Van Badham
Van Badham is a theatre-maker and novelist, occasional broadcaster and critic, feminist, bogan and trollfighter. Follow her on twitter: @vanbadham. She lives in Melbourne
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ABC cuts: had Abbott been honest about his true agenda, he would have been unelectableVan Badham: Privatisation and cuts to respected public services might be the agenda of the Coalition government, but it’s certainly not that of the Australian people
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10 things we learned at the G20: the good, the bad and the sillyVan Badham: The leaders of the world’s largest economies have thoroughly Queenslanded themselves – and this is what we’ve learned
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Even if Labor wins the Victorian election, it will be trapped by its own mythology about the GreensVan Badham: Labor’s unwillingness to deal with the Greens over preferences shows they’ve been successfully baited by the Liberals into acting against their own interests
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Julie Bishop doesn't find feminism useful? What do rightwing women want, anyway?Van Badham: Feminism is a broad church, but it has always been about the self-actualisation of women. So what’s the endgame for female politicians who are explicitly anti-feminist?
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From poultry workers to office cleaners, unions are being attacked for sticking up for workers' rightsVan Badham: In industries low in glamour and high in exploitation, employers sign contracts that take their working rights away from them. This is why unions matter
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Hipbone Sticking Out review – a tale of two cultures, a play of two halvesAmbitious vision, tragic themes and excellent performances combine in a piece of theatre as complex as the relationship between black and white Australia, writes Van Badham
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Primo review – La Clique. For children. In a fish tankSwimmers in kaleidoscope waters prove a visual event for young theatregoers still learning the parameters of their own bodies, writes Van Badham
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My Lover's Bones review – the Bunyip of ancient legend is rebornBrown Cab theatre are at the top of their game crafting a show from an Indigenous source text with craft and originality, writes Van Badham
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University fee hikes are a disaster for social mobility. The time for protest and escalation is nowVan Badham and Ben Eltham: Are Australian students not escalating protest because they don’t know how bad their situation will be? Perhaps they don’t realise how influential they can be
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Complexity of Belonging review – superior stagecraft but little emotionScenes overlap in this Falk Richter and Anouk Van Dijk collaboration and the result is inarticulate confusion, writes Van Badham
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Depression and me: there are good and bad weeks, but walking with my shadow is becoming easierVan Badham: I was reluctant to try medication, and it once granted me much-needed relief from depression. But of course, there is no such thing as a ‘one size fit all’ approach to mental health
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Bill Shorten's live Q&A was a showcase of Labor's terrible me-tooism diseaseVan Badham: Over a cringeworthy hour, Shorten spoke like a tired accountant trying to liven up a stock report. Labor’s present strategy wholly avoids speaking to those who should matter to them
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Viva Las Hobart: David Walsh's new high-stakes art gambleA plan by the Australian art-world eccentric to open an elite casino at Tasmania’s Mona is simply the latest in a long line of provocations, writes Van Badham
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Sure, Australia is a sexist place. But we have some serious competitionVan Badham: Australia’s Ernie awards for sexism will make your head spin – but as these examples confirm, this sad state of play is just as bad in other countries
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Climate march: yes, we should save the world. But not only 'for the children'Van Badham: We don’t need to have children to feel morally obligated to act – our focus on future generations allows for political inaction, and communicates a philosophy of despair
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Super debate: the future of ageing Australians will not be comfortableVan Badham: The superannuation industry estimates that retiring Australians will be $128bn worse off by 2025 – meaning our collective future will be anything but enjoyable
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If you click on Jennifer Lawrence's naked pictures, you're perpetuating her abuseVan Badham: Actors may offer their image to public consumption as their professional practice, but what they are not trading is their intimacy. To merely look is an act of sexual violation
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Break out the chamomile tea: 'scary' Tinder is outdated. Enter: HappnVan Badham: The new French app allows users to never face the agonising ‘missed connection’ syndrome again by flagging mutual interest in real time. Scared yet? Maybe you shouldn’t be
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Scotland is having a proper democratic debate. Australia should be so luckyVan Badham: While Scotland debates the country it is and that which it wishes to be, Australia remains a nation begging for a government which truly listens to the people it is serving
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No anti-abortion activist should be able to mislead women to 'rescue' themVan Badham: If those who oppose abortions cared about women's health, they would not spuriously link the procedure with breast cancer, or work to reduce access to life-saving health care
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The Coalition loves welfare, as long as it's for the charity sectorVan Badham: The federal government's welfare review, once you get past its tender Dickensian sentiments, is a return to a Howard-era question: who gets to profit from caring for the deserving poor?
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Comic Con alien to some but an emotional homecoming to othersGeek conventions and fandom have quickly become an essential component of pop culture production, writes Van Badham
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How dreary reality became the new villain of comicsGreen Lantern as a debt avenger? Van Badham discovers modern superheroes are battling economic disenfranchisement and political megalomania
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When they call us 'frightbats', they make us fair gameVan Badham: Anyone who tells you that trolling is a purely online phenomenon is not living with it. The women on the recent 'frightbats' list have weathered real-world incidents for years
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Pecan Summer: an opera for Indigenous AustraliaIt was the first Indigenous opera. Now, as it prepares to be staged for the fourth time in Adelaide, its composer Deborah Cheetham explains to Van Badham why it made such an impact
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Classical language lessons: the Coalition's latest nostalgic fantasyVan Badham: Latin and classical Greek are the linguistic regalia of privilege. Little wonder the Coalition wants them returned to Australian schools
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It's a bit rich for Tony Abbott to lecture the US on fair taxationVan Badham: When it comes to the ethics of taxation, Abbott is a world leader with a domestic example that lends him zero credibility
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Does the Coalition understand its own policies? Evidence says noVan Badham: What is informing the policy agenda of Abbott’s government is not expertise, practicality or even research – something which is clear from their worrying lack of clarity
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Australian comedy A-Z: G is for Gadsby and GilliesVan Badham traces Hannah Gadsby's self-deprecating humour from small-town Tasmania to comedy stardom and remembers fondly the biting satire of The Gillies Report
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There's some good news for progressive AustraliaVan Badham: It’s worth remembering that some very good things about Australia remain very good – even in a country where the finance minister smokes cigars while cutting veterans’ pensions
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Alice Walker: 'Me and Jane Eyre were tight'Van Badham: At the Sydney writers' festival the author discussed how reading awakened her political consciousness, why we need to "show up for others", and her optimism that change is coming
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The beast unleashed on students is the one that will return to bite us allVan Badham: Students, then as now, are a soft target of punitive public policies because a romanticised image of student life provokes a particular kind of lifestyle envy
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Wentworth – TV review: low-rent thrills with a touch of classThe scrag fights, sexy pashing and sadistic guards are back; but Wentworth's low-rent thrills are given class by some great writing and acting, writes Van Badham
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Joe Hockey's victory cigar blows his everyman image up in smoke
Van Badham: Image management may be crucial in Australian politics, but Joe Hockey caught on camera smoking a smug cigar has puffed his reputation away
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After Shia LaBeouf's art gallery trauma we should affirm that all rapes are 'real', and all are breaches of trust