AustLit

'Would you keep a marsupial as a pet? This question has been a subject of contention and confusion in the news this year. Senator David Leyonhjelm has vocalised his support of it in the Federal government. Animal rights groups have rallied against it. The question is: should Australian society domesticate some native marsupial and mammal species - specifically, as human companions and pets?' (Publication abstract)

' I went to the mountains during one of the lower points in my life. It's strange, looking back, how little of that time I remember. Or rather, it's what I don't remember that confuses me most. For instance the name of that small town, the one shrouded in mist halfway up a peak on the colder side of the state, eludes me now. The highways and dirt roads I took to get there - I can see the signage but the words are a haze against the sky...'

 (Publication abstract)

'My aunt is apoplectic. "Why did he even read the question 'What is wanking?'" 

'A teacher at my cousin's primary school has had the genius idea of a No Question Is A Stupid Question class for sex ed, which involves all the 10 and 11-year-olds in the year 5 class writing a question on a little bit of paper and slipping it in a shoebox covered in cellophane. It transpires that my cousin didn't know about masturbation until this class. Even if he did secretly know and was pretending he didn't, he knows how to push buttons, so now his 6-year-old sister knows too, though I don't think she really understands the motivation or process or really cares what masturbation is.' (Publication abstract)