Meanjin mumblings: With the closure of Australia’s second-oldest literary publication, Meanjin, a new FAQ has been posted on the journal’s website by Melbourne University Publishing (MUP). It states that all content will be made “freely accessible” from February 2026 and that the “website will remain live”.
This would have been a win for accessibility and preservation a decade ago, but in the age of AI — which can scrape the internet and steal data to train its algorithms — it raises ethical questions for the authors behind the work. Crikey understands MUP sent contributors an email about honouring preexisting commissions, but has not alerted them that the archive is becoming open access, nor addressed how — if at all — it plans to protect it against AI scraping. Melbourne University did not reply to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, with Meanjin staff being made redundant, it appears MUP or Melbourne University is posting from Meanjin’s social media pages, such as this Instagram post thanking everyone for the “outpouring of support”. But as Catriona Menzies-Pike wrote for Crikey yesterday, sentiment among the literary industry is more “shock and disgust”. —DS
Gals at the Lodge: Anthony Albanese was back on the Happy Hour With Lucy & Nikki podcast on Monday. Crikey readers may remember the program from the PM’s election podcast blitz — in the March interview, hosts Lucy Jackson and Nikki Westcott dared him to say “delulu” in parliament, which he did.
This latest appearance is notable for two reasons. Firstly, this wasn’t recorded in a podcast studio — the gals were invited to The Lodge for this episode where they met Toto and checked out DJ Albo’s turntable set-up.
Secondly, and more importantly, its proof that podcast appearances are the new FM radio slots. The tone never strays from light, bright and cheerful (even during a four-minute discussion of the neo-Nazi presence at the March for Australia) and runs through segments that feel exactly like commercial radio: the PM learns gen Z slang; the PM gives advice on raunchy listener dilemmas; the PM runs through PR points about the diversity of his government. Not a single policy is mentioned.
I, for one, welcome our new radio overlords. —CA
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Lawyers, guns and money: If you had “Donald Trump falls out with the National Rifle Association over his administration’s mooted attempts to ban transgender people from accessing guns” on your 2025 bingo card, then congratulations on your prescience. That literally happened.
After the utter devastation at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis — where two children were killed and many more injured in a mass shooting — the Trump administration leapt on the apparent gender identity of the suspected killer to float proposals limiting transgender people’s right to possess firearms. The bellicose and influential NRA immediately posted that “The Second Amendment isn’t up for debate”.
The Second Amendment isn’t up for debate. pic.twitter.com/AQwouV4VDd
— NRA (@NRA) September 5, 2025
Other gun advocates have called the proposal “blatantly unconstitutional“. It’s delightful to find, by the way, a section of the US Constitution that American conservatives give even a minor shit about following.
Best laid plans: It’s that most beautiful time of year: footy finals season. And when it comes to football, there are few more parochial mastheads in Australian media than The West Australian, famed of late for sports editor Jakeb Waddell’s obsession with West Coast young gun Harley Reid.
Waddell is bipartisan, however, and ahead of Fremantle’s elimination final last week against the Gold Coast Suns (playing their first final in club history), he penned a back page that perhaps might not be included in his inevitable bid for a third successive Kennedy Award for outstanding headlines.
“The best things in life are easy home final wins”, read the West’s back page ahead of what it deemed would be a “simple” victory over the Suns. Avid fans of Palestine Pearce’s troops will note that the resulting final was anything but: Gold Coast held off a fast-finishing Dockers outfit to win by a single point in a thriller that ended Freo’s season.
