Articles by Margot Saville

Hobart’s Dark Mofo arts festival, which runs till the Winter Solstice (June 23), is a celebration of the dark through large-scale public art, food and music, as well as “light and noise”.

Every publisher in the country is releasing at least one political book this year, and although they vary in style, there’s really only one overarching theme: “What the F-ck is Wrong with the Labor Party?”

Opposition communications minister Malcolm Turnbull and shadow treasurer Joe Hockey were in fine form at the Sydney Writers’ Festival — and might even have gone off script.

ICAC has heard a cosy little story of Ian Macdonald’s allies sealing a deal which could have been worth $100 million to the NSW government — over a waterfront dinner and a magnum of pinot noir.

Julia Gillard has promised the people of Sydney another highway — which is about the last thing the region needs. Crikey’s roaming reporter joins the campaign-that-isn’t out west.

Finally, the man who ran NSW Labor — and perhaps the state — was defending himself at the ICAC inquiry. The political class had waited a long time to see Eddie Obeid take the stand.

Who is Eddie Obeid, and why is his family now embroiled in a corruption scandal that goes to the heart of NSW politics? Crikey’s courtroom scribe records the history and argues why you should care.

There have been no winners from the James Ashby v Peter Slipper sexual harassment case, which was thrown out of the Federal Court this morning. Crikey was in court for the verdict.

Back when Barbara Ramjan told the media that Tony Abbott punched the wall next to her head in 1977, key Liberal figure Michael Kroger accused her of lying. Ramjan’s now suing Kroger for defamation.

St John’s College needs change. It needs women. And it needs a dose of manners for its well-to-do, elitist, mostly-male student body.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption in NSW will spend five months investigating the deals of former Labor MPs Ian Mcdonald, Eddie Obeid and Eric Roozendaal.

There were plenty of nominees at the annual Ernie Awards last night, honouring men (and some women) who just don’t know when to shut up. Crikey was there to boo with the best of them.

It’s hard to know why NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has taken such a body blow for someone as inconsequential as Peter Grimshaw.