Go ahead, make my bomb.

After months of relentless hype and more marketing than Harvey Norman we caved in and watched the self-described ‘blockbuster’, Oppenheimer.

Warning! That’s three hours of life that would have been better spent doing, um, let’s see, anything. Actually, make that four because it took an hour to fnd a streaming service that we subscribed to instead of having to pay.

Vickery Eden Valley (EVR 2203 MSS) Riesling 2023, $24. The detail on the label is astonishing and you cannot but feel at one with the earth and the growers, pickers, stompers and passers-by. So thanks to the Masons, Schuberts, Stephens, and their Woodcarvers, Barty’s and Wyncroft Vineyards

Several things arise from this revelation, not least that shouldn’t the description “blockbuster” come after people have seen a movie and declared it thus, not before, and how sneaky is it that alternate streaming services charging for something that is free if you subscribe to another?

If ever there was an example marketing over substance, Oppenheimer is it. Nominated for almost all planted in 2001, 1961 and 1971 respectively. See? Proper riesling with proper provenance. 9.5/10.

Vickery Eden Valley (EVR 1503 M) The ‘V’ Reserve Riesling 2022, $39. This is the Mason Woodcarvers Vineyard version, which should be cheaper because they didn’t have so far to go to pick the grapes, but they academy award categories and winning most of them – a wonder it didn’t win Best Foreign Film merely because of its name – once you’ve seen it you will scratch your head in wonder.

Barbenheimer or Oppenbarbie were the journalisitic cliches when the movies were released yet Barbs got nothing, largely because of the proper emasculation of poor Ken. Well, suck it up guys, are clearly better grapes, perhaps picked individually and squeezed gently by the fair maidens of Eden straight into the bottles. It’s worth the effort. 9.7/10.

Pikes Clare Valley Luccio Sangiovese Rosé, 2023, $25. Not sure who Luccio was but he’s unlikely to ever win an oscar with a name like that. On the other and remember it took the American Academy almost a hundred years to award something to any woman or person of colour. hand he’s good for a rosé at a price less than a cinema ticket. 9.3/10.

No, Oppenheimer is of the true American pap genre - Troubled, autistic, genius struggles against bureaucracy and, like any Bruce Willis movie, the clock, over all of which he triumphs and saves the free world by blowing up the rest of it. As usual Americans did everything without any help from anyone and McCarthyism gets him in the end.

Pikes Clare Valley The Dogwalk Cabernets, 2021, $25. The dog star in Anatomy of a Fall really did deserve his seat at the oscars and this deserves one of those Premium seats at the cinema, but it won’t last the whole movie. 9.2/10.

What is it about McCarthy Americans love so much? And they’re about to vote him in again…Donald McCarthy.

Oppenheimer is a Clint Eastwood movie, Go Ahead Make My Bomb. But Clint Eastwood movies had Clint, who never deserved an Oscar and rightly never got

Scarborough Hunter Valley, ‘The Obsessive’ Semillon The Cottage Vineyard, 2023, $35. You cannot writer a review of The Obsessives without including the obsessiveness that it was picked on the 19th of February. It seems just as necessary to say that it was drunk on the 27th of March. A short life but well one, except tokenisticly in the end because the academy realised it was a bad look.

No, if you have three hours to spare (okay, four including the search) and $50 that you might spend on a cinema or even just $10 you might waste on a streaming service to watch Oppy, spend it on these and go down to the river and play with the dog…and watch Anatomy of a Fall when you get home : lived and served. 9.5/10.

Scarborough Hunter Valley Semillon (Green Label) 2023, $22. This was among the frst 2023 wines we tasted last year so there should be another one out soon. Remember that young fresh semillons are one of nature’s little treats and they’re not bad later on too. 9.4/10.

Roy Morgan Unemployment & Under-employment (2019-2024)

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source January 2019 – March 2024. Average monthly interviews 5,000.

Note: Roy Morgan unemployment estimates are actual data while the ABS estimates are seasonally adjusted.

In March 2024, Australian ‘real’ unemployment dropped 78,000 to 1,358,000 (down 0.5% to 8.7% of the workforce) as employment reached an all-time high of over 14.2 million.

However, the composition of the workforce changed –part-time employment surged 295,000 (up 6.1%) to 5,164,000 (a new record high). Unfortunately, there was a substantial decrease in full-time employment, down 256,000 (down 2.7%) to 9,103,000 as the composition of the employment market changed significantly.

The rise in part-time employment was correlated to the increase in under-employment, up 75,000 to 1576,000 (10.1%, up 0.5%). In total a massive 2.93 million Australians (18.8%, unchanged) were unemployed or under-employed in March.

The March Roy Morgan Unemployment estimates were obtained by surveying an Australia-wide cross section of people aged 14+. A person is classified as unemployed if they are looking for work, no matter when. The ‘real’ unemployment rate is presented as a percentage of the workforce (employed & unemployed).

• Employment reaches new record high of over 14.2 million in March: Australian employment increased 39,000 to 14,267,000 in March. Part-time employment drove the increase, up 295,000 (up 6.1%) to a new record high of 5,164,000 while full-time employment dropped 256,000 (down 2.7%) to 9,103,000.

• Unemployment dropped in March with 78,000 fewer looking for work:

In March 1,358,000 Australians were unemployed (8.7% of the workforce, down 0.5%), a decrease of 78,000 from February driven by fewer people looking for part-time work. There were 763,000 (down 70,000) looking for parttime work and 595,000 (down 8,000) looking for full-time work.

• Overall unemployment and under-employment was unchanged in March at 18.8%:

In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.58 million Australians (10.1% of the workforce) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work, up 75,000 from February. In total 2.93 million Australians (18.8% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in March.

• Comparisons with a year ago show rapidly increasing workforce driving employment growth:

The workforce in March was 15,625,000

(down 39,000 from February, but up a massive 641,000 from a year ago) – comprised of 14,267,000 employed Australians (up 39,000 from a month ago) and 1,358,000 unemployed Australians looking for work (down 78,000).

Although unemployment and under-employment remain high at 2.93 million, there has been a surge in employment over the last year – up by 693,000 to a new record high of 14,267,000.

Compared to four years ago in early March 2020, in March 2024 there were almost 800,000 more Australians either unemployed or under-employed (+3.2% points) even though overall employment (14,267,000) is almost 1.4 million higher than it was pre-COVID-19 (12,872,000).

ABS Comparison

Roy Morgan’s unemployment figure of 8.7% is more than double the ABS estimate of 3.7% for February but is approaching the combined ABS unemployment and under-employment figure of 10.3%.

The latest monthly figures from the ABS indicate that the people working fewer hours in February 2024 due to illness, injury or sick leave was 521,700. This is around 140,000 higher than the pre-pandemic average of the five years to February 2019 (382,100) – a difference of 139,600.

If this higher than pre-pandemic average of workers (139,600) is added to the combined ABS unemployment and under-employment figure of 1,533,000 we find a total of 1,673,600 people could be considered unemployed or underemployed, equivalent to 11.3% of the workforce.