Respected journalist and MORTAL ENEMY OF GERARD HENDERSON (not really), David Marr is a self-described "bourgeois do-gooder". He's written for Fairfax Media, The Monthly, The Saturday Paper and Guardian Australia, appeared on Q&A, The Drum and Insiders and is the author of multiple in-depth profiles for the Quarterly Essay.
In this first part of our conversation, David tells me about who Bill Shorten is, Labor and the unions, why Australia is so late to progress, drugs, conservatism and right-wing commentators. Hot dang!
A Very Canberra Comedy Festival Christmas
David's writing for Guardian Australia
David's writing for The Saturday Paper
David's Faction Man: Bill Shorten's Path To Power
Cause of the Week: Maternity Worldwide (maternityworldwide.org)
Peter Reith was a member of John Howard's cabinet from 1996 to 2001. He served as Minister for Small Business, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Minister for Defence. He's perhaps best known for formulating the GST policy and his roles in the 1998 waterfront dispute and the "children overboard" scandal.
Peter's just released The Reith Papers, an annotated collection of his diary entries during his time in government. Here we got to discuss (and occasionally lock horns over) the notion of humanising politicians, the recent Paris attacks, military action in the Middle East, Australia's approach to processing refugees and the role of unions in today's society.
Me in conversation with Darren Hanlon for MyTunes at Giant Dwarf Theatre
A Very Canberra Comedy Festival Christmas
The Reith Papers available from Melbourne University Press
Peter on ABC News Breakfast with Virginia Trioli
Cause of the Week: Enterprise Victoria (enterprisevictoria.com.au), the French Red Cross (soutenir.croix-rouge.fr)
Comedian, writer and activist Aamer Rahman jokes about race and detention centres and terrorism and hip-hop and comic books and cultural appropriation. Formerly of the comedy duo Fear Of A Brown Planet (with previous guest Nazeem Hussain), he now tours his stand-up internationally being very funny and very on-point.
Here Aamer articulates how the Adam Goodes controversy sums up the issues of Australia's race problem, how he views the impact of his work, cultural appropriation, Iggy Azalea, ethnic faces on TV, Bill Maher, Cornel West and political correctness in comedy.
My gigs at the Comics’ Lounge this week
MyTunes with me and Darren Hanlon at Giant Dwarf Theatre
The A to Z of LGBT: my piece for SBS Sexuality
Article: What Adam Goodes’ Invisible Spear Shows Us by Aamer Rahman
Aamer’s Reverse Racism routine
Buzzfeed article on Aamer and the Bollywood Industry Party
Cause of the Week: Refugees, Survivors & Ex-Detainees (riserefugee.org)
Here's a live panel on where the jolly hell Australian politics is heading at the moment, recorded at This Is Not Art 2015 in Newcastle, as part of Critical Animals. The panel featured myself, Labor Senator Sam Dastyari and academic Professor James Arvanitakis and was moderated by Alice Workman from triple j's Hack program.
We discussed political leadership, immigration, marriage equality and titles.
Critical Animals is a creative research symposium held annually as a part of tINA; find out more at criticalanimals.com.
My episode of Q&A in Toowoomba
The National Young Writers' Festival