Black Summer: Stories of Loss, Courage and Community from the 2019-2020 Bushfires by Michael Rowland (Editor)

$34.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

Told by ABC journalists who were on the ground and broadcasting during our worst ever fire season, spearheaded by Michael Rowland The bushfires that burnt across Australia from June 2019 to February

Reset Restoring Australia after the Great Crash Of 2020 by Ross Garnaut

$32.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

From the bestselling author, a ground-breaking sequel to Superpower. In Reset, renowned economist Ross Garnaut shows how the COVID-19 crisis offers Australia the opportunity to reset its economy and build a successful future - and why the old approaches will not work. Garnaut develops the idea of a rene wable superpower, he calls for a basic income and he explores what the 'decoupling' of China and America will mean for Australia. In the wake of COVID-19, the world has entered its deepest recession since the 1930s. Shocks of this magnitude throw history from its established course - either for good or evil. In 1942 - in the depths of war - the Australian government established a Department of Post-War Reconstruction to plan a future that not only restored existing strengths but also rebuilt the country for a new and better future. As we strive to overcome the coronavirus challenge, we need new, practical ideas to restore Australia. This book has them.   ...Show more

Factfulness by Hans Rosling; Ola Rosling; Anna Rosling Rönnlund

$22.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

'A hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases.' BARACK OBAMA 'One of the most important books I've ever read - an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.' BILL GATES 'Hans Rosling tells the story of "the secret silent mirac le of human progress" as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.' MELINDA GATES Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends - why the world's population is increasing; how many young women go to school; how many of us live in poverty - we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and a man who can make data sing, Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, and reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world. ...Show more

Killing Sydney - The Fight for a City's Soul by Elizabeth Farrelly

$34.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

I've lived in Sydney some thirty years. But I feel that the city I love is under genuine threat. Motorways, Mirrorglass, McMansions: this knock-down-rebuild mentality is everywhere. I get hundreds of emails, all the time, from people who are infuriated, or despairing, over what is happening to Sydney. A nd so, for the first time, I found myself making a secret little vow to the city - I will do what I can to protect you. For architect and writer Elizabeth Farrelly, Sydney was love at first sight. She has called the city home ever since. Moreover, as both city councillor and writer she has influenced and reported the shape of the city for over thirty years. Here, in her signature sharp, erudite and conversational style, she imparts a message that is part-lovesong, part-warning about the home city she adores, covering the history of Sydney's soaring civic buildings and unique public spaces, its present reality of housing crisis and near-continual development - including the human and urban impact of ongoing projects WestConnex, NorthConnex and the F6 Extension, the Powerhouse relocation, the Packer casino, the light rail relocation, the sale of heritage buildings like the Sirius for private apartments, and Darling Harbour - and laying down the gauntlet for its protection as a green, beautiful, affordable and accessible heritage city. ...Show more

Nomadland by Jessica Bruder

$22.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

The inspiration for the film Nomadland starring Frances McDormand.

The Ruby Princess by Duncan McNab

$34.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

In the early hours of Thursday 19 March 2020, the luxury cruise liner Ruby Princess docked at Sydney's Circular Quay, the gateway to Australia. Hours later, 2700 passengers disembarked. Yet in the middle of a pandemic sweeping the planet, there were no health checks. Over the next few days, the passenge rs got some bad news. The COVID-19 virus had infected some on the ship, and it spread rapidly. Months of investigation and a Special Commission uncovered a series of catastrophic mistakes, from negligence to corporate greed of an industry with a history of only caring for its bottom line. This 'super-spreader incident' was a viral bomb that exploded in the heart of Australia's biggest city - and a disaster that could and should have been prevented. In his page-turning book, investigative journalist Duncan McNab explores the causes of the spectacular quarantine failure, the cruise industry, the lives of the victims and their families, and the turbulent politics of blame. ...Show more

The Secret Political Adviser - The Unredacted Files of the Man in the Room Next Door by Michael Spicer

$19.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

Just who is the secret political adviser calling himself The Man in the Room Next Door? No one knows. We don't even know his name. But now the lid is about to be blown clean off, because the secret files of the world's most influential* political media adviser are published in this book. Packed with let ters, memos, texts, tweets, emails, journal entries, leaked documents, and crude doodles, these pages will reveal who The Man in the Room Next Door is, and, more importantly, his thoughts on those who employ his services, including Donald 'dangerous puffin' Trump, Boris 'posh motorboat' Johnson, and some of their least competent colleagues.The Secret Political Adviser is the evidence that anyone can be a world leader. Just as long as they're wearing the right earpiece.*fictional ...Show more

Fire Flood and Plague: Australian Writers Respond to This Extraordinary Year by Sophie Cunningham ed.

$29.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

Writers, scientists, historians, journalists and commentators consider subjects as broad as culture and the arts, working as a doctor, travel, domestic violence, security, immigration, the death of a loved one, geopolitics, distance and zoom to ensure we never forget the experience of this pile-on of a year. Including original pieces from Lenore Taylor, Nyadol Nuon, Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Lucashenko, Billy Griffiths, Jess Hill, Kim Scott, Brenda Walker, Jane Rawson, Omar Sakr, Richard McGregor, Jennifer Mills, Gabrielle Chan, John Birmingham, Tim Flannery, Rebecca Giggs, Kate Cole-Adams, George Megalogenis, James Bradley, Alison Croggan, Melanie Cheng, Kirsten Tranter, Tom Griffiths, Joelle Gergis and Delia Falconer.   ...Show more

How to Blow up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm

$22.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

Property will cost us the earth The science on climate change has been clear for a very long time now. Yet despite decades of appeals, mass street protests, petition campaigns, and peaceful demonstrations, we are still facing a booming fossil fuel industry, rising seas, rising emission levels, and a ris ing temperature. With the stakes so high, why haven't we moved beyond peaceful protest? In this lyrical manifesto, noted climate scholar (and saboteur of SUV tires and coal mines) Andreas Malm makes an impassioned call for the climate movement to escalate its tactics in the face of ecological collapse. We need, he argues, to force fossil fuel extraction to stop--with our actions, with our bodies, and by defusing and destroying its tools. We need, in short, to start blowing up some oil pipelines. Offering a counter-history of how mass popular change has occurred, from the democratic revolutions overthrowing dictators to the movement against apartheid and for women's suffrage, Malm argues that the strategic acceptance of property destruction and violence has been the only route for revolutionary change. In a braided narrative that moves from the forests of Germany and the streets of London to the deserts of Iraq, Malm offers us an incisive discussion of the politics and ethics of pacifism and violence, democracy and social change, strategy and tactics, and a movement compelled by both the heart and the mind. Here is how we fight in a world on fire. ...Show more

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

$32.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERA Guardian, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and Daily Express Book of the Year'Hugely, highly and happily recommended' Stephen Fry'You should read Humankind. You'll learn a lot (I did) and you'll have good reason to feel better about the human race' Tim Harford'Made me see hum anity from a fresh perspective' Yuval Noah HarariIt's a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest.Humankind makes a new argument- that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good. By thinking the worst of others, we bring out the worst in our politics and economics too.In this major book, internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman takes some of the world's most famous studies and events and reframes them, providing a new perspective on the last 200,000 years of human history. From the real-life Lord of the Flies to the Blitz, a Siberian fox farm to an infamous New York murder, Stanley Milgram's Yale shock machine to the Stanford prison experiment, Bregman shows how believing in human kindness and altruism can be a new way to think and act as the foundation for achieving true change in our society.It is time for a new view of human nature. ...Show more

Island off the Coast of Asia - Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy by Clinton Fernandes

$29.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs | Series: Investigating Power Ser.

Renewal: Five Paths to a Fairer Australia by Sophie Cousins

$29.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

The COVID-19 pandemic has with great speed fundamentally altered the world in which we live. The changes it has wrought are of a type and on a scale unseen by most people alive. We are realising the truths we understood as immutable, the basis of our social order, are not rigid and inevitable, but const ructions of our own making - and thus able to be reshaped. Whichever path takes us out of this crisis will lead to a new and unrecognisable world. In the face of disaster and devastation, we are also afforded a great privilege: the chance to reconsider the principles and values that underpin our society, and rebuild accordingly. What would the ideal Australia look like - a fair and equal, green and healthy, secure and smarter Australia? And what would it take to get there? Identifying five major areas for discussion - government and politics, health and education, welfare, Indigenous affairs, and industry and climate change - award-winning journalist Sophie Cousins talks to some of Australia's brightest thinkers about the possibilities for renewal and the best way forward. Sophie Cousinsis an award-winning journalist and writer. After almost a decade of working and living overseas, she has returned to Australia to report on the Coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath. Her work has been published in the Guardian, New York Times, Foreign Policy, London Review of Booksand Atlantic, among many others. She has received numerous grants and fellowships including from the National Geographic Society, the International Reporting Project and the South Asia Journalists' Association. Her first book, A Woman's Worth, was published in 2019. ...Show more