Opinion

juvenile detention

Locking up kids damages their mental health and leads to more disadvantage. Is this what we want?

21 Jun 2019

Children are still being held in police cells and juvenile detention for low-range offences, under alarming conditions. Here's how their mental health and future prospects suffer.

Jacinda Ardern

Vital Signs: Once were Kiwis. The hidden history of Australia's own well-being framework

21 Jun 2019

Australia's treasury adopted a well-being framework well before New Zealand's much celebrated "well-being budget". Here's what happened to it.

construction site apartments

Buck-passing on apartment building safety leaves residents at risk

20 Jun 2019

Regulations that are meant to protect residents from building failures and fires have been found wanting. All governments must take responsibility for fixing the defective regime they created.

Manus refugees protest

Secrecy over Paladin's $423m contract highlights our broken refugee system

19 Jun 2019

A refugee policy built on deflecting the issue, rather than confronting it, is not sustainable. We cannot continue to 'contract out' our international obligations.

Bob Dylan

Vital Signs: The times they-are-a-changing for the RBA

14 Jun 2019

The next set of instructions handed to the Reserve Bank will have to be realistic. That might mean a big adjustment.

Coalition women

Will the Coalition's approach to gender equality actually improve women's lives?

13 Jun 2019

When it comes to gender equality, it's not just the number of women in parliament that matters – it's how they go about legislating for change.

19_asean_students_supplied.jpg

Longer teaching year in focus

12 Jun 2019

We must change if we are to keep in step with the modern world around us – and with this in mind UNSW has spread out its academic calendar. We will continue to make adjustments, listen to the students at UNSW and also talk to others at universities like Stanford and UCLA.

flat tyre

Our economic model looks broken, but trying to fix it could be a disaster

11 Jun 2019

We're facing a global economic problem that no one really understands or knows how to fix.

australia coat of arms

The Section 44 soap opera: why more MPs could be in danger of being forced out

11 Jun 2019

The High Court has failed to clarify the Section 44 mess over who is eligible to stand for parliament, so now it's time for MPs to act.

slow down sign

Vital Signs: If we fall into a recession (and we might) we'll have ourselves to blame

07 Jun 2019

Australia has two options to keep out of recession, neither of them easy. The government will have to abandon its determination to get the budget into surplus.

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