Views on the news from Canberra’s top columnists
Legal columnist HUGH SELBY believes the Tasmanian Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions needs to be remade from top to bottom. He says it needs new leadership that believes in, and acts upon “fair process and fair trials”.
You have more of a chance of being struck by lightning or kicked to death by a donkey than dying through meteorite impact. But should we be concerned? ROSS FITZGERALD & DICK WHITAKER say the short answer is no, but the long answer is yes!
Whimsy columnist CLIVE WILLIAMS looks at "contranyms" – single words that can mean both one thing and its opposite depending on context.
Out the mouths of babes... our Jolly Chiefster discovers his pool plans aren't all he's pretending they are.
"I am sure the Liberal Party can single handedly make themselves irrelevant without the help of the Labor Party, while the latter could get on with governing," says letter writer PENNY MOYES, of Hughes.
Australia can’t easily reduce its military dependence on the US, but with Canada, we can mitigate risk, writes JOHN BLAXLAND.
"There is no good reason in 2026 to allow directors of public prosecutions to be less accountable than anyone else for their conduct. This 'non-accountability' brings our criminal justice system into disrepute." HUGH SELBY explains why...
You might think war was exactly the kind of scenario you’d buy travel insurance for in the first place – a major, unforeseen international event that causes travel chaos. Not so, says PAUL LATIMER.
"These days the ACT law is ignored with respect to public housing tenants. It’s pointless to order compliance because there is no capacity to comply." HUGH SELBY says the ACT Ombudsman's chastising of Housing ACT misses the point.
It's din-din time and the chief's got some meaty treats for the local press hounds...
As the shockwaves from the death of Jeffrey Epstein rock high-profile reputations around the world, intelligence expert CLIVE WILLIAMS focuses on the circumstances of the conman's demise in a New York prison cell.
A recent feature story about Irish convicts has brought forward a couple of letters with local angles.
Cartoonist PAUL DORIN points the finger at who's to blame for One Nation's jumps in the polls.
With the prospect of rising interest rates, PAUL DORIN finds someone untroubled by financial stress.
"Most errors I’ve found in any job are made by good people doing their best. No one wakes up in the morning and thinks: 'I can’t wait to get to work today and damage somebody'," writes Kindness columnist ANTONIO DI DIO.
"Behind the silks and smiles lies a different picture of horse racing, one the cameras and bookmakers would prefer you didn’t see," writes Whimsy columnist CLIVE WILLIAMS.
Shane tests the limits of his progressiveness over summer and shares the highlights in this latest edition of Rattenbury's Believe it or Else! Hooray, KEEPING UP THE ACT is back!
"Light rail has probably unnecessarily already cost the ACT hundreds of millions, money that could have been used to address unmet community needs including housing, health, education and reducing debt," says letter writer MIKE QUIRK.
PAUL DORIN's cartoon sort of says it all, really.
