Bari Weiss is not only a bumbling clown but also a loathsome piece of shit, so I guess she has that going for her

Have spent the day resolutely focused on all the people who helped, who risked their own safety to ensure the safety of others. It’s no small thing in all that horror. Hate is a sickness.

'Pig-headed' is the way Terry Carney, of Robodebt fame, describes the response of the Department of Employment to the second Commonwealth Ombudsman report into their error-riddled privatised jobseeker compliance program. You can see why for yourself here. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politic...

You'd normally have to go to the coincidence factory to see a coincidence that perfect.

Earlier that day the barista at my local café had been playing Fleetwood Mac's Landslide and, unbidden, I began singing in my head as I walked 'and I toooore my men-iscus' to the same tune. Also I’m officially a French resident now. rick-morton.ghost.io/in-which-i-a...

The Federal Court confirms Walter Sofronoff engaged in corrupt conduct. Looking forward to The Australian’s coverage of this. www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Ju...

Hats off to @cameronwilson.bsky.social for his stellar reporting throughout all this, I hate to think where we’d be without it. I hope you get a break over Christmas!

Every time he opens his mouth about his unfitness for the highest integrity-driven office in the country, he demonstrates his unfitness.

Emeritus Prof Terry Carney delivers "Australian Social Services Scandals: Towards dystopia? Or equity and justice for the vulnerable?" Inaugural Carney Public Lecture at USyd on Thurs 6pm. Few tix to this free event left. I'm responding via Zoom after www.eventbrite.com.au/e/inaugural-...

Had my first experience getting stuck (via my backpack) in the closing doors of the Paris metro today and writhed around like a helpless fool until some Youth kindly freed me. Couldn’t look anyone in the eye for the whole trip.

It's Anti Corruption Day and to celebrate here is the schedule for the hearing into the NACC on Thursday

Curiouser and curiouser

What Australian outlets edited out of the opening of Kerry O'Brien's Walkley Awards speech on press freedom: (The full speech is here: www.walkleys.com/dont-kid-you...)

The full cost of the BoM website has been known for some time — I reported it in September last year — so why would management not be honest about it? It’s a story of executives meeting the firm ‘Accidenture’. $96m later… www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/2025/11...

I think award season is now over. Mean Streak just won the Walkley Book Award to cap it off and I’m so thankful. Buy or borrow, the story is more fucked up than you think.

I am getting so many of these awful things but at least the last one tried to be specific (by praising the wrong Rick Morton, a Christian pastor who writes about the beauty of 'transnational' orphan adoption 😱) and this one is just 'really impressive content and insight'.

This from @squigglyrick.bsky.social is an absolute treat. French history, French rural life, French knee injuries. Go on, spoil yourself. It’s Sunday. rick-morton.ghost.io/no-genou-is-...

The last time I wrote about this I copped the biggest whinge fest from the then (Labor) minister’s office about how they weren’t cutting the budget lol

Update on this one: it's a torn meniscus! Thank God for travel insurance (assuming they will pay)

Every state apart from Tas is pulling their weight with hospital expenditure. The Feds not wanting to pay for the additional demand on hospitals that the FEDS CREATE from underfunding their primary health, NDIS and aged care system responsibilities is pathetic bullshit www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

Taken out by the mean streets of Montmartre, a weekend away in the French countryside becomes a spiritual and physical battle for survival. My newsletter update: rick-morton.ghost.io/no-genou-is-...

I have been writing my latest newsletter update for a week and trying to get it finished. It is sprawling, perhaps even unreadable, but I will have it ready by tomorrow morning AEDT. If you want to subscribe, it's free! rick-morton.ghost.io

BENDIGO WRITERS FESTIVAL EXCLUSIVE: La Trobe Uni pressured #Bendigo Council to send the infamous code of conduct to participants, according to those at a council-run roundtable. Council confirmed to us it sent the code with specific additions at La Trobe Uni’s request. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

Wish they’d stop pushing the misleading claim that it was only (lol) a $4.1m upgrade.

what total depravity from the perpetrators of the abuse right up to Netanyahu who blames the “reputational damage” on the woman who leaked the video

👀👀👀

Well fuck

Congratulations @squigglyrick.bsky.social on being shortlisted for the 2025 Walkley Book award for Mean Streak. I'm sure you'd prefer not to have had to write it, but your forensic examination of Robodebt hell means a lot to many. #booksky

New literature review from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet says the government is "manifesting" stigma via the mutual obligations system 🤷 www.pmc.gov.au/news/stigma-...

Feel like I've been writing about new BoM website for 3 years now (because I have, and it is even later than that) but covering the go-live of the new site for this weekend's paper. I've learned some stuff. If you know more, internally or as a user I'm: [email protected]

Genuinely what the FUCK is wrong with these people. The publishing people, the two Australian directors, everyone else. Between this and the (related) fascism capitulations one learns a lot about the fragility of the human brain.

On my newsletter: it’s harder to steal My heart than jewels from the Louvre but people have tried during my weakest moments, such as during a John Farnham song at karaoke. rick-morton.ghost.io/down-the-bar...

The dishonesty around the use of Robodebt in prosecuting the government’s Freedom of Information secrecy drive is galling in the extreme. I set out some facts that deflate the specious claims being used as cover. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topi...

My mum and her friend both texted to assure they knew it wasn’t me that robbed the Louvre because I don’t know how to use an angle grinder.

I remember getting this game with a box of Coco Pops and it awakened something in me: turning my enemies into sheep.

“And while I would love to continue splitting hairs about whether a country starving kids is better or worse if the kids are already sick let’s just table that discussion for when I see you in hell.” 🔥

Federal agents aren’t trying to keep the peace. They want violence to escalate so that Trump can declare martial law. They shot a reverend in the head with pepper balls while he was praying in front of an ICE facility. If that doesn’t tell you where we are as a country, nothing will.

Thank you! I do find with this story more than anything else it’s the details that really make you see it for the conspiracy it was. And so I did not pull back from those details.

The man bent over his guitar, A shearsman of sorts. The day was green. They said, "You have a blue guitar, You do not play things as they are." The man replied, "Things as they are, Are changed upon the blue guitar." Plus ça change! My newsletter: rick-morton.ghost.io/a-new-three-...

to be fair to him, he was far from alone in this

De Brouwer made the exact same argument two years ago after the Robodebt Royal Commission report was delivered. This is how I treated it in Mean Streak: "Grow up."

I am convinced that no one else in the world can sit like a Frenchman. It is a way of being, mastered and deployed with the confidence of a people who have been sitting for thousands of years. I think it might have something to do with all the statues. rick-morton.ghost.io/a-new-three-...

The NDIS algorithm is on the way, and no they don't want you giving them any evidence about your disability. In fact, they are going to make it next to impossible. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/health/...

“We’d like to talk to you about your vehicle’s extended warranty.”

It's almost uncouth at this point, but the Walkley Book Award longlist has been announced and Mean Streak is on there with seven other incredible titles. Pity the judges whittling that down to a shortlist of three. www.walkleys.com/2025-walkley...

add it to the list

the army connections continue

Re-sharing this just for the pullquote, waking up in Paris early mornings and doing five interviews in a row before coffee leads to even less of a filter than usual