
Honoured to be hosting this discussion with very smart and passionate people about what’s happening in Russia. Rickets are free!

Honoured to be hosting this discussion with very smart and passionate people about what’s happening in Russia. Rickets are free!

In Australia and around the world, there remain many laws worthy of ridicule – some because they’re outdated and no longer apply to contemporary life, others because they’re unfair and discriminatory.
So: what are the laws that we should be challenging … and just how hard is it to change them?
Join Julian Morrow, Dr Justine Rogers and Tom Ballard as they discuss the potential impacts of new laws that restrict the right to protest, dig into what happens to asylum seekers who arrived by boat before the introduction of offshore processing and reveal why victims of family violence can be liable for massive housing debts.
Special guest Professor Gillian Triggs, Human Rights Commission President and Justice Connect patron, will open the conversation with some insights from the front line.
This is happening at 7pm on May 18th at Giant Dwarf, Sydney.

Writer, engineer, former political candidate and now pollster Osman Faruqi has written for Guardian Australia, Junkee and SBS and regularly tweets like a mofo. He’s the son of Mehreen Faruqi, the first female Muslim to be elected to any Australian parliament (for the Greens, no less) and has recently launched his own polling site, Metapoll, dubbed “the most reliable poll ever”.
Here Osman tells me how he and his mum first became engaged with politics, the dire state of climate politics in Australia today,the lack of diversity in the Greens and the ALMIGHTY POWER OF THE POLLS.
The World Keeps Happening encore show at the Sydney Comedy Store
Me, Lehmo & Genevieve Morris at Sooki Lounge on May 12th
Osman’s writingatGuardian Australia
Osman’s writingatoverland.org.au
Cause of the Week: The Refugee Advice & CaseworkService (racs.org.au)
Oh Sydney, you are so nice to me that you sold out my shows at the Sydney Comedy Festival and now I get to come back and do it all again! Top stuff.
I’ll be at the Comedy Store on Saturday July 9th at 7PM.

Ben Eltham is the National Affairs Correspondent for New Matilda, the Industry Columnist for Arts Hub and has written for Guardian Australia, the ABC’s The Drum, Crikey and many other outlets. He’s a Research Fellow at Deakin University’s Faculty of Arts and Education and a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development.
Basically, he’s a major smarty-pants.
Ben’s very, very good at explaining things and in this chat he kindly took the time to explain to me what the hell negative gearing is and what it means for Australia’s housing crisis. We also discuss the myth of a “classless Australia”, tax dodging, neoliberalism, the government’s attacks on the arts and how the 2016 election is shaping up.
The World Keeps Happening at the Sydney Comedy Festival this week for TWO NIGHTS ONLY
My speeches at the MICF Great Debate, “Everyone’s Entitled To An Opinion”
Five Reasons The Myth About Liberals Running The Economy Best Must Die by Costa A
Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs Speaks Out by Ramona Kavol
Why Labor Are Right To Chase Turnbull’s Wealth by Ben Eltham
Don’t bank On ASIC Saving The Day: The Case For A Royal Commission Is Open and Shut by Ben Eltham
The Baaing Of Our Artists by Andrew Bolt
Neoliberalism: The Ideology At The Root Of All Our Problems by George Monbiot
Cause of the Week: Alzeihmer’s Australia (fightdementia.org.au)

I’m a lucky duck and have been presented with the Pinder Prize, named in honour of Australian comedy institution and glasses aficionado John Pinder. This is a huge honour that will allow me to take my show The World Keeps Happening to the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Hot DANG.
Please watch this space for more details. If you’d like to check out my full wrap up of my time at MICF 2016, check out my blog for TheMusic.com.au here.



Nayuka Gorrie is a Kurnai/Gunai, Gunditjmara, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman who’s passionate about progress for Indigenous Australians.
After reading her piece for Vice entitled Fuck Your Constitutional Recognition, I Want A Treaty, I scurried into her (beautiful) bedroom (with her permission) to talk about the problematic nature of recognition, the echoing trauma of the Stolen Generation, white Australia’s denialism, what an Indigenous treaty might look like and, of course, Andrew Bolt.
The World Keeps Happening at the Sydney Comedy Festival for TWO NIGHTS ONLY
My final blog for TheMusic.com.au, wrapping up MICF 2016
Nayuka on the Foundation for Young Australians
Maddee Clarke on twitter – @intoreceiving
Gregory Phillips: Should Australian Cities Bear Indigenous Language Names?
Causes of the Week: Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention & Legal Service (fvpls.org, Sisters’ Day Out), Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network (seedmob.org.au)