Society & Inequality
Not quite white in the head
An edited extract of the introduction chapter of 'Not Quite White in the Head' by Melissa Lucashenko, out now via all good bookstores and online.
This is not ‘social cohesion’ – it’s just a tighter net to trap us all
Australians have been lectured a lot in the past couple of years about social cohesion, but it reached a fever pitch this week in response to protests against the visit by Israel’s head of state.
The last stop on the train line of Australia’s social failures: Tales of a homelessness case worker on the NSW South Coast
Life as a homelessness case worker is brutal. You often feel like the last stop on the train line of our country’s social failures. Hardest of all is knowing that people aren’t helped as well as they could be because of inadequate resources and a failure of political will and imagination.
Fixing our housing crisis means fixing investor tax breaks
For years, Australia’s housing crisis has been treated as a mystery. Prices keep rising. Rents keep climbing. More people are locked out of a safe, affordable home. And yet many are scared to mention the policies that helped get us here.
As beautiful as they were powerful: Jon Kudelka’s political cartoons were made with true conviction
The media and cartooning world shifted mightily between Jon Kudelka’s earliest contributions to The Mercury in Hobart in the early 1990s and to his last regular gig at The Saturday Paper, before the diagnosis and treatment of his glioblastoma sparked retirement in April 2025.
Australian high schools ranked the most expensive in the developed world
Australian high schools have topped an unenviable global ranking, with new research showing they’re the most expensive in the developed world.
What is the future of Australia’s embattled writers festivals?
For more than 65 years, book lovers have descended on Adelaide every summer for Australia’s longest running literary festival. That is, until this year, when around 180 invited authors (including me) boycotted Adelaide Writers Week, following the board’s decision to “uninvite” Palestinian-Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah. The festival was cancelled.
No such thing as 'clean gas': if advertisers can act, why can’t politicians?
In the rankings of least trusted professionals, advertising executives usually sit at the bottom along with politicians and real estate agents. But there’s one area where the advertising industry can now justifiably hold itself above politicians – stopping greenwashing by the gas industry.
Frontline services ‘trapped in crisis mode’ as housing emergency deepens
Frontline community services are being pushed to breaking point as Australia’s housing crisis deepens, with new findings showing demand for help has surged and staff burnout is rising.
If you want to understand Australia’s housing crisis, look at what the government funds
We are living through the worst housing crisis in living memory. Rents are surging, home ownership is slipping further out of reach, and homelessness is rising and more persistent.
