Clementine Ford wonders whether the #MeToo movement represents a turning point for women, Anna Spargo-Ryan thinks not: 'In the wake of #MeToo, when women said 'this time it will be different', it wasn't.' Joumanah El Matrah picks over the idea of religious freedom, Liz Conor recalls the section 18C case against cartoonist Bill Leak, and an earlier race controversy over the work of Eric Jolliffe. Clare Payne argues that women are entering a new age of economic empowerment. Timmah Ball brings an Indigenous perspective to the home ownership debate, Hugh Mackay offers calm reflections on the madness of Year 12, Carmel Bird ponders her many connections to Nobel Prize contender Gerald Murnane and Harry Saddler listens to the world with the ears of a dog.

There's new fiction from Randa Abdel-Fattah, Beejay Silcox, Laura Elvery and Vogel Prize winner Emily O'Grady. The edition's poets include: Fiona Wright, John Kinsella, Kevin Brophy, Kate Middleton and Hazel Smith.