Down Under

We all know what happened in December. Bushfires and smoke. The PM, startled by the intrusion of Australia at his Hawaiian resort, stumbled in front of the media bus and copped a glancing blow from

Once, exasperated news hounds might shake their heads and marvel at how life imitates art. It was stranger than fiction, they exclaimed. Nowadays it’s just “You can’t make this shit up.” And though headlines grow

Voters in the Victorian federal electorate of Batman were a little nonplussed at the huge number of Greens supporters roaming the streets on March 17 election day. Throsby can’t be sure if punters knew how

Advice to pundits – novice and well-seasoned: let a scandal play out a while before opining in a space more enduring than a tweet. We suspected that #BeetrootGate might whither and die on the vine,

Yet each seems sillier than the last. That’s odd. You would think we’d be getting more used to silly. Maybe we are and, to borrow a saying and twist it: “Don’t argue with Silly. It’ll

In the Great Southern Land we have an anticipatory aphorism: “She’ll be right, mate.” Deployed phonetically as “sheeyellbi roight moite,” it’s designed to comfort wunnannuther with some future bliss. Although it hasn’t been seen in

The international reader – should the northern hemisphere lapse into inexplicable torpor and attention drift towards Britain’s remaining colony, Terra Australis – might need a helping hand with the goings on around this place. Well,

Another exciting week in Australian federal politics. The 47th such, this year. Exciting for government opponents – like lion fans at the Roman Coliseum. Exciting for government supporters – like passengers in a bus careening

“I’m a good man in a crisis” declared the leader of Australia’s most crisis-ridden government in decades. “I blend in” tweeted a wag. Throsby is tickled pink to be covering Australian Politics at such an

Broken news E.B. White’s Newsbreaks in The New Yorker magazine were curated media gaffes. In April this year The Times “posthumorously” provided White his best: Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the number