April’s Monthly looks at multiple fronts in the worldwide war on culture, led by Sebastian Smee’s cover essay on the recent purges at The Washington Post. Smee was the paper’s Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic, and one of many staff laid off in wide-ranging cuts and sackings. Alongside an increasingly partisan editorial stance, the mass firings were the latest symptom of the Trump administration’s attacks on arts and culture, free expression and journalism, under the capitulation of the Post’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos. This is an essential and powerful essay.
Closer to home, commitment to free expression and transparency in government is much articulated but rarely in evidence. Kieran Pender looks at Labor’s track record with secrecy and its latest unsuccessful efforts to prosecute changes to freedom of information laws. Walkley Award–winning journalist Sally Neighbour writes for The Monthly on federal environment minister Murray Watt, a man whose deal-making and compromises have divided the many constituents invested in his portfolio. Neighbour asks whether the characteristics that make Watt a trusted party lieutenant will translate to results for environmental laws. Anthony Ham travels to the regional Queensland electorate of Maranoa: a place where National Party loyalty is now facing a challenge from an ascendant One Nation, a process perhaps hastened by the district’s longstanding member, David Littleproud, stepping down as party leader. And Don Watson offers a fever dream of what a different, bolder version of the Albanese government might look like.
Plus Andrea Goldsmith climbs some imaginary mountains, Santilla Chingaipe checks her star signs, James Button follows a musical cue back to years gone by, and reviews of film, TV, theatre and books.