How do you create a powerful local cultural moment in the streamers’ age of algorithmic digital colonisation? Digital colonisation takes many forms but one of the most powerful is its algorithmic ability to distract us to death. Some of the largest, richest, most concentrated companies in the world have built streaming repositories that make the grand libraries of the past look like a child’s Lego building. Most of that information is digital exhaust, decipherable and valuable only to those who hold the key, but the shop window is filled with a tantalising showcase of video fairytales. Continue reading...

Australians are rightfully proud of their robust election process, yet surveys suggest very few fully understand it Beware of political leaders encouraging apathy, patting your hand and assuring you that the status quo is all hunky dory, encouraging a very Australian “she’ll be right” attitude, there’s nothing for you to do. For decades conservative political leaders have fostered this in Australia. Continue reading...

Bob Hawke excelled at finding the middle ground. Can it be found with a treasurer urging boldness and a more cautious PM? * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast When Bob Hawke decided to host a summit in Canberra on the economic future of Australia, shortly after his election as prime minister in 1983, most thought it was a window-dressing gimmick by the flamboyant showman politician. “This consensus is bullshit,” the New South Wales Labor premier Neville Wran declared. “It won’t work.” But it did. Continue reading...