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Politics with Michelle Grattan: Deputy PM Michael McCormack on the drought and restive Nationals

While the drought continues to hit the Nationals’ constituents hard, the party faces a testing terrain on a political level. In this episode of...

Michelle Grattan

4 latest

Australians split on the level of foreign students: ANUpoll

Australians are divided over whether the nation’s universities have too many foreign students, according to the Australian National...

Michelle Grattan

Water may soon lap at the door, but still some homeowners don’t want to rock the boat

It is becoming increasingly possible that sea-level rise of a metre or more will occur this century. You might expect this threat to preoccupy...

Vanessa Bowden

3 things to help improve your exam results (besides studying)

If you want to get good marks in your exams, there’s no substitute for study. So do past exams, go over your notes, read what you need to read, do...

Tom Gordon

Creating and being seen: new projects focus on the rights of artists with disabilities

At Studio A, on the fourth floor of the Crows Nest community centre, a group of artists is working quietly. An occasional burst of laughter erupts...

Chloe Watfern

9 latest

John Setka resigns from ALP, attacks Albanese

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has finally seen off John Setka from the ALP, with the militant construction union leader capitulating and...

Michelle Grattan

0 latest

Trackless trams v light rail? It’s not a contest – both can improve our cities

A Greenpeace video of me plugging a trackless tram that went viral with 4 million hits has caused a few eyebrows to be raised over whether I think...

Peter Newman

4 latest

Postcode by postcode: a clever way to include homes in the age pension assets test

Here’s the boldest idea the government’s inquiry into retirement incomes should consider but might not: no longer exempting all of the value of...

Anthony Asher

Climate explained: how volcanoes influence climate and how their emissions compare to what we produce

Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about...

Michael Petterson

Your brain approaches tricky tasks in a surprisingly simple way

Have you ever sat down to complete your morning crossword or Sudoku and wondered about what’s happening in your brain? Somewhere in the activity...

James Shine

4 latest

Step into Paradise review: from koala jumpers to the Sydney Olympics, Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson defined Australian fashion

1973 was a remarkable year for Sydney, with the opening of two major cultural icons. The first was the Sydney Opera House. The second, possibly...

Tracey Sernack-Chee Quee

Is coconut water good for you? We asked five experts

In recent years coconut water has left the palm-treed shores of tropical islands where tourists on lounge chairs stick straws straight into the...

Alexandra Hansen

Australian governments have long been hostile to media freedom. That’s unlikely to change any time soon

The unprecedented blackout of front pages by Australia’s newspaper publishers this week is a highly significant event in Australian political and...

Denis Muller

The ‘ceasefire’ in Syria is ending – here’s what’s likely to happen now

The five-day ceasefire negotiated by US Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan ends today. Despite the shaky...

Mehmet Ozalp

Inside the story: the art and genius of metaphor in Anna Spargo-Ryan ’s The Paper House

Why do we tell stories, and how are they crafted? In this series, we unpick the work of the writer on both page and screen. Anna Spargo-Ryan’s...

Debra Wain

4 yesterday

Horse racing must change, or the court of public opinion will bury it

In the wake of a shocking ABC report on the dismal end of many racehorses’ lives in slaughterhouses, many Australians are questioning whether the...

Phil Mcmanus

The evidence is clear: the medevac law saves lives. But even this isn’t enough to alleviate refugee suffering

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has some sobering reading to do over the coming weeks: an 88-page Senate report into the government-sponsored bill...

Sara Dehm

Data lakes: where big businesses dump their excess data, and hackers have a field day

Machines and the internet are woven into the fabric of our society. A growing number of users, devices and applications work together to produce...

Mohiuddin Ahmed

20 yesterday

Can Ne Zha, the Chinese superhero with $1b at the box office, teach us how to raise good kids?

There is a new challenger to Disney’s hold on the global animation industry, and he is a Chinese demon child. Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child,...

Shih-Wen Sue Chen

5 yesterday

To bolster our fragile road and rail system we need to add a ‘micro-mobility ’ network

We all know the feeling. You’re on your way to an important appointment when disaster strikes. A glitch in the transport matrix leaves you waiting...

Tony Arnold

9 yesterday

‘My mob is telling their story and it makes me feel good’: here’s what Aboriginal survivors of child sexual abuse told us they need

It’s a year since the national apology to victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. While national apologies can acknowledge...

Carlina Black

7 yesterday

Don’t stress, your ATAR isn’t the final call. There are many ways to get into university

In a recent nation-wide survey by online tutoring company Cluey Learning, 75% of Australian senior students said their ATAR score would impact on...

Tim Pitman

7 yesterday

We could reduce the slaughter of racehorses if we breed them for longer racing careers

The slaughter of horses bred for racing in Australia, as revealed in the ABC’s investigation, highlights the challenge of what to do with...

Paul Mcgreevy

5 yesterday

Australia has plenty of gas, but our bills are ridiculous. The market is broken

Right now, two projects have been proposed to import gas from overseas to supply eastern Australia. This is an absurd prospect. Australia is a...

Samantha Hepburn

Australia needs a Media Freedom Act. Here’s how it could work

Australians picked up their morning papers yesterday to find heavily blacked-out text instead of front-page headlines. This bold statement was...

Rebecca Ananian-Welsh

View from The Hill: Breaking Pauline Hanson’s ‘strike’ has taken skin off Bridget McKenzie

Given her status as holding two vital Senate crossbench votes Pauline Hanson is at times, in the eyes of senior government figures, She Who Must Be...

Michelle Grattan

8 previous day

Migrant communities keep our cemeteries alive as more Anglo-Australians turn to cremation

The Australian society has changed significantly since cemeteries in Victoria were planned and designed 150 years ago. But there haven’t been any...

Wilfred Wang

Fully Sikh review: a charasmatic, generous performance about growing up Sikh in Australia

Fully Sikh, directed by Matt Edgerton, Perth’s Studio Underground The foyer is adorned with colourful fabric and bunting. We’re welcomed by the...

Leah Mercer

Fully Sikh review: a charismatic, generous performance about growing up Sikh in Australia

Fully Sikh, directed by Matt Edgerton, Perth’s Studio Underground The foyer is adorned with colourful fabric and bunting. We’re welcomed by the...

Leah Mercer

1 previous day

How big alcohol is trying to fool us into thinking drinking is safer than it really is

Over recent weeks, the alcohol industry has been drumming up media discussion around Australia’s new drinking guidelines. Australia’s guidelines...

Peter Miller

30 previous day

A criminal asked to design anti-money laundering laws would probably keep our current ones

Money laundering rarely gets as literal as the case in Thailand last week, where police raided homes of a ring suspected of laundering a billion...

Ronald F Pol

10 previous day

The voice unmasked: how we hear image, emotion and identity

As the Australian premier season of The Masked Singer draws to a close, fans are listening hard to guess which celebrities remain behind the weird...

Kristal Spreadborough

Growing numbers of renters are trapped for years in homes they can’t afford

Low-income tenants in Australia are increasingly likely to be trapped in rental stress for years. New evidence from the Productivity Commission...

Hal Pawson

4 ways to talk with vaccine skeptics

Your neighbour is telling you about his new baby. He feels nervous about vaccinating, and says he’s considering delaying Lucy’s vaccines. Your...

Julie Leask

The Trump presidency should not be shocking. It’s a symptom of our cultural malaise

During the 2016 US presidential campaign, people around the world were regularly reassured by election experts that Donald Trump was too outrageous...

Brendon Oconnor

Arrogance destroyed the World Trade Organisation. What replaces it will be even worse

In line with his usual practice, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed Donald Trump over the World Trade Organisation, criticising of China’s...

John Quiggin

5 previous day

Science prizes are still a boys’ club. Here’s how we can change that

This year, five of the seven Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science were awarded to women. While this is a welcome development, the great majority...

Justine Shaw

Who’s responsible for the slaughtered ex-racehorses , and what can be done?

This weekend saw protests at Caulfield racecourse, following a shocking report last week on the ABC’s 7:30 program on the fate of thousands of...

Kate Fenner

Morrison says China knows ‘where Australia is coming from’, after meeting Chinese vice-president

Scott Morrison seized the opportunity of his Jakarta weekend visit for Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s inauguration to obtain a meeting with...

Michelle Grattan