There is hope in sight for the COVID-19 crisis. Australia’s curve appears to be flattening, and the numbers are looking so promising that the Prime Minister is talking about what needs to happen for restrictions to be eased – though the current rules will stay in place (like all of us) for the next four weeks at least.

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published by The Canberra Times, 01 April 2020] Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures. State and federal governments are exercising broad new powers and deploying eye-popping public spending to manage the COVID-19 health and economic crises. But government transparency and parliamentary accountability will be crucial to preserving one all-important commodity: trust. There

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published by the Canberra Times, 21 March 2020] After a summer of unprecedented bushfires and a billion animals dying, Australia now finds itself in the midst of an unprecedented public health pandemic with an economic crisis to match. While the $17.6 billion economic stimulus program was welcome for an already sluggish economy,

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 07 March 2020] It might be time to panic. Not about running out of toilet paper, the real danger is that the Morrison government will undercook its mooted fiscal stimulus package and risk sending Australia into recession to prove an ideological point. The economy has been weak

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in The Canberra Times, 22 February 2020] I’m not a revhead, but I come from a Holden family. Not a Holden worker family, but the type of Holden family that used to get up before sparrow’s fart to catch the bus five hours to Bathurst to watch Peter Brock race (my

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in The Canberra Times, 08 February 2020]There’s a hole where Australia’s climate and energy policy should be and the Morrison Government just keeps digging. The cheapest, cleanest solutions are right in front of its nose and yet it keeps subsidising the problem. In the face of a climate-fuelled bushfire crisis the

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 25 January 2020] “Unprecedented” is the word that comes up again and again. But the more often this extreme weather churns out new surprises, the more the word “unprecedented” seems inadequate to capture this new hostile climate.  A sheep stands in a paddock in the wake of

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 11 January 2020] So far, the lives of more than a billion animals have been extinguished in the bushfires. A billion. Gone. Millions of hectares of native forests are burned, along with tens of thousands of dead livestock. Hundreds of family homes are now ash and dozens

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 18 November 2019] I was a cub reporter working in the press gallery for the Sydney Morning Herald when bushfires engulfed Canberra in 2003, claiming four lives and almost 500 homes. It’s seared in my memory, as I’m sure it is for a lot of Canberrans. I’ve been thinking

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 02 November 2019] In his government’s latest free-speech crackdown, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has vowed to outlaw civil society groups campaigning against Australian businesses that work with companies with dubious environmental, human rights or ethical records. Morrison’s plan would criminalise, for example, the thousands of young people

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 21 October 2019] As the black sheep in a family of car enthusiasts, I know that if you brake and put your foot on the accelerator at the same time there’s a lot of noise and smoke, but you end up spinning your wheels. For some time

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 05 October 2019] Every spring I fall in love with Canberra all over again. After the biting cold of a perfect Canberra winter – which I enjoy until the last month or so – it’s uplifting to see the naked trees become leafy and green again, and

by Ebony Bennett[Originally Published in The Canberra Times] There’s a certain delicious irony to the fact that Parliament House will soon be powered by 100% renewable electricity. It is the same building where Tony Abbott repealed the carbon and did his level best to abolish the hugely successful Renewable Energy Target. The same building where

by Ebony Bennett[Originally Published in The Canberra Times, 07 September 2019] Australia has a government in search of an agenda and the religious discrimination bill is a poorly drafted solution in search of a problem. Following the passage of the income tax cuts package, the only policy discussed in any detail by the Coalition during