We hope you enjoy these highlights from 2019, and will join us for more next year.
It has been a big year for Schwartz Media continuing to publish against orthodoxy and challenge mediocrity in all forms. We hope you enjoy these highlights from 2019, and will join us for more next year.
Surviving Australia's biggest cult, The Family
In the 1960s, Anne Hamilton-Byrne set up Australia’s most notorious cult, The Family. In June this year, she died. Martin McKenzie-Murray spoke to one of the survivors, Ben Shenton, about living outside the cult and reckoning with her death.
Murdoch and the Far-Right
For the first time ever, researchers linked individual news articles with far-right recruitment drives. High on the list was reporting from The Australian, in stories about Safe Schools as well as about race. In this episode, Rick Morton considered responsibility and self-reflection in an industry historically bad at both.
Badiucao, Chinese Dissident
Months before the mass protests began in Hong Kong, the Chinese government shut down an art exhibition in the city. The work was by Badiucao, a Chinese-Australian artist living in Melbourne. He has since been harassed and intimidated in Australia, and his work has become a key part of the pro-democracy movement.
The Terrible Truth of Climate Change - Joëlle Gergis
Over the past year, the impact of climate change has jumped off the pages of reports and into the everyday. This key transition is captured by Joëlle Gergis in her confronting article for The Monthly. As a lead author on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report, Gergis has a deep awareness of what is unfolding across the planet. Her perspective – combining the personal and the professional – continues to reverberate.
How I Fought Off A Robodebt - Robert Skinner
The federal government’s robodebt saga will go down as one of the most insidious missteps of Australian political history. The revenue-harvesting strategy that presumes guilt, targets the vulnerable and applies Kafkaesque logic is encapsulated in Robert Skinner’s account for The Monthly. He shows humour, rather than hope, could be the last thing to die in desperate times.
All Veils and Misty: Richard Lowenstein’s ‘Mystify: Michael Hutchence’
Music editor Anwen Crawford claims Michael Hutchence was “the only bona fide rock star that Australia has ever produced”. Despite his fame, it took filmmaker and friend Anthony Lowenstein 22 years to cinematically piece together the INXS frontman’s life. The complexity of both Hutchence and Mystify are described perfectly in Crawford’s article for The Monthly.
Mike Cannon-Brookes and The New Climate Guard
The lethargy that defines the approach Australian politics takes to climate change can be disheartening, and frustrating, not least for journalists who cover the issue. Mike Seccombe found a glint of hope in his interview with tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, who explained why he’s decided to dedicate part of his fortune to funding climate solutions.
Rosie Batty: The Private Toll of Public Grief
Martin McKenzie-Murray’s interview with anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty was the culmination of a connection between journalist and subject that stretched over five years. It’s wrenching, beautifully written, and a rare insight into how a life in public really affects the private self.
Inside Jacqui Lambie's Power Play
In politics, there is only one truth: nothing is certain. And perhaps no one speaks better to the uncertainty of Canberra in 2019 than Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie. In this thoughtful, in-depth profile, Margaret Simons spends time on the farm with the self-described “rebel with a cause” and tries to make sense of it all.
