upper House. There’s a lot more to come where all those ideas came from next week!

Also on The Punch: Jo Thornely explained in her ever-humorous way why Gillard did the right thing in not curtsying to the Queen; Emma Jane on helicopter parents and Penbo on the federal government being stuffed. Ant marked Quade Cooper’s burial under a scrum of hate and I asked: what the hell happened to political parties? Ged Kearney declared hate the new debate, and the profoundly deaf Sherrie Beaver delivered a rousing call for deaf pride.

Continue reading "Punch on: Open thread 21/10/2011" »

“Sealed with a kiss”, “a pledge made in blood”. The headlines about the carbon tax passing Parliament this week sounded like extracts from a Twilight flick. In spite of that, at The Punch this week we were all over the carbon tax. Mark Kenny put the historic political moment in perspective, Liberal Senator Mathias Cormann railed against the tax and the CFMEU President, Tony Maher, pointed the finger not at the carbon tax but at mining fat cats for endangering the economy.

We kicked off the week with a series of so-bad-they’re-good Kiwi jokes, a Photoshopped Kevin Rudd and an astonishingly apt comparison between our politicians and Muppets. On Tuesday, Sophie Mirabella blew a fuse at the Australian copycats of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The piece inspired a lot of rage, including a firey pushback piece by our Stephen Harrington.

One of our best pieces of the week was an account by train driver Hunter Perske of what it’s like to be a train driver afraid of hitting someone. Luce explored the world of arranged marriages in Australia, Tory called bullshit on the existence of Yetis, and Frances Simmons explained that slavery in Australia is not all about the sex trade.

It’s Friday! What’s on your mind?

The week started with a kerfuffle about pokie machines and footy – something that’s likely to flare up again as the Ultimate Footy Weekend cranks up. Women got the go-ahead to fight on the frontlines and Andrew Bolt lost his court case. Here on The Punch, Geoff Lemon poked fun at Australia’s standing in the world, Lucy produced some really detailed reportage from the Upper Hunter about coal seam gas, the Angry Cripple filled us in about a system that denies people basic justice and Emma Jane sparked a fire with her column on absent dads.

Kevin Rudd made an embarrassing Freudian slip, another group of nerds stirred some controversy in Adelaide, the benefits of bitching were made clear and Ben McKelvey labelled a Jimmy Barnes endorsement a working class sham. I reported on an Australian “oath of loyalty”, the PM turned 50 and got a dog that Tory explained just isn’t a dog.

We’ll have an open thread devoted to the footy this weekend as well. I’t's Friday! Happy long weekend (if you’ve got one)!

Another Friday, another week in review.

The debate over respect for politicians stood out this week. Wayne Swan was shown a lot of respect by Euromoney magazine when he was declared Finance Minister of the Year, but many said Julia Gillard and her office weren’t shown much in a controversial episode of At Home With Julia. Meanwhile, the Malaysian solution remained unsolved (no thanks to either side of politics) and gay marriage jumped a hurdle in Tasmania.

Also on The Punch, another other crappy TV show was a topic of contention, as was the morality of sex. Tory talked media inquiries, Lucy explained how eminently sensible it is to go part-time vegetarian or “flexitarian”, anti-ranga sentiment was a red hot topic and news.com.au’s Helen Parker explained why journos should stop asking families of victims of homicide whether they’ve experienced “closure”. We thrashed out whether we’re working more or working less. In spite of all that, Kevin Andrews said “green jobs” were a waste of time and dosh and Jason Tin wondered why anyone would devote their working life to creating Twitterspam viruses.

On top of all that, Jo Thornely gave us a handy guide for complaining about stuff. But there’s nothing to complain about really. It’s Friday! What’s on your mind?

This week started with reflection on a tragedy. It’s been ten years since the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Here on The Punch, Penbo wrote a ripper about the struggle to retain perspective about the catastrophe, an architect told us why the World Trade Centre were such spectacular rectangular prisms, a 9/11 truther argued his case, Tory examined the conspirator mindset and I reflected upon growing up in the age of terror.

But that’s certainly not all we had this week. Sam Stosur dominated Serena Williams, and Serena wasn’t on her best behaviour. Lucy spun us a yarn about a really worthwhile cause, a sex worker railed against old-school feminists not respecting the choices of women, Ant wondered why we’re so, so obsessed with cutesy animal stories and Joe asked the question: does anyone else miss John Howard?

The tax (or not-tax) we’re all sick of talking about was introduced into Parliament this week. In the same building, Nick Xenophon was naming names. Yesterday was R U OK Day, and I found that some far-flung parts of Australia are definitely not okay and Gordon Parker explained why the day is important.

Continue reading "Punch on: Open thread 16/09/2011" »

We started the week with a bang. Joe said the ALP should do as the Romans did and seek liberation in its coming annihilation, Emma Jane told the story of her struggle with depression and reminded us that things get better and Penbo declared it’s time to ban the sickos who celebrate anorexia.

At the top of the news agenda this week: the fallout from the High Court’s big immigration decision. Mal warned that both Labor and the Libs are courting disaster over asylum seekers and Penbo said the PM would be foolish to buy Tony Abbott’s bipartisan gesture. Also in the news was a new study declaring families were on the verge of breakdown, which Lucy perfectly put in perspective. We also talked about the ABC’s latest comedy, At Home With Julia, with Ant bagging it and Sophie Mirabella saying it was an example of the Prime Minister having lost the respect of the country.

Stories that weren’t on newspaper frontpages this week but we thought were important for you to hear about included the Angry Cripple’s story of a sports organisation not giving a young disabled athlete a fair go. Angry mum Tracey Spicer took Coles “down, down, down” over their corporate propaganda proliferating in schools. I reminded Australia that the flood levy, well, happened, and Jason Tin got drunk one night and tried to invent something.

Continue reading "Punch on: Open thread 09/09/2011" »

You have to wonder whether the Prime Minister really felt like getting out of bed this morning. The news of the week wasn’t good to her.

The Gillard Government faced political disaster on two fronts. The Craig Thomson scandal dominated headlines at the beginning of the week, which our Joe Hildebrand had a bit to say about. The other news of the week was the government’s immigration policy being blown out of the water by the High Court. We had Mal Farr and Mark Kenny tell you about the political implications and Andrew Lynch and Fiona Chung explained the legal ramifications to us. David Hicks explained himself to Australian Story and Tory pointed out he was both a sinner and sin-ee. We mulled the consequences of THAT NRL brawl. Hurricane Irene wrecked havoc along the east coast of the United States.

Here at The Punch, we talked about giving our kids really good drugs. Jo Thornely scolded Hollywood about movie remakes and Ant examined Bear Grylls’ unhealthy fascination with a popular reconstituted lemon drink. Jack Shield argued Australia needs a sovereign wealth fund, something the government ruled out this week. Kochie talked tax and Geoff Russell said Aussie cities need to pick up their velocity when it comes to cycling.

Continue reading "Punch on: Open thread 02/09/2011" »

It was a trucking good week at The Punch.

A convoy of no confidence descended on Canberra, Ant said the claims made by Alan Jones and Bronwyn Bishop were completely over the top, Sky News reporter David Lipson told us how Alan Jones whipped the crowd up against him, I introduced you to Gordon Crawford and Sophie Mirabella called journalists criticising the carbon-tax-related protests freaks.

The Craig Thomson scandal dominated newspaper front pages and gay marriage dominated the opinion pages.  Kochie told us Australia was doing pretty well and BHP Billiton showed us they were definitely doing pretty bloody well. Robin Barker told us it doesn’t matter what way babies face in prams and we had a 50-year-old bodybuilder tell us her story. We talked about teen dating, tipping, family photos and David Hicks.

It’s Friday, and that’s the week that was. What’s on your mind?

It was a week of misbehaviour in the world of current affairs.

We observed the wash-up from the London riots and compared rioters’ behaviour with the famine-stricken Somalians. We punched on over the antics of Labor MP Craig Thomson and doggedly debated whether pitbull terriers have a place in our ‘burbs. We wondered whether the Canberra rally’s circus atmosphere was appropriate, but at least they weren’t just sitting on their arses clicking the “like” button. And an American girl ate soap.

We talked kitchens, Noni Hazlehurst and agreed and disagreed.

Continue reading "Punch on: Open thread 19/08/2011" »