Postcards from Magic Pudding Land

Melodramatic? Perhaps but it seems like it. It's another inferno outside. 11am and its 36 degrees. Meanwhile the south coast id on fire, quite literally. I was born in Canberra. Retreats to the coast at any time of the year were mostly memorable for the time spent in majestic coastal forests stretching from Sydney south. They are the remnants of a forested land that existed in far greater area when the white people invaded. By the end of today, most of it will be burnt. The last significant stands of temperate coastal coastal forest not sub-divided by human settlement, now just smoking ruins. The ecosystems. The watersheds. The effect of local climate. The surrounding towns. Part of me has died. A sanctuary destroyed. It seems completely unavoidable; these are very dark times. Apocalyptic. Terrifying. Global warming cometh. The scale of these fires is significant on a global scale. Last I saw, it represents half of Oz's annual carbon budget. It is bound to be mo

What does the AFR's take on Scott Morrison's aka #smoko #wherethehellareyou holiday tell us? Well more than anything it reveals that even after all the protests about a free and independent press over the Smethurst/ABC raids, most of the professional media are still quite happy to take their writing instructions from the very people they are supposed to be holding to account. It reveals how much of a club politics and the reporting of it has become. There can be absolutely no doubt all the key players were given the heads up about #smoko's leave and we can safely assume this included Albo. And just quietly they all nodded and said sure, mum's the word. Some of them even defended the holiday saying the poor bloke deserves a break. Try telling that to some hospitality workers over the next few weeks or the people putting their lives at risk fighting the fires while organising their own charity. If you think that is troubling, imagine what else we are not being told.

I used to have an ALP corflute sign hiding in my cupboard featuring a young smiling Kevin Rudd, the Kevin 07 that delivered a thumping majority to the ALP and ending little Johnny's reign. I mention that because it was the last time I voted for the ALP after 30 odd years and today as I sit here in the smoky shade of 2019, it seems vaguely relevant to the political shitfuckery we are witnessing. Just to recap, the ALP was returned to government with an 18 seat majority having secured a swing of over 5% in the popular vote. Realistically it should have meant an centre left government for at least 3 terms but instead the ALP barely scraped back into office 3 years later, just getting a minority government over the line. And since then we have endured more right wing bastardry from Abbott, Turnbull and now Morrison. Now that the dust has settled on the debacle of May 2019 I am struck by a recurring theme both here and abroad. It might be a Murdoch inspired talking point but even th