Opinions
OPINION
The NACC’s exceptional challenge: integrity is not achieved by secrecy, but by trust earned in the light
Few issues unite progressive and conservative voters. Ending corruption is one of the few exceptions.
OPINION
An AUSMIN pantomime in Washington
It does suggest that there’s something odd happening when the BBC’s fabled Goon Show provides the script for the AUSMIN talks just concluded in Washington.
OPINION
The welfare system isn’t just on fire, it’s burning out of control
The problem with having pattern recognition is that you can always see the fires before they start. Governments are a bit like that, too. It’s not that they don’t see the fire before the smoke, it’s just they figure it will be someone else’s problem to deal with it by the time it’s all ablaze.
OPINION
Fixing the housing crisis isn’t complicated, governments just don’t want to do it
The easiest way to boost the supply of housing in Australia would be for governments to build new houses. And the easiest way to provide affordable rental accommodation would be to rent the new government-built houses to people at affordable rents. Fixing a housing crisis is not complicated.
OPINION
Parliamentary entitlements and family reunions: just let the pollie pay
The arbiters of ethical public spending have an odd set of tools at their disposal, to judge by the dismal saga facing Anika Wells and Don Farrell, among others.
OPINION
Waste incinerators: the latest bin fire in Australian climate policy
Something has gone terribly wrong with a society and an economy that sees a steady and inexhaustible flow of garbage as a reliable fuel for generating electricity. But here we are.
OPINION
First whispers of discontent for Labor are coming from within
It’s the end of the year, which means things tend to be a lot looser than usual and emotions can run high.
OPINION
Why fossil fuel influence in children's education is a democratic problem, not just a climate problem
Australia’s children deserve the truth about climate change. They deserve to learn science that is free from corporate spin, especially when it comes to industries driving the crisis that will shape the rest of their lives.
OPINION
Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Vanishing Act
Across the globe, an amazing orchestra of animal life is playing out in wondrous, quirky detail, revealing the resilience and spectacle of nature.
OPINION
We built an illness system, not a health system. And we’re paying for it
Australia’s health system is beginning to resemble the US. We must change course
