The Godfather: Peter Corris on voting
For the first time in my life I have been threatened with a fine for not voting in an election. This has caused me a little shame. I had to wait until I was 21 to vote (the voting age was not lowered to 18 until 1974), but ever since I’ve voted enthusiastically in...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on the outstanding success of Malcolm Turnbull
This may seem to be an unusual heading given my stated political leanings and the observable political facts, but bear with me. It’s based on a single premise, which will become clear. Turnbull, although he claims to have been raised in somewhat straitened...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on cartoons
How many newspaper headlines can you remember? For obvious reasons I remember ‘FRED DIES’ emblazoned on a Sydney tabloid when Professor Fred Hollows died, and no one can forget the nefarious London Sun’s headline ‘GOTCHA’, celebrating the sinking of an Argentinian...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on meeting prime ministers
I’ve met three prime ministers: one serving and two ex. I nearly met another one and I’ve also met a couldabeen – probably a shouldabeen. The first was Gough Whitlam when he launched a 1978 edition of Frank Hardy’s The Unlucky Australians to which he had...
STAN GRANT Talking to My Country. Reviewed by Kathy Gollan
Part polemic, part memoir, Stan Grant’s new book is a passionate account of the toll of a lifetime of negotiating between two cultures. The contradictions of being black in Australia, shown so vividly in this book, are there right from the beginning, in the...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on the decline of the political insult
‘It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.’ Lyndon B Johnson on J Edgar Hoover Most authorities agree that the greatest of all political insults in the English language came from the 18th-century radical John...The Godfather: Peter Corris on elections
The first Federal election I remember was in 1960. It was the one Robert Menzies won by one seat – the ‘Killen, you are magnificent’ election.* I couldn’t vote, being only 18 (the voting age for Federal elections was not lowered from 21 to 18 until 1973) but my...
Recent Posts
RICHARD DENNISS Dead Centre: How political pragmatism is killing us. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck18 November 2025Richard Denniss provides a chilling analysis of the ploys our politicians use [ … ]
T KINGFISHER Hemlock and Silver. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley13 November 2025Poison, mirror worlds, a life in danger and a seemingly impossible task – T [ … ]
MARIANA ENRIQUEZ Somebody is Walking on Your Grave. Reviewed by Ann Skea11 November 2025No casual tombstone tourist, Mariana Enriquez details her fascination with [ … ]
DAVID PRICE The Shameful Isles. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck6 November 2025David Price’s history of Western Australia’s lock hospitals and the [ … ]