Rick Morton
@squigglyrick.bsky.social
I write. Author of Mean Streak and other things. Reporter. I write a decent newsletter: https://rick-morton.ghost.io
A necessary but boring update. Have been strikingly unwell. Back in Australia for 2.25 months. Life is very difficult but also rewarding, etc rick-morton.ghost.io/for-now/
Australia, For Now
The final weeks of July were among the hardest of my life, emotionally speaking. It's all very boring and I only write it here to explain that I have had nothing else to think or write about on accou...
rick-morton.ghost.io
I'll be home in Oz for a couple of months from Aug and booked a few events at Festival of Dangerous Ideas (sold out) and this one for Curious at the Sydney Opera House on the creeping scourge of authoritarianism around the world, institutional cowardice etc. www.sydneyoperahouse.com/curious/can-...
Can it Happen Here?
The growth of populism and authoritarianism across the globe has alarmed us all. Has Australia dodged the bullet? Or are we just getting started?
sydneyoperahouse.com
One of my favourite genres of news article is middle class people finding whacky names for things so normalised among the poor, it would be weird to name them. www.reuters.com/markets/on-t...
How loud budgeting is helping Gen Z set financial boundaries
One 28-year-old explains how having open money conversations helps her avoid overspending and build financial stability.
reuters.com
Moira Deeming Rate: an expected rate of return (and return and return) on a bad asset
I’m the large correspondent
Crikey@crikey.com.au · last mo."Either knowingly or through ignorance, Services Australia has been failing for years to process social security payments and benefits across 93 separate matters," writes Crikey's correspondent-at-large Rick Morton. www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/30/s...
I have an exclusive in today's Observer. Four women who allege they were trafficked by Mohamed Al Fayed are filing complaints with the police watchdog over the Met's handling of their cases. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Exclusive: Fayed abuse survivors complain to police watch...
Women caught up in former Harrods owner’s network have filed formal complaints to IOPC about the Metropolitan police’s handling of their cases
observer.co.uk
The heat in Paris this week has been unbearable and inescapable. rick-morton.ghost.io/canic-at-the...
Canic! At the Disco
Each year, on the summer solstice, Paris and most of France becomes what is essentially the world's largest outdoor party for Fête de la Musique. Bistros, restaurants, cafes and sundry businesses sat...
rick-morton.ghost.io
This morning in Paris: a woman collapsed at the social security office from the heat. At xhildcare centres with reflective recovery blankets taped to their windows, staff are hosing down toddlers in a baking courtyard. Children everywhere as schools are closed.
Tonight! Starting at 7pm! Join us + @squigglyrick.bsky.social for an online event about the employment services / welfare compliance scandal: events.humanitix.com/profit-from-...
Profit from punishment: Inside the welfare compliance scandal (ONLINE)
Millions of welfare penalties are issued each year. Join Rick Morton and welfare advocates exposing one of largest scandals in Australian politics.
events.humanitix.com
hurts that they’re using a photo from the sunflower festival in my home for this garbage
Nick Feik@nickfeik.bsky.social · 2mo agoOne Nation climate policy: absolute quackery. "After thirty years of work by the IPCC there is insufficient evidence of global warming of the kind claimed by the IPCC"
Join us for this event tomorrow night, it's going to be awesome. Auslan interpretation and live captioning will be available. REGISTER: bit.ly/PFP-online
I've been in Paris for a year. The mind boggles. rick-morton.ghost.io/525-600-minu...
525,600 Minutes
When the writer and humourist David Rakoff died in 2012 at the age of 47, This American Life ran a previously unaired reading he had done for show about the hit musical Rent. It remains one of the fun...
rick-morton.ghost.io
In which we reveal that the NACC Commissioner was in breach of his own Integrity Policy (a policy which it kept very, very quiet)
Crikey@crikey.com.au · 2mo agoNick Feik, Michelle Fahy and Elizabeth Minter reveal an internal culture at the NACC of integrity breaches, secrecy and silence. @nickfeik.bsky.social @michellefahy.bsky.social www.crikey.com.au/2026/05/28/n...
If you want to hear about what the media *isn't* covering, and learn about what's going on with the legal crisis the system is in, join us for an online event led by and for people in poverty, and hosted by @squigglyrick.bsky.social – someone who knows their way around a welfare scandal RSVP:
Profit from punishment: Inside the welfare compliance scandal (ONLINE)
Millions of welfare penalties are issued each year. Join Rick Morton and welfare advocates exposing one of largest scandals in Australian politics.
events.humanitix.com
I asked the outgoing NACC Commissioner whether he accepts responsibility for keeping his own CEO in the dark about his ongoing defence work. His answer was that his CEO had no business knowing what he was doing on the side 🤯🤯🤯 They just don't think the rules apply to them!
I die for him
AFP News Agency@en.afp.com · 2mo ago'He's tiny! It's blue!' Charles Darwin Foundation scientists discover a new species of octopus nearly 1,800 metres (5,900 feet) down on the ocean floor near the Galapagos Islands. No bigger than a golf ball, the blue octopus has stubby little arms with only one row of suckers u.afp.com/SRvN
Having thoroughly trashed the reputation of the organisation by refusing to resign when it first became obvious that he should, Brereton has managed to do even more damage. He lasted until just after the Robodebt findings, too. Shocked I say.
Senator David Shoebridge@davidshoebridge.bsky.social · 2mo agoCommissioner Brereton has resigned from the NACC the day before he was due to appear at Senate Estimates for the first time ever following a successful Greens motion in the Senate. Incredible timing.
we have a trainee metro driver and he’s going so hard on the brakes at each station it’s reminding me of learning to drive manual, bless him
Stone lied to a federal court and remained in his job. Now he’s leaving under a new CEO.
Crikey@crikey.com.au · 3mo agoExclusive | A long-serving BoM executive is leaving after almost a decade-long tenure — one marked by the widely panned rollout of its new $96 million website. @squigglyrick.bsky.social reports. www.crikey.com.au/2026/05/19/b...
So here for this from the legend (Daniel)
Daniel Lawler@daniellawler.bsky.social · 3mo agoTom Millar had unlocked the secrets of the universe. Feeling inspired, he applied to become the next pope, using the same companion that had aided and encouraged his dizzying burst of invention: ChatGPT. Thanks to everyone who spoke to me for this @en.afp.com feature. www.yahoo.com/news/article...
One of these politicians reportedly said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘Gas them’ and the other believes Palestinians are human beings. Guess who the Board of Deputies invited to join a rally against antisemitism
how the fuck do sick leave entitlements count as income support
Tom Studans@maximumwelfare.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe article was updated five hours after publication to add information identifying the report as self-interested lobbying propaganda, and some actual content from the report. This means the ABC initially published an industry lobby press release largely unmolested. web.archive.org/web/diff/202...
