The September Monthly is here, and it sees in the arrival of spring with a full crop of new writing, insights and journalism. Jonathan Green drove across some of the 126,000 or so square kilometres of the electorate of Farrer in south-west New South Wales. It’s a fascinating part of the country for several reasons – diverse in the landscapes it contains, the communities it houses and the beliefs and priorities that animate it – but perhaps most notably because it is the electorate represented by the leader of the federal Liberal Party, Sussan Ley. Green asks what we might understand about the opposition leader if we explore the vast patch of country that has voted for her as its representative for a quarter of a century. And what does it mean for a political party in desperate need of regaining the cities, to be led by a woman whose constituency is very different indeed?
Penny van Oosterzee mounts a defence of carbon credits. For years now, advocates for better, more robust protections against the climate crisis have been anywhere between sceptical and outright contemptuous of the mechanisms and people behind credits and offsetting. But van Oosterzee, herself a seller of carbon credits, believes that this response is in danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, arguing that reforestation is an essential tool – at least until something better comes along. Hannah Bambra considers the role and dangers of conscientious objection in our healthcare system, pointing to the pressures that can be faced by people in need when medical professionals choose to withhold treatment because of their beliefs. From voluntary assisted dying to abortion and beyond, the consequences of this leeway are considerable and personal.
Megan Davis considers the perils of “economic empowerment” as the new mantra in Indigenous policy; Santilla Chingaipe examines the legacies of the White Australia policy through the story of a boxer known as “The Alabama Kid”; the left’s failure to tackle defence policy is interrogated by Andrew Carr; and Drusilla Modjeska attends the “Dangerously Modern” exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
All that plus memory and smell, a Helen Garner convention, film and book reviews, and more. September is upon us.