Clear message from everyone at the Canberra rally. #SanctionIsraelNow

Absolutely massive crowd in Naarm/Melbourne today. From the river to the sea.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs acquitted of most serious charges, convicted of prostitution-related offence The hip-hop executive was convicted of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and paid male sex workers, to engage in sexual encounters. #culture #celebrity

The hip-hop executive was convicted of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and paid male sex workers, to engage in sexual encounters. #culture #celebrity

We Used To Be Journos, drops tomorrow morning hosted by me and @janfran.bsky.social Fran

You’ll hear my thoughts on Lattouf v ABC.

open.spotify.com/episode/62AP...

The council members are:

Larissa Behrendt (chair) – legal scholar, novelist, past board chair of NITV & Bangarra, board member of SWF, MCA & AMPAG

Rachel Bin Salleh, publisher of Magabala Books

Sarah Holland-Batt, poet & critic

Tim Jarvis, explorer & environmentalist

(the rest below…)

Writing Australia Council appointed | Books+Publishing Purchase a subscription to view job ads and other premium content on Books+Publishing.

www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...

Priority seat signage with pictograms showing reserved seating for the elderly, injured, pregnant (with wi-fi waves seeming to emanate from her belly), and those with young children. Text is displayed in multiple languages.

“Are you okay, ma’am?”
“I think I swallowed my router.”
“Here, take my seat.”

Pop stars doing their bit.

Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded

Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded

Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded, including an email from a journo at The Australian sent 20 minutes before she was told.

Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded

The day author Ren Wyld was due to receive the Black & Write $15k Indigenous fellowship she was told it had been rescinded. A journo from the Oz seemed to know before she did. Appalling to see QLD govt cave to Murdoch press to punish a First Nations writer for speaking out in support of Palestine.

Btw the State Library of QLD has an entire Intellectual Freedom Policy.
Needless to say management completely ignored it - and for exactly the political reasons their policy explicitly disavows.

content.slq.qld.gov.au/sites/defaul...

Another Australian cultural institution failing to uphold its own values.
Another person punished and silenced for opposing war crimes.
Another cultural institution that doesn’t have the bravery to speak honestly about its straight up censorship. Weak as piss.

www.slq.qld.gov.au/about/news-a...

Getting a little sick and tired of this new unofficial Australian arts policy of "have no political opinion, or alternatively just shut up about Palestine"

Journalists have been burned alive inside tents from bombs dropped by Israel. The footage of this is horrendous – and yet we are watching human beings live this every. single. day and our leaders and media do nothing.

WINNER ANNOUNCED: Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2025
 
🏆 John Clarke Prize for Humour Writing: I’d Rather Not, Robert Skinner
 
Congratulations to Robert Skinner on being awarded the first VPLA John Clarke Prize for Humour Writing with the utterly hilarious memoir ‘I’d Rather Not’.

🎉🎉Congratulations to Wanda Gibson for securing the Victorian Prize for Literature for her work 'Three Dresses'. 🎉🎉
This marks another historic moment for this year's Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, with this being the first time a work from the Children’s Literature category named winner.

On the one hand, I seriously doubt it. On the other hand… why? What possible commercial use does this have apart from just stealing a nice thing humans like doing?

Splendour no more: Saul to sell Byron Bay’s premier festival site The former home of the Splendour in the Grass festival is being sold by a conglomerate that includes arts events veteran Brandon Saul.

And so the last rites for "it's only resting" Splendour are written. Nice work Live Nation, the music industry's kiss of death.
www.smh.com.au/business/com...

The context that many (Americans) are missing is not only that there's a massive deadly cyclone about to hit Brisbane, but also that 18 food delivery riders have been killed on Australian roads since 2017.

Just a general rule - if you wouldn't go out in weather to go pick up something non-critical, don't ask a delivery driver to do it

Dutton's vile racist lie that the Govt was bringing in Palestinians from Gaza to vote in the election is made worse by the fact Dutton served as Home Affairs Minister. He knows people must be lawful residents for 4yrs before they can even apply for citizenship! 😠 #racism #auspol #AusVotes2025

I can name so many Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander women more worthy of exposure on ABC
Australian story
Linda Burney
Prof Marcia Langton
Aunty Pat Anderson
Lowitja So so many more worthy
Shame on you ABC
#auspol

He boasts about being a sexual predator, he's been accused by 25 women of rape, harassment or assault, a jury found he "forcibly and non consensually penetrated Carroll's vagina with his fingers," he supports banning abortion.

But he hates trans people and so the Times calls him "a feminist hero."

Look ma, I'm finally white.

The acquisition of Text Publishing by Penguin Random House is part of a worrying trend in Australian publishing Mergers within the Australian publishing industry have significant implications for the literary culture.

Only one little thing wrong with this piece: Hardie Grant is actually an OZ independent, so wrong to say their Pantera acquisition represents a merger with a multinational. Nevertheless, thinning stocks in the indie sector in OZ, for sure... theconversation.com/the-acquisit...

This Cybertruck did not crash. It made a heartfelt and perhaps ill-advised gesture that, in the moment, might have been misinterpreted as a crash, but we should not rush to judgement.

Text Publishing joins Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Australia and The Text Publishing Company today announced that they have si...

This makes three Australian indies swallowed up by major houses in a year (by my count, anyway, I could well have forgotten one) which is... sure something.

Big week for me legally releasing some of the hate in my heart ☺️ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

a chart showing that australia sends most gas overseas

not only does australia send most of the gas it extracts overseas, it uses more gas **just for preparing the other gas for sending elsewhere** than it does for all domestic gas power generation

www.energy.gov.au/sites/defaul...

It's genocide