IN-Focus

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact In the moments before the Wallabies loss to Wales in France overnight, Rugby Australia's Hamish told detractors and armchair critics of the game to tune out of the must win game in and do something else with their early morning. It's similar to the eve of the 2019 general election when Chris Bowen said if...

LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACTNearly 1000 years after the age of the vikings, the country of Sweden has had to admit that IKEA is the closest they ever get to plundering the wealth of the middle class anymore. Not blessed with the most abundant of agricultural resources, Norsemen in the 8th to 11th centuries often partook in summer raiding trips to more fertile...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact The defacto leader of Victoria has put the short-term accomodation industry in check this week by introducing a devastating levy that should see the end of the housing crisis in that state. Speaking to media yesterday in Melbourne, Chairman Dan Andrews said the levy on places listed on platforms such as Airbnb and whatever the...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact The proud owner of a high-kilometer 2008 Holden Captiva has made the classic error of taking his car to a mechanic in the nice part of town, one that occupies a cute building made of bricks and is capped with sandstone. John Murray's timeless Holden soft-roader is about to tick over to a hundred thousand...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact A construction project manager from our town's sprawling Heights district has added to his mortgage stress today by financing a brand-new Volkswagen Amarok. That stress, on top of owning a shiny new Reich Ranger, will create new and unusual ways for Darcy Cartwright to be anti-social to people on the road - and off the...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact A French Quarter man has been doing the rounds this morning, calling friends and relatives to inform them that he's had a child and that the child is healthy, and so is Mum. All is good in David Chester's world. The gifted amateur angler and one-time holder of a recreational fishing license has been caught...

DR CHET SPEVENS | Finance Expert | CONTACTBeing the wildly successful finance guru that I am, a lot of poor people have told me that sometimes my advice can come across as being ‘out of touch’ or ‘tone deaf’. In fact, it’s the most common topic raised in letters I receive from my readers. Well, dear readers, rest assured that I have heard you....

DR CHET SPEVENS | Finance Expert | CONTACTFeeling like your marriage has become a little humdrum? A little same-same? A touch mundane, a bit boring? Generally all over just, (sigh) errgghh? You’re not alone. In fact, I’ve read that here in Betoota over 50% of couples report that their marriage feels ‘dead’ or ‘routine’ after only 12 months of being hitched, which is...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact A young man with genetic muscle tone in the 11th percentile has actually weighed up getting cricket spikes today despite the majority of his fourth grade fixtures taking place on artificial turf wickets. It was a fleeting thought, said 28-year-old Turner James, who had to clarify that his name wasn't backwards on the...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact A Betoota Ponds man said he can't help but shake his head and laugh whenever he gets a text message to his Android burner phone, even when the content is rather serious. Speaking to our reporter this afternoon, Nathan Pooley explained that his mother had been in touch this morning because the police had been...