Maeve McGregor

Nov 20, 2023 | crikey.com.au | Maeve McGregor

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil openly declared last week that she would, if she could, re-detain “every one of those people” recently released from indefinite immigration detention because, so she says, she wants a “safe country”.

Nov 15, 2023 | crikey.com.au | Maeve McGregor

In Gaza, a camera tethered to a drone flies high above, registering a panorama of despair and endless destruction. The images are dusty, harrowing and dead quiet. They’re also stamped with the imprimatur of objective fact, courtesy of satellite imagery captured millions of miles away. The camera on the ground similarly distils the stakes. From a distance it lingers on Palestinians of all ages, who confront neighbourhoods reduced to killing fields and mass graves.

Nov 5, 2023 | crikey.com.au | Maeve McGregor

In the end, there was nothing much to interpret. There was no magic, no mystery, no hidden depths or tugging complexity. It’s true the vibe of things was all over the place, catastrophically so. But ultimately it was just John Howard being John Howard — still alive, still flailing, still a national embarrassment. Symbolising, parabolically, the wet-dog smell of everything that’s marked conservatism as a wasteland of intellectual thinking for over 30 years.

Nov 2, 2023 | crikey.com.au | Maeve McGregor

The Albanese government’s undue secrecy over the recent deployment of Australian troops in the Middle East has invited criticism from several quarters, with fears the country could quickly find itself entangled in the Israel-Hamas war should it escalate into a regional conflict.

Oct 29, 2023 | crikey.com.au | Maeve McGregor

It was grim. It was something to behold. The twitchy, raw nerves of Peter Dutton — looking every part a gory amalgam of elation, determination and self-pity. As though the tyranny of low expectations had be superseded by the tyranny he might exceed these expectations.  Two days out from unceremoniously sinking the Voice referendum, the country’s most recent study in moral desolation had found himself stranded in a wilderness of the unknown. He was thinking about himself.