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Satire

August

Vice President Kamala Harris leaves the baffled bobbing in her wake.

Kamala’s word salad: circular statements, meaningless messages

The new US presidential candidate has a penchant for baffling new age profundity.

  • Rowan Dean

July

“What have you got?” Marlon Brando in The Wild One.

Rebels without a clause: bikie gangs take over the EBA talks

Hollywood motorcycle gang movies and the CFMEU are just so made for each other.

  • Rowan Dean
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents.

What does it take to protect a president in today’s Secret Service?

America’s Secret Service has been accused of excessive wokeness and red-tapery. Here is the evidence that is just not true.

  • Rowan Dean
“We are not going to win in November with this president,” Clooney wrote in his essay.

If George Clooney taps you on the shoulder, the ER is calling

The Hollywood star dramatically intervened in the debate over Joe Biden’s future this week. But his whole film career has led up to this moment.

  • Rowan Dean
A selfie at the ACTU Congress.

A beginner’s guide to surviving a business conference

“Making new connections”? If you don’t know why you’re at an industry gathering, you need to come up with a strategy.

  • The Economist
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That’s green, or is it teal, or turquoise perhaps?

The fashion statements line up on Canberra’s most famous red carpet

When a chance for sartorial display is on offer, Australia’s political tribes never hold back.

  • Rowan Dean

June

Julian Assange gave two thumbs up as he stepped off the plane to applause in Canberra on Wednesday night.

How Wiffyleaks blew apart the secrets of the Albanese government

Every government has something they would rather stayed private. Don’t they?

  • Rowan Dean
Now is the time for woke Australia to urgently re-visit all those famous “nuclear disaster” movies.

It’s time to revisit all those famous nuclear disaster movies

With debate about nuclear energy firmly in the zeitgeist, the movie business would be wise to contemplate redux versions of some box-office classics.

  • Rowan Dean
Hunter Biden arrives at federal court on June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Suspend your disbelief? Naaah! This is Hollywood

Here’s the movie pitch: the former president of the United States locked up with the, er, druggie son of the current president, and, ah, they’re plotting how to escape.

  • Rowan Dean
Minister for the NFIS and for government services, Bill Shorten.

Why Bill Shorten seems to be living in a never-ending soap opera

Bill Shorten’s expensive speechwriter specialises in far-fetched plots with overwrought characters. And she writes TV dramas too.

  • Updated
  • Rowan Dean
Robert De Niro created one of cinema’s iconic figures as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver.

‘You talking to me?’ De Niro meets the Don on the streets of Manhattan

Acclaimed actor Robert de Niro has never made a secret of his loathing for Donald Trump.

  • Rowan Dean

May

King Charles III, the yardstick for the talent queuing up to take the ARM’s top job.

The republican crown needs a new head: who will step up?

The Australian Republican Movement throne need not be empty for long considering this shining array of talent.

  • Rowan Dean
Education Minister Jason Clare with a phrase that could mean anything.

A call for destruction can mean, well, just about anything really

Confused about what “from the river to the sea” means? It’s been a common mistake right through history.

  • Rowan Dean
Mui Mui nylon briefs will set you back $1370.

Forget quantum, it’s billion-dollar briefs that our future needs

With fashion undies going for $1370 a pop, it’s clear what sector the Future Made in Australia policy must engage next.

  • Rowan Dean

April

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is not amused.

Seriously, Albo’s meme theme is putting comedians out of work

Memes of unlamented politicians have been found on the walls of Pompeii. This time it’s the prime minister, not the humourist, who is over the top in asking for satire to be taken down.

  • Rowan Dean
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An entrepreneur from Dubbo has excitedly taken up Anthony Albanese’s offer that he is “open to all ideas”

If your Future is Made in Australia you’ve got Buckley’s

A retired self-styled tech guru is keen to pitch a number of products to the Albanese government to be proudly subsidised and manufactured in Australia.

  • Rowan Dean
Scottish author JK Rowling has eased the peer pressure that has long silenced people.

JK Rowling is too rich and popular to silence on hate crime mania

The children’s author is irrepressible, which is why her opposition to free speech restrictions in Britain is so important.

  • Michael Deacon
An attentive audience at the opening of Parliament comes with the job.

Find me the very model of a modern governor-general

Vice-regal types do not grow on trees. It takes a very special kind of headhunter to find one.

  • Rowan Dean
Jonathan Biggins says the Wharf Review will end next year.

How to make money being Paul Keating

Thank god for writing royalties, says Jonathan Biggins, who reckons politics is stuck on repeat and the new puritanism is hard to poke fun at.

  • Emma Connors

March

NA

Kevin and the Donald rewrite the diplomatic dictionary

A pedant’s guide to what the former US president really meant in his comments on the Australian ambassador.

  • Rowan Dean

The Australian Financial Review Magazine

BOSS Financial Review

The rising cost-of-living burden has left more Australian unhappy.

Life & Leisure

Rich List

Laurence Escalante built Virtual Gaming Worlds into a multibillion-dollar business.