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Culture wars

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Illustration by Simon Letch

No worries? How a fractured Australia lost its laid-back spirit

Even our lamb ads portray a fraying of national cohesion. From antisemitic terror to political polarisation, we’re not as relaxed as we like to imagine.

  • Nick Bryant

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The Captain Cook statue in St Kilda was vandalised in 2018, and in 2024 was severed from its plinth entirely.

Albanese’s greatest election threat isn’t Dutton. It’s the woke left

Aside from the odd snarl, the PM isn’t taking the Coalition’s bait. But just because he refuses to take the bait doesn’t mean his Labor colleagues won’t.

  • Gary Newman
Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese

Get set for a bitter election campaign fuelled by fear, not hope

The political year has begun with a hard-edged energy fuelled by personal attacks, scare campaigns and culture war debates.

  • Matthew Knott
Australian flags ready for a citizenship ceremony at Melbourne Town Hall on Australia Day in 2023.

PM dodges Australia Day stoush with Dutton, calls him ‘nasty’

Anthony Albanese sidestepped the culture war topic, instead laying into Peter Dutton in personal terms over his opposition to Labor’s cost-of-living plans.

  • Natassia Chrysanthos
From left: Anthony Albanese’s approval rating has dropped, while Justin Trudeau is the latest progessive leader leaving the stage, along with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. German chancellor Olaf Scholz faces the electorate next month, while Jacinda Ardern left politics in 2023.

Trudeau, Biden and Ardern are done. What’s eating the global left?

Australia may be an island, but it is not immune to the systemic forces sweeping across global politics.

  • Matthew Knott
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Straining to fathom water filters

Overall, it’s a bit of a dampener.

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Is woke broke?

It’s the year that woke broke, a victim of its own excess

It’s been a long time coming, but at last you get the sense that people are waking up to wokeism.

  • Parnell Palme McGuinness
The new Acropolis museum has empty plinths waiting for the Elgin Marbles.

Robots and replicas: Is the British Museum going to lose its Marbles?

Robot sculptors creating near-perfect replicas of the Parthenon Marbles may provide the key to the long-running dispute over the ownership of one of the ancient world’s most contested treasures.

  • Simon de Bruxelles
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during a press conference in July, flanked by the Australian flag.

Indigenous flag an easy target for Dutton when he’s kicking down

The opposition leader’s decision to start a debate about the Indigenous flag comes just as he is about to reveal the cost of his nuclear policy. That timing is revealing.

  • David Crowe
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg says Labor is running a culture war against homeownership as he argues for changes aimed at first time buyers.

The newest culture war battleground: Australian house prices

As house prices ease, the Coalition is accusing the government of starting a culture war on home owners. Labor says Liberal plans will push up interest rates.

  • Shane Wright

Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/topic/culture-wars-1lyw