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The Monthly kicks off 2023 with a February issue that sets the agenda for the year ahead: our cover story, as the nation grapples with rising cost of living and economic uncertainty, is from the federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Laying out the challenges facing us – to our economy, our society and our environment – Chalmers argues for the place of values and optimism in how we might rethink capitalism itself. It’s a major essay and one that offers singular insights into how our government is regarding the road ahead.

Last year's court case against Hillsong founder Brian Houston marked a major turning point in the fortunes of the Pentecostal leader. With the prosecution and defence preparing final arguments ahead of the case being concluded later this year, Elle Hardy charts the rise and fall of the divisive figure.

Margaret Simons’ previous reporting from the Philippines has won her awards and acclaim, and her return there for The Monthly with photographer Dave Tacon provides rare and intimate reporting on the war on drugs, which continues to ravage Manila under the supposedly reformist presidency of Marcos Jr.

Plus there’s Richard Denniss on the government’s silence on COVID’s ongoing impacts, Jesse Noakes on youth justice in the Kimberley, Carrie Tiffany on the death of her mother and the legacy of sugar in her family, and some last words from the late poet Robert Adamson about fishing on his beloved Hawkesbury.

Our arts coverage takes in everything from the new Sydney Modern building, to Damien Chazelle’s Babylon to the memoirs of Prince Harry, and in a new column Robert Manne returns to the magazine to reflect on a long-remembered sentence that has played a part in defining his understanding of the world.

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