Crikey

An independent Australian website for news, investigations, analysis and opinion across politics, world affairs, business, society and culture.

← Back to all Publications

Featured Writers

Gina Rushton

Petra Stock

Petra Stock is a journalist in Melbourne, Australia. She has reported for The Age, Crikey, Australian Geographic, Archer, RenewEconomy, The Driven, eVTOL.com and The Citizen.Petra is Melbourne Press Club's Student …

Jack Revell

Lucy Valentine

Anastasia Prikhodko

I’m a Sydney-based freelance journalist specialising in travel, business events, coffee, food and social issues.

Cade Lucas

Teacher, writer and broadcaster from Melbourne.

Latest Articles

We need to talk about political violence against women

In April last year, a 56-year-old-New Zealand man, Michael Cruickshank, was sentenced to one year in prison for threatening to kill then prime minister Jacinda Ardern. In one email, Cruickshank threatened to “personally wipe [her] off this fucking planet”. In another, he said he would “blow her head off”. Over …

By Kristine Ziwica
21st February 2023 • Crikey

The silence is deafening after 10 women killed in just 20 days. It's time to shout about it

On the first day of December last year, I went for my usual walk around the local park to find a scene that has become devastatingly common in Australia. The night before, police had descended on a house overlooking the park where a 51-year-old woman was found dead in her …

By Kristine Ziwica
8th February 2023 • Crikey

Quotas alone can't erase the Coalition's legacy of policies that keep women poorer

Two reports came out this week that have me thinking more deeply about the Liberal Party’s “woman problem”. I’m looking at the questions put to party stalwarts as they review their spectacular wipe-out at the last election — and those that weren’t asked.

By Kristine Ziwica
7th December 2022 • Crikey

The ABC of gender pay parity: no transparency leaves women powerless

Unless employers, such as the ABC, are honest about their pay structures, female employees will continue to suffer wage discrimination.

By Kristine Ziwica
21st November 2022 • Crikey

The right's woman problem is bigger than 'single young females' and they know it

As a one-time "promiscuously” educated young woman who is now an “older and wiser”, married, home-owning mother of two, I suddenly find myself of great interest to the Liberal Party, in particular the head of its aligned think tank, the Menzies Research Centre. The Australian columnist Nick Cater and I …

By Kristine Ziwica
18th November 2022 • Crikey

'Know your worth': gender pay gap's big lie, and why the pandemic shook things up

An edited extract from Kristine Ziwica's new book Leaning Out looks at the long history of the gender pay gap and the steps taken to close it.

By Kristine Ziwica
31st August 2022 • Crikey

The one-man newspaper fighting for regional journalism

Most days, Peter Holmes can be found scouring the streets of Orange to fill the pages of the smallest newspaper in Australia. “I spend a lot of time driving around town getting yarns,” he says from the city of 42,000 in the Central West of New South Wales. “I look …

By Gina Rushton
18th August 2022 • Crikey

From career feminism to care feminism: the case for reshaping our economy

The pandemic exposed the myth of 'leaning in' as a gender equaliser. It's time we created a new deal for women.

By Kristine Ziwica
16th June 2022 • Crikey

Chisholm’s early voters flock to church, praying for it all to be over

Autumn days in Melbourne can be glorious. This isn’t one of them. It’s damp and dismal, and early voters struggle to find a park at the Holy Family Parish Catholic church in suburban Mount Waverley. They arrive in a steady stream, striding purposefully through the clutch of primary-coloured volunteers handing …

By Petra Stock
19th May 2022 • Crikey

Retired Chisholm maths teacher hopes the Coalition's days are numbered

In this election series, Crikey teams up with the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism to delve into the heart of federal marginal seat Chisholm, in south-east Melbourne, to see what people are thinking about in the lead-up to the poll. Find more of the series here. He may …

By Petra Stock
5th May 2022 • Crikey

A curry for the country? This Chisholm voter wants migrants to be heard and respected

In this election series, Crikey teams up with the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism to delve into the heart of federal marginal seat Chisholm, in south-east Melbourne, to see what people are thinking about in the lead-up to the poll. Find more of the series here. Instead of …

By Petra Stock
4th May 2022 • Crikey

Chisholm's Choice

The battle for the key Melbourne seat is starting to heat up.

By Petra Stock
21st April 2022 • Crikey

The Soviet past isn’t dead. It’s not even past

In Ukraine, one question looms above all: how will it end? In major Russian cities, protesters have bravely taken to the streets in defiance of armed police. People power has a special tradition in Russia, not only in the Bolshevik revolution but the Soviet collapse and, in its wake, the …

By Kurt Johnson
7th March 2022 • Crikey

Women facing violence need protection — and their visa status shouldn't matter

Women affected by domestic violence should have access to all the social support they require. Visa status shouldn't get in the way of that. Anjali* had to make a terrifyingly quick decision in 2016 when her husband held a broken glass and threatened to kill her.

By Gina Rushton
6th September 2020 • Crikey

Childcare is important for parents but vital for kids.

When Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced free childcare in April he acknowledged it was a “vital” service for families during an “unsettling time”. Accessing and paying for childcare during the pandemic has not disappeared for parents despite the government’s inexplicable decision to withdraw free childcare and end support payments for …

By Gina Rushton
13th August 2020 • Crikey

On the Frontline: Childcare workers face no shifts and no support

Childcare workers in Victoria fear dodgy operators will pocket pandemic subsidies and rip off casual staff. Last month the federal government ended its free childcare scheme, under which parents paid no fees and the government paid childcare centres 50% of the hourly rate cap. Education minister Dan Tehan says the …

By Gina Rushton
12th August 2020 • Crikey

Talks: Me Too, cancel culture and the chilling effect of the Rush case

Crikey invited journalists Jacqueline Maley, Gina Rushton and Inq's Georgia Wilkins to discuss whether Australia is likely to see more Me Too stories emerge. The Me Too movement has uncovered horrific tales and outed high-profile abusers. With survivors feeling more confident to come forward, how should journalists cover these stories …

By Gina Rushton
29th July 2020 • Crikey

Lockdown pregnancies creating a 'shadow pandemic' of complications

Reproductive health and abortion providers say they are preparing for a 'shadow pandemic' following a wave of unintended pregnancies during the world's lockdowns. A heavily pregnant 19-year-old with high blood pressure lost her baby and went partially blind after she was turned away from a Port Moresby hospital in April, …

By Gina Rushton
12th July 2020 • Crikey

The government has improved abortion access during the pandemic. Doctors are fighting to keep it that way

To help women safely access abortion services via telehealth, the government would need only to keep doing what services say it has been for decades: nothing. In March the government introduced temporary Medicare rebates for telehealth appointments in an effort to minimise face-to-face appointments for maladies that could be managed …

By Gina Rushton
7th July 2020 • Crikey

Food insecurity: could Australia really run out of food?

While debate around Australia's food security continues to rage, one thing is clear: water policy and food security are inextricably linked. Chris Brooks -- a farmer, grain speculator and former chief of Australian operations at mining company Glencore -- is adamant Australia’s east coast will run out of wheat by …

By Kurt Johnson
1st July 2020 • Crikey

NSW victims of crime now have a new obstacle to collecting compensation

Thanks to cost-cutting, victims of crime will essentially take on the work of public servants. This month the NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman passed landmark reforms to child sexual assault proceedings. He declared the changes could never take away a survivor’s pain, but they would help “deliver justice for survivors across …

By Gina Rushton
28th June 2020 • Crikey

Employers have a duty to keep staff safe, no matter where they work

A landmark ruling has brought into sharp relief the potential responsibilities of Australian employers to workers experiencing violence. As the line between work and home continues to blur during the coronavirus pandemic, a landmark ruling has brought into sharp relief the potential responsibilities of Australian employers to thousands of workers …

By Gina Rushton
21st June 2020 • Crikey

Mesh-injured women win in the courts and Senate yet still wait for compensation

Women injured in vaginal mesh procedures have won a class action against Johnson & Johnson, but as the case drags on to an appeal, they are still waiting for compensation. When more than 1300 women with pelvic mesh devices won a seven-year legal battle against Johnson & Johnson in November, …

By Gina Rushton
9th June 2020 • Crikey

The fight for reproductive rights isn’t over in Australia until there’s equity in access

Abortion may be disappearing from criminal codes across Australia, but a lack of access to providers means the fight is far from over. You can see how long these battles have taken in the faces of the women who were on the front line. A few days before abortion was …

By Gina Rushton
1st June 2020 • Crikey

'It's As Terrifying': Talking to a Blitz Survivor About Coronavirus

Doreen Turner, née Duncan, was born in Harrow in 1932. She was eight when bombs first began to fall across the UK in the German aerial campaign that became known as the Blitz. Fighting coronavirus is not like fighting the Second World War, despite what some world leaders and media …

By Jack Revell
31st March 2020 • Crikey

This season is make or break for the A-League

It’s a measure of the low esteem that the A-League and Football Federation Australia (FFA) are held in that even when they do something good, it still looks bad. Last week the league released a surprisingly good advertising campaign for the upcoming 2019/2020 season. It adopted a Marvel comics theme, …

By Cade Lucas
10th October 2019 • Crikey

Smith and Warner rise to the Ashes

With The Ashes upon us, Australian cricket’s moment of truth has arrived, or in the parlance of coach/spiritual guru Justin Langer, its moment of Elite Honesty. It’s 18 months now since the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town and of the piece of sandpaper hidden in Cameron Bancroft’s …

By Cade Lucas
1st August 2019 • Crikey

Friendlyjordies, the comedian who wants to 'inoculate' Australia's youth

Jordan Shanks has clocked up more than 50 million views on his videos taking on BuzzFeed, the Liberal Party and the ABC. What exactly is he raging against? A large group of fans have surrounded Jordan Shanks after his live show in North Melbourne’s Lithuanian Club. Most are men, undergraduate …

By Kurt Johnson
28th June 2019 • Crikey

Canary in the coalmine: inside the Latrobe Valley's ongoing power battle

Nationally, the war over climate change may have frozen, but in the Valley it runs hot. This is one to watch at the Victorian election. Ron Ipsen lives within full view of Yallourn W Power Station. It rests, past grazing cows, perched on the horizon in the faded yellows and …

By Kurt Johnson
19th November 2018 • Crikey

Health agencies ignored My Health Record concerns

A report obtained via freedom of information indicates that the government agencies in charge of My Health Record could have easily anticipated public concerns

By Joshua Badge
26th July 2018 • Crikey