Losing wealth, health and life: how financial loss can have catastrophic effects
People who have a financial shock are at greater risk of depression and a raft of other physical and mental health issues.Ethan Sykes/UnsplashPublic hearings for the Financial Services Royal Commissio...
Australian millennials' incomes have grown more than baby boomers and millennials in other countries
Those born between 1941 and 1950, show an increase in average incomes between 1995-96 and 2005-06, and then a decline as they enter retirement.velvettangerine/Flickr, CC BY-NC-NDLife has changed signi...
Vital Signs: the calm before the storm in US-China trade
Vital Signs is a regular economic wrap from UNSW economics professor and Harvard PhD Richard Holden (@profholden). Vital Signs aims to contextualise weekly economic events and cut through the noise of...
To reduce inequality in Australian schools, make them less socially segregated
Needs-based funding is necessary, but it can only do so much.marco antonio torres/flickr, CC BY-SAAccording to the OECD, 17% of Australian young people leave secondary school without achieving basic e...
Friday essay: the politics of the US family sitcom, and why Roseanne rocks
Popular sitcoms like Modern Family avoid reflecting on wider economic realities: Roseanne has filled a void.IMDBAfter a 20-year hiatus, the American TV series Roseanne has returned to television. Earl...
Yes, Syria's Assad regime is brutal. But the retaliatory air strikes are illegal and partisan
Civil war has raged in Syria for seven years.AAP/ Youssef BadawiThe mainstream media have broadly accepted the justifications from the United States, France and Britain of humanitarian motivation for ...
Essays on Air: can art really make a difference?
Ben Quilty, Life vest, Lesbos. 2016, oil on polyester, 60 x 50cmAustralian War Memorial Before the early 19th century, war was commonly depicted as a heroic venture, while death was both noble and sur...
How does a city get to be 'smart'? This is how Tel Aviv did it
Tel Aviv has a reputation as a "non-stop city" but is also known for its local government's use of smart technology to listen to and respond to residents' needs and concerns.Alexandra Lande/Shuttersto...
What might appear to be common sense is not always based on scientific evidence
The quest for scientific evidence can trace its roots back to the classic masters of rhetoric.AboutLife/ShutterstockThe term “evidence” has a fascinating linguistic and social history &nda...
Sustainable shopping: tap water is best, but what bottle should you drink it from?
The greenest option might be to get a disposable bottle but never dispose of it.Shutterstock.comShopping can be confusing at the best of times, and trying to find environmentally friendly options make...
Shorten calls for suspension of sheep exports pending review's results
Bipartisanship has broken on the live sheep export industry with Opposition leader Bill Shorten calling for a suspension until the review into the northern summer trade ordered by the government repor…
Grattan on Friday: Government's misjudgement on banking royal commission comes back to bite it
In light of what is coming out the government should be ashamed of its past performance.Flickr, CC BY-SAIf you are a politician, what do you do when your bad judgement – or worse – has bee…
Heavy penalties are on the table for banks caught lying and taking fees for no service
Another week of hearings of the Financial Services Royal Commission has seen financial services company AMP admitting it mislead the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) on 20 occasi…
Why you should talk to your children about Cambridge Analytica
It's never too early – or too late – to start talking to your children about how to protect their data from people who might misuse it.ShutterstockFormer Cambridge Analytica employee Chris…
The recycling crisis in Australia: easy solutions to a hard problem
The amount of landfill in Australia is expected to rise since China is no longer buying our recycling waste. But there are easy solutions to this big problem.Nicolás Boullosa/flickr, CC BYIpswi…
We cannot rely morally on 'deterrence' to justify our harsh refugee policies
Offshore detainees suffer deliberately inflicted harm from their incarceration.AAP/Eoin BlackwellWhen debate about refugees ascends from slogan swapping (“stop the boats”, “bring the…
Research Check: can baby wipes cause childhood food allergies?
Media reports have linked baby wipes to childhood allergies but there is no cause for concern.www.shutterstock.comParents may have been understandably worried reading recent headlines announcing:Baby …
NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft TESS is now on its mission to search for new worlds
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) successfully launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9.NASA TelevisionThe latest of NASA‘s incredible planet-hunting space telescopes was launched t…
Why treehouses are all the rage in children's books
There is a rich tradition of trees in mythology.ShutterstockTwo of Australia’s most popular children’s storytellers live in a treehouse. It’s a Thirteen-Storey one, at least it star…
Part of what Australians think is good leadership, might just be Anglo traits
Some leadership attributes, like being trustworthy or encouraging, are viewed the same way in all cultures, but there are other characteristics that only spell leadership to people of Anglo-Celtic bac…
A closer look at business cases raises questions about 'priority' national infrastructure projects
Infrastructure Australia’s latest infrastructure priority list has been criticised for being “too Sydney-centric” and for giving Melbourne’s East West Link, cancelled in 2014, …
Israel Folau's comments remind us homophobia and transphobia are ever present in Australian sport
Homophobia and transphobia are becoming a regular fixture in the Australian sporting calendar. Last year, Margaret Court served up anti-LGBT+ comments, while the AFL came under fire for its treatment …
Tech giants are battling it out to supply the global internet - here's why that's a problem
The US Federal Communications Commission last month granted Elon Musk’s SpaceX permission to launch 4,425 satellites that will provide affordable high speed broadband internet to consumers. The …
How the 2016 bleaching altered the shape of the northern Great Barrier Reef
Staghorn and tabular corals suffered mass die-offs, robbing many individual reefs of their characteristic shapes.ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies/ Mia HoogenboomIn 2016 the Great Barrie…
Why you should read China's vast, 18th century novel, Dream of the Red Chamber
Jia Baoyu, the protagonist of Dream of the Red Chamber, as drawn by Gai Qi, 1879. WikimediaIn our series, Guide to the classics, experts explain key works of literature.When asked to explain the signi…
Pre-cancerous: warning sign or cause for panic?
Screening and monitoring can catch precancerous cells before they turn into cancer.www.shutterstock.comIt might be a spot, lump, bump or polyp you’ve found suspicious or bothersome enough to ask…
Ban Middle East sheep trade, says Liberal MP Jason Wood
Pressure within government ranks for a ban on the live sheep trade to the Middle East has increased, with a second Liberal MP calling for the exports to end.Jason Wood, who holds the outer Melbourne s…
Lowering the HELP repayment threshold is an easy target, but not the one we should aim for
Twenty five percent of student loans are unlikely to be paid.ShutterstockMost recent estimates show the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debt owing is nearly A$52 billion in 2017-18. It’s fo…