The March 8 Edition

There’s nothing like random death to take away the false confidence of “This will never happen to me.” For federal Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, it hit when she was 26 years old and three months pregnant. Holidaying near Merimbula on the NSW south coast, her fiancé, Brett Seaman, was killed while out riding his bike. He was just 33. As Deborah Snow writes in today’s cover story, colleagues see her as tough and empathetic, a rare combination in politics that some might attribute to her life experience. She’s also known as a pivotal player in the Albanese government, more central than many outside Canberra realise. As Snow discovers, though, Gallagher has also made enemies, one of whom sees her as the polar opposite of empathetic. – Editor, Katrina Strickland

13 stories

Gallagher at home in Canberra, where she looks out for local wildlife such as magpies and roos.

For subscribers

‘I just started screaming’: The finance minister on the tragedy that changed her life

A sudden, catastrophic loss helped shape Katy Gallagher. Today, she’s a key member of the PM’s inner circle – and in the Coalition’s crosshairs.

March 6, 2025
by Deborah Snow

With Jyoti, who spoke no English but who slept by the author’s bed on her final night at the hospital.

For subscribers

When I said I wanted to experience the ‘real’ India, I didn’t mean the emergency room

A literature festival was to be the highlight of a trip to the subcontinent. Then came a sudden medical detour.

March 7, 2025
by Gay Alcorn

For subscribers

Yaron ‘didn’t like circus very much’. Now, his Aussie troupe is adored in Europe

Circa’s blend of gravitas and gravity-defying circus acts has won it high praise in the northern hemisphere. Now its artistic director wants to raise its profile back home.

March 8, 2025
by Jane Albert

Sarah and Paul Davis at their studio in Paddington.

Two of Us

Artist Paul ‘likes order’: Sarah got a glimpse of how much on their second date

On the day they met in 2006, this couple shared an instant attraction. They’ve been together ever since – experiencing new life as well as loss.

March 6, 2025
by Fenella Souter

“I’ve never understood expensive handbags. I just think that’s a tax on stupidity.”

Dicey Topics

For subscribers

‘A tax on stupidity’: The one extravagance writer Debra Oswald has never understood

The writer and creator of hit TV show Offspring on being careful with money, researching gruesome deaths – and when she’d commit murder.

March 8, 2025
by Benjamin Law

Modern Guru

For subscribers

My sister finally repaid me for a loan – do I tell her she gave me $100 too much?

An ungrateful, money-hogging sister is actually a sound investment, writes our Modern Guru.

March 8, 2025
by Danny Katz

Stop motion

The phone rang. It was his mother, telling him about her broken dishwasher and all the rain they’d been having and had he heard that this kid Steve he used to run about with had died of a heart attack. “Oh,” Wayne said. “Sorry, love. When did you last speak to him?” she asked. “Not for 30 years,” he mumbled, recalling that one brilliant summer they’d fallen into each other’s orbit and were consumed with making a stop-motion movie with their Star Wars figurines. “Ah, shit,” he said aloud, feeling acutely what Steve might have described as a disturbance in the force. –Words by Paul Connolly. Illustration by Jim Pavlidis.