At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Caitlin Oakley lost her job working for a music theatre producer in Sydney. Worried she might never get another job, she moved back in with her parents in Melbourne. Work is a “defining” part of the 23-year-old’s identity. Without a purpose she struggled with confidence and self-worth. But instead of accepting her jobless fate or depending on others for work that might never eventuate, Caitlin decided to set up her own business. In Apr

When surf rock duo Hockey Dad stepped onstage at the Bulli Showgrounds in October, the crowd looked slightly different to the usual live gig fare. Instead of fans shoulder to shoulder, rows of cars stared back at them. With the audience ordering merchandise to their car doors and flashing their headlights to cheer, it’s a far sight from a pre-COVID show, but is a hopeful sight for musicians struggling to make ends meet and stay relevant. As the Australian music industry gra

The last time Australia went into a recession, Emma Dawson was finishing university. Three decades on, and with the country once again in recession, she is executive director at Per Capita, an independent think tank. Does she think the Federal Budget has done enough to help lower to middle income earners? “No, is the short answer,” she said. As for the long answer, the disproportionate tax cuts fail to properly support working people and will likely lead to higher rates in

After talking to a friend about the pressures on friendship groups during COVID-19, Callum Mackay took to a Facebook community to ask: are you satisfied with your friendships? Over half of the respondents to the post in the Carlton Good Karma Network said no, prompting a larger discussion about the impact lockdown has had on the way people connect with one another. As restrictions across Australia continue to ease, many are rushing to catch up with friends they haven’t seen s

TV series: Emily in Paris Available: Netflix Rating: 7/10 Reviewer: Breck Carter The creator of Sex and The City and Younger, Darren Star, is behind the latest romantic comedy series to be released by Netflix. The 10 episodes feature Lily Collins as Emily Cooper, an overachieving American with a Masters of Communication who gets the chance to work for a luxury marketing agency in Paris, despite speaking no French. According to the actress, the character is “22-ish”. Achi

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