Philip Clark

John Wiley reviews ‘Allan Fels: A Portrait of Power’ by Fred Brenchley

October 2003, no. 255 • 01 October 2003

Assuming the Chair of a business regulatory authority might not be thought of as an ideal path to media stardom, but Allan Fels showed otherwise. Fels is easily Australia’s best-known cartel buster and the scourge of price-fixing business and anti-competitive behaviour generally. For years he was regularly on the nightly news. In a savage sea of rapacious price-gougers, Fels was the consumer’s ... (read more)

Philip Clark reviews ‘Wild Life’ by John Dale

December 2004–January 2005, no. 267 • 01 December 2004

Tasmania is a wild place, the home of the last great temperate rainforests on the planet. Somewhere in those forests, or perhaps in the sclerophyll scrublands of the north-cast, may still be lurking a thylacine, the famed Tasmanian tiger. Over the years, there has been no end of searching, so far with no result. Despite numerous reported sightings, all we know for certain is that the last one ever ... (read more)

Philip Clark reviews ‘Absurdistan’ by Eric Campbell

May 2005, no. 271 • 01 May 2005

The foreign correspondent Eric Campbell is lucky to be alive. In March 2003 he was filming in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, with Paul Moran, a freelance cameraman whom he had just met, when a car bomb exploded in front of him. Moran was killed instantly, his body shielding Campbell from the worst of the blast. Both Moran and Campbell were new fathers. Although vastly experienced in covering conflicts, ... (read more)

Philip Clark reviews ‘Rivkin Unauthorised: The meteoric rise and tragic fall of an unorthodox money man’ by Andrew Main

August 2005, no. 273 • 01 August 2005

Rene Rivkin was one of those unorthodox characters who was irresistible to the Sydney media – and the feeling was mutual. ‘I never feel really alive unless I am in the newspapers,’ he remarked to one journalist at the peak of his fame. Rivkin loved being rich, and he loved talking about it. His father’s generation may have regarded it as deeply improper to talk about one’s money, but to ... (read more)

Philip Clark reviews 'Killing Juanita: A True Story of Murder and Corruption' by Peter Rees

April 2004, no. 260 • 01 April 2004

So who did murder Juanita Nielsen? Years of corrupt police inquiries and coronial and parliamentary investigations have failed to identify her killers, but this excellent history of Sydney’s most famous unsolved disappearance provides most of the answers. However, while it may fill many of the gaps in the record, the question of justice for Juanita is quite another matter. A number of key identi ... (read more)

Philip Clark reviews 'Economia: New economic systems to empower people and support the living world' by Geoff Davies and 'How Australia Compares' by Rod Tiffen and Ross Gittens

August 2004, no. 263 • 01 August 2004

Australians like to believe they live in the best country in the world. Plenty of space, abundant  natural resources and lots of sunshine for this nation whose inhabitants have come from all corners of the earth to a land of opportunity. It’s an appealing national smugness that has comforted generations of Australians as they looked with tolerant amusement at the congested societies of indu ... (read more)