• Infrastructure

    Filling in the blanks


    Neil Sipe |  April 28, 2024


    The housing crisis created by Australia’s high rate of immigration mean that governments and developers are eying every square inch of under-used land in our cities, but plans for ‘in-fill’ development are often slow to materialise in reality.


  • China

    The political thought of Xi Jinping


    John West |  April 28, 2024


    Like Vladimir Putin in Russia, Xi Jinping has established himself as China’s absolute dictator but his policies of internal repression and external aggression are motivated by ideology as well as personal power and nationalism.


  • Society

    The great art robbery


    Oliver Bown |  April 28, 2024


    AI threatens to replace real human artists, just as machines have replaced people in a host of other activities, but AI models were trained on artists’ works without permission or payment,


Latest Story

  • Blowing in the wind

    Open Forum     |      December 10, 2020

    New research suggests the increasing use of energy from wind farms is lowering electricity prices, but increasing price volatility in the national energy market.

  • Counterpoint by Mark Nicol – The idea of democracy

    Mark Nicol     |      December 10, 2020

    Western liberal democracy has its deep but tangled roots in a host of religious as well as secular traditions, and its apparent decline can only be arrested by a reappreciation of rationality and individual merit.

  • Avoiding the technology trap

    Lesley Seebeck     |      December 9, 2020

    At a recent Australian e-commerce summit, Prime Minister Scott Morrison praised technology adoption – rather than domestic innovation – as a means of driving economic returns.

  • Putting energy consumers first

    Ron Ben-David     |      December 9, 2020

    New proposals to improve Australia’s energy market at a time of unprecedented change should priorities the results for consumers.

  • Art of the mind

    Open Forum     |      December 9, 2020

    Artistic mediums such as visual art, music, dance and creative writing can help people recovering from mental health issues to share their stories and gain confidence and understanding of their illness.

  • A replan for NAPLAN

    Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh     |      December 8, 2020

    This has been a year of schools closing and a rapid switch to online learning. It’s also been a year with no NAPLAN, offering a chance to reassess how we monitor school performance.

  • STEM superstars call for more gender and cultural diversity

    Open Forum     |      December 8, 2020

    Australia’s official Superstars of STEM have backed the campaign to increase the number of women and ethnic minorities in science and technology.

  • Threatened native plants in steep decline

    Open Forum     |      December 8, 2020

    Australia’s threatened plants have declined by more than 70% in the last 20 years, due to continuing land-clearing and environmental destruction.

  • W.W.Whistleblowing

    Stephen McCombie     |      December 7, 2020

    The traditional divide between journalism and espionage has blurred, as has the boundary between the protection of national security, and the cover up of nefarious practices of politicians, tycoons, and bureaucrats.

  • In praise of weeds

    Ben Knight     |      December 7, 2020

    A weed is any plant which grows where we don’t want it, but they do have a bright side, even in Australia where foreign plants can choke natural landscapes.

  • The unwinnable war

    Shiro Armstrong     |      December 7, 2020

    China’s politically motivated trade war against Australia will harm both countries, but the downward spiral in relations is not irrecoverable – yet.

  • Has Trumpism really been defeated?

    Richard Ballout     |      December 6, 2020

    Despite the President’s election defeat, Trumpism is still firmly entrenched in the American political discourse, and there are no signs it will decline anytime soon.