Issue cover date 05 March 2010
THIS WEEK IN THE WEEK

Here’s a quick overview on what’s inside this week’s The Week. You’ll find the best stories, opinions and commentary on everything from news and business to culture
and sport.

News

Labor begins to simplify

The Federal Government has promised a “back to basics” approach in announcing key reforms in health and education. The first draft of a national curriculum in English, maths, science and history for students from kindergarten to Year 10 was released this week. The English blueprint will place heavy emphasis on grammar and phonics, with high school teachers required to teach literacy basics for the first time to children who may not have fully under-stood the concepts at primary school. History, presently taught in about half the nation’s schools, will become a compulsory subject. The Government says the new curriculum takes a balanced view of the nation’s past.

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Business

Financial aftershocks of Chilean quake

The 8.8-magnitude earthquake was hardest felt on the south central coast of the country, while most of Chile’s copper mines are in the north, said Brenda Bouw in The Globe and Mail. The world’s largest copper producer, Codelco, and the giant Anglo American each closed mines for several hours after the tremor as power was cut, but production quickly returned to normal. Chile accounts for 34% of the world’s copper production and has six of the world’s largest mines. China is its fastest-growing customer, increasing consumption by 30% last year with another 12% acquired for strategic stockpiling. But despite minimal mine disruption, copper prices had their biggest gain in eleven months following the quake, said Elliott Gotkine on Bloomberg. 

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Sport

AFL: free at last

An agreement has finally been reached between the AFL and the players’ union to grant free agency for players who have completed eight seasons, said Michael Warner in the Herald Sun. The clincher was a clause protecting every club’s best ten players. From 2012, clubs will be given the right to match offers made to the top 25% of earners. In that case, the player would have the option of remaining with his present club, asking for a trade, or risk nominating for the draft. Other elements of the deal include draft compensation to clubs who lose players to free agency and greater scrutiny of non-salary cap payments. It will be a disaster, said Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett in a letter to club members.

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Culture

Theatre: Hamlet

Director David Berthold’s first play with La Boite Theatre Company is an unequivocal triumph, said Tonya Turner in The Courier-Mail. Not a production for the faint-hearted, it begins by plunging the audience into total darkness, “creating an immediate connection to Hamlet’s angst”. This Hamlet is set in the present day: the actors use iPhones and Skype, and the play-within-a-play becomes a mini rock concert. But the swordplay is left intact, along with the dramatic tension, which is “maintained and carried through to the final bloodbath”. This show is a statement of purpose for Berthold, who took over as artistic director of La Boite last year. It’s clear he “means business”.

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