Hammer the Hammer: The curious case of an invoice, a job vacancy, and the cost of playing football in Queensland, Part One

Matthew Hall
14 min readJul 31, 2020

(Or Parables for Wooden Ears, Brisbane, 2020 Remix)

The Big Pineapple, a Queensland icon

The Australian state of Queensland, the vast north-eastern region of the country, can claim many notable attributes: incredible natural beauty that includes the sadly diminishing Great Barrier Reef, strong indigenous culture, diverse immigrant histories, as well as being an artistic and cultural cradle that has produced some of the country’s better music, art, and literature, often in the face of extreme political and cultural adversity.

Queensland is also historically something of a shitshow having given Australia one of the most corrupt governments and police forces in national history (a tough competition, admittedly), some incredibly repressive laws, while also providing a national platform for politicians like Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer, whose dubious contributions to national discourse are hopefully an over-representation of the true thoughts of the local population.

Former Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, when the state was… well… nevermind

Still, while in normal times many people could care less about what happens in Australia’s…

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Matthew Hall
Matthew Hall

Written by Matthew Hall

Paella correspondent for @guardianUS @smh and others: matthewhall.contently.com.

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