THE ART OF FAILING UPWARDS

THE ASCENT OF EVEREST (BOXED SET) by Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyenHybrid Publishers, 2024ISBN. 9781922768278RRP: $49.99 (PB)Reviewed by Rocco Loiacono

The four novels of the satirical series concerning Professor Grafton Everest, a rambunctious, overweight, fictional academic written together by Ross Fitzgerald (emeritus professor of history and history) and Ian McFadyen (of the Comedy Company fame) have now been published as a boxed set so that readers can chart from start to finish the uproarious story of how this hapless, work-shy anti-hero made it from a provincial Australian …

The Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024 is set to be debated and voted on in the Senate on June 24. If the Senate bill is passed, Australia’s eight state and territory parliaments will each have to pass corresponding legislation. If they don’t, the survival of Australia’s restrictive approach to vaping is doubtful.

The federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, is leading these de facto prohibition changes.

Australia began restricting nicotine vaping, a much safer way of taking nicotine than deadly smoking, in 2011.

Since then governments have intensified the …