The Epstein files show Australia is at the mercy of men like him

files about dead pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein – still not fully public – can only be digested in small increments. Each new revelation can be considered individually, reported on, evaluated for what harm it might do to the last named public figure and what it might mean for the powerful institution it represents.

But the files, another 3 million pages of which were released this week (some heavily redacted, millions more still appear to be classified), paint a picture in its entirety almost incomprehensible, the implications of which are beyond our ability to describe or analyse.