![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20141206070853im_/http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-140/h-140/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/contributor/2014/11/18/1416318155539/Van-Badham.jpg)
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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Van 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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Van Badham: The leaders of the world’s largest economies have thoroughly Queenslanded themselves – and this is what we’ve learned
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Van 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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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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Van 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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Ambitious 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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Swimmers 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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Brown 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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Van 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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Scenes overlap in this Falk Richter and Anouk Van Dijk collaboration and the result is inarticulate confusion, writes Van Badham
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Van 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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Van 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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A 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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Van 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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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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Van 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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Van 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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Van 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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Van 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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Van 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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Van 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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Geek conventions and fandom have quickly become an essential component of pop culture production, writes Van Badham
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Green Lantern as a debt avenger? Van Badham discovers modern superheroes are battling economic disenfranchisement and political megalomania
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Van 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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It 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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Van 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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Van 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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Van 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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Van 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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Van 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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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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Van 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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The 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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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