As the local music industry begins its recovery, young people are ready to take the lead. Kate Duncan, CEO of Victorian youth music organisation The Push, says young people are going to need the support of both state and federal governments to elevate their voices as the sector reopens. “I think that young people have all the answers to what a COVID normal contemporary live music sector needs to be,” she says. We need to have our governments listen and provide meaningful wa

“The society, economy and jobs that we know will all cease to exist.” MRA Consulting Group managing director Mike Ritchie offered this dire warning about what life on earth will be like if we don’t start living more sustainably. “Australia will not be in a good place,” he said. “We register for 1.3 per cent of global emissions.” Part of living sustainably is making sure waste is dealt with properly. Poor waste management has plagued Australia in recent years since China st

It was “the most hotly contested resource project in the history of the state”. Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project proposal recorded more than 23,000 submissions, 98 per cent of which objected, according to Bruce Robertson, Energy Finance Analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The project was formally approved by the Independent Planning Commission a few weeks ago. It became another piece in the Morrison Government’s plans to pivot from coal

Online gambling rates among Australians rose during lockdown, even when popular leagues like the AFL and NRL were on hold. Betting companies quickly switched to offering significantly more options for novelty bets. SportsBet, one of the largest online bookmakers in Australia, had markets on various events, awards and TV shows, from the Triple J Hottest 100, to the ARIAs and Logies, and even Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year. Over one period, a daily market was opened to allo

Most Victorians have lived their entire lives filling their yellow and red bins to the brim each week to have it picked up by the garbage collector – out of sight, out of mind. But what if we actually thought about the waste we create … and what if we didn’t create any waste at all? Some Victorians have already stopped putting their bins out – they call themselves “zero-wasters” and they’re doing it for the planet, the community and their own wellbeing. “I feel it’s respectfu

There is a naked man on the computer screen in a tiny apartment, dancing provocatively and lip-synching to music. He’s dressed in nothing but a wig, a mask decorated as a woman’s face and g-string. A wall of shower curtains serve as the backdrop. “I press record and BAM, Tonetta appears again!” The man behind the mask of his eccentric and colourful YouTube life is Tony Jeffery, a 72-year-old retired upholsterer and Canadian native who is better known to his global underworld

In this strangest of years, travel’s been just a dream for most of us. Because of COVID-19, we can’t leave the country – or even the state! – but now, thankfully, Netflix is offering us an alternative and we can journey into the beautifully hand-drawn animated films of Japan’s Studio Ghibli. Twenty-one of them, to be exact. Studio Ghibli has been crafting incredible animated films since 1985. For many years it was relatively difficult to find their films outside of Japan, al

“I never had any intention of [playing AFLW], I guess I just loved the game.” Andrea Gilmore started playing women’s football “just to keep the body ticking over” between Super Netball seasons. She started a pre-season with Claremont and “fell in love playing it then and there”. Now 32, Gilmore was among the older women in the recent AFLW Draft and one of a number coming from other elite sporting backgrounds. In the same draft, Richmond picked up Australian representative bas

“Back in those days, they would ask if you were okay… you’d go to training throughout the week and then you were ready to play the next game.” AFL and Hawthorn FC legend John Platten suffered a concussion in at least 30 games of his illustrious 12-year, 258-game career. “You just got over it as quick as you could,” he says. Now he’s paying the price. Platten says he experiences acute memory loss and has recently joined a class action against the AFL by players who suffered h

“I’m just this mum that just wants to paint and do art and be creative.” Artist Pariya Ziakas spends her weekends outside, painting the power poles in her suburban street. Her bright colours light up the usually grim concrete poles and fill the street with a sense of child-like joy. The power pole art project is a rekindling of her own passions, which she says have been neglected in the past as she got caught up in the business of day-to-day life. “It wasn’t until the las

Joshua Creamer has come a long way since a childhood filled with trauma. The welcoming look on his face hides it, but the Waanyi and Kalkadoon man faced domestic violence and racism, and had to step into paternal shoes from a young age. The 38-year old runs his own legal practice in Queensland, fighting for Indigenous rights to ensure a better Australia for the disadvantaged. One of only 16 Indigenous barristers in the country, Mr Creamer is inspiring other Indigenous peopl

How did you get started in journalism? I started in community radio at SYN FM during high school and uni. I studied business at uni not journalism, which helped me understand how the business and law of news works. Radio can be a difficult industry to get into, it is so small. I must have applied for 20 to 30 jobs. I got into a local radio station in Albury, they were desperate for someone. I read news in Albury for over a year and even did some talkback radio, which great r