Revealed: how Australian politicians would bridge the trust divide
Unsurprisingly, Australian politicians are happier than their constituents with the way our democracy works.ShutterstockWe hear a lot from citizens about the failings of Australian democracy and the n...
Mark Evans, Professor of Governance and Director of Democracy 2025 - bridging the trust divide at Old Parliament House, University of Canberra
4 Trends To Help Your Business Grow Next Year
As we come to the end of the year, the shops gear up for Halloween and Christmas and the new year, work winds down in most offices and plans for the new year are on everyone’s mind. Knowing what to ...
News Company
We can’t drought-proof Australia, and trying is a fool's errand
The push to 'drought-proof' Australia is dangerous nonsense.AAP Image/Mick TsikasThere is a phrase in the novel East of Eden that springs to mind every time politicians speak of “drought-proofin...
Emma Kathryn White, PhD Candidate, Infrastructure Engineering, University of Melbourne
Our land abounds in nature strips – surely we can do more than mow a third of urban green space
Even the standard grassed nature strip has value for local wildlife.Michelle/Flickr, CC BY-NC-NDYou may mock the national anthem by singing “Our land abounds in nature strips” but what you...
Adrian Marshall, Lecturer, Landscape Architecture and Urban Ecology, University of Melbourne
Don't calm down! Exam stress may not be fun but it can help you get better marks
If you let it work for you, stress can be your secret weapon.from shutterstock.comTwo-thirds of young people experience levels of exam stress that mental health organisation ReachOut describes as &ldq...
Mandie Shean, Lecturer, School of Education, Edith Cowan University
Revenge of the moderators: Facebook's online workers are sick of being treated like bots
Mark Zuckerberg and other tech CEOs may have to take notice of their workers' complaints.Aaron Schwarz / ShutterstockReports of Facebook moderators’ appalling working conditions have been making...
Jennifer Beckett, Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Melbourne
China has form as a sports bully, but its full-court press on the NBA may backfire
It’s unlikely Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team, realised he’d be sparking an international diplomatic incident when, on October 4, he tweeted the followi...
Keith Rathbone, Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University
These 3 factors predict a child's chance of obesity in adolescence (and no, it's not just their weight)
The mother's education level is also a factor.Brainsil/ShutterstockThree simple factors can predict whether a child is likely to be overweight or obese by the time they reach adolescence: the child&rs...
Kate Lycett, Senior Research Officer, Deakin University; Honorary Fellow, The University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
View from The Hill: Alan Jones v Scott Morrison on the question of how you feed a cow
The battle between Jones and Morrison came down to the repeated, and, for the seething Jones, existential question, 'How does that feed a cow?'ShutterstockThe last PM shock jock Alan Jones slapped dow...
Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
In contrast to Australia's success with hepatitis C, our response to hepatitis B is lagging
While hepatitis B can't be cured in the same way hepatitis C can, effective treatment is available.From shutterstock.comAround one-third of Australians living with hepatitis C have been cured in the l...
Benjamin Cowie, Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Australia is facing a looming cyber emergency, and we don't have the high-tech workforce to counter it
Nick Warner, the new director general of the Office of National Intelligence, has sounded the alarm about Australia's lack of preparedness to counter cyber-threats.Alan Porritt/AAPThis is part of a ne...
Greg Austin, Professor UNSW Canberra Cyber, UNSW
Comprehensive gun register part of next stage of firearms law reform post Christchurch shootings
New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern, police minister Stuart Nash (right) and the minister for Christchurch regeneration Megan Woods announcing stronger gun laws and the creation of a firearms registry.AAP...
Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato
Double counting of emissions cuts may undermine Paris climate deal
Ice floe adrift in Vincennes Bay in the Australian Antarctic Territory. There are fears efforts to combat global warming will be undermined by double counting of carbon credits.AAP/Torsten BlackwoodIn...
Frank Jotzo, Director, Centre for Climate and Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Gareth Evans: how to be a successful political leader
What are the attributes, self-belief apart, we should reasonably look for in choosing political leaders?AAP/Dean LewinsThis is an edited extract from a presentation to Leon Mann Leadership Forum, co-s...
Gareth Evans, Chancellor, Australian National University
Why the winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Economics matter for me
For most people the second week in October probably doesn’t hold much promise.Longer days for some, perhaps. But for those is us in the economics profession, come the second week of October we&r…
Andrew Yang's 'freedom dividend' echoes a 1930s basic income proposal that reshaped Social Security
Andrew Yang wants to give Americans $1,000 a month.AP Photo/Nati HarnikEntrepreneur and political novice Andrew Yang is hoping a wild gambit will help him win the Democratic presidential nomination: g…
China has form as a sports bully, but its full-court press on the NBA may backfire
It’s unlikely Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team, realised he’d be sparking an international diplomatic incident when, on October 4, he tweeted the followi…
Cash or credit monitoring? Choice leads to more just — and cheaper — legal settlements
How much is harm worth?Chan2545/Shutterstock.comIf you are among the approximately 147 million people affected by the Equifax data breach, you may be looking forward to your cut of the US$700 million …
Why 'woke' NBA is struggling to balance its values with Chinese expansion
China is the NBA's second-biggest market.AP Photo/Ng Han GuanIt’s not easy being a for-profit organization these days. Take the National Basketball Association. It found itself in a tricky situa…
Quantum dots that light up TVs could be used for brain research
Red quantum dots glow inside a rat brain cell.Nanoscale Advances, 2019, 1, 3424 - 3442, CC BY-NDWhile many people love colorful photos of landscapes, flowers or rainbows, some biomedical researchers t…
How the US census kickstarted America's computing industry
An employee creates punch cards using information from a filled in 1950 Census Population Form.U.S. Census BureauThe U.S. Constitution requires that a population count be conducted at the beginning of…
Sanctuaries protecting gun rights and the unborn challenge the legitimacy and role of federal law
The Waskom City Council passed a sanctuary city ordinance in June 2019.Screenshot, NBC6 StudioIn June 2019, the small Texas town of Waskom declared itself a “Sanctuary City for the Unborn.&rdquo…
If impeachment comes to the Senate – 5 questions answered
Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, the senate majority leader, has a lot of power.AP Photo/Timothy D. EasleyEditor’s note: If the House of Representatives concludes its impeachment inquiry by …
Why the winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Economics matter for me
For most people the second week in October probably doesn’t hold much promise.Longer days for some, perhaps. But for those is us in the economics profession, come the second week of October we&r…
Location, location, location: why up to two-thirds of property investors may get it wrong
How likely is it that where you happen to live will always outperform every other location?ShutterstockThe housing market is moving again. In the past month, national prices have climbed 0.9%.What mat…
The biggest hurdle for the Coalition's religious discrimination bill: how to define 'religion'
The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils says the bill doesn't go far enough to protect religious minorities in an increasingly intolerant society.Dan Himbrechts/AAPThe Coalition government&rsquo…
Changing the terminology to 'people with obesity' won't reduce stigma against fat people
Fat activists argue fat is the most appropriate word to describe their bodies.Yulia Grigoryeva/ShutterstockThe British Psychological Society is calling for changes for how we talk about fatness, sugge…
Snowy 2.0 will not produce nearly as much electricity as claimed. We must hit the pause button
Prime Minister Scott Morrison in front of the Tumut 3 power station at the Snowy Hydro Scheme. New analysis suggests the benefits of Snowy 2.0 have been overstated.AAPThe federal government’s mu…
Rail works lift property prices, pointing to value capture's potential to fund city infrastructure
Value capture has been advocated as an innovative way to fund infrastructure, including by the Australian government. However, its effectiveness in Australia has been questioned. Our research, based o…
Pope Francis and the Catholic church continue to look towards science, and that can only be a good thing
It’s not uncommon for science and religion to be framed as two opposing forces.The Catholic church has famously struggled to accommodate scientific research in its past, but recently there has b…
Guan Wei review: feng shui for a vision of a world in harmony
The Chinese-Australian artist Guan Wei is on display in a new exhibition at the MCA. The centre piece of the exhibition is the 18x6m mural Feng Shui (2004).Guan Wei, Feng Shui, 2004, acrylic on compos…
Who is Judge Dredd and why it matters that media invoke the cartoon character
The character of Judge Dredd was designed to be satirical, depicting the ultimate draconian cop.Supplied, CC BY-NDAccording to a recent study, the sixth leading cause of death for young men in the Uni…
Four questions about mortgages the ACCC inquiry should put to the big four banks
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission conducted an inquiry into mortgage pricing as recently as last year. Now Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has asked it to do another, broader one, in order …
'I wish you were murdered': some students don't know the difference between bullying and banter
Nearly half of kids in a study were harmed by their peers.from shutterstock.comMany Australian students don’t know the difference between banter and bullying, with some saying they joke about wi…
We need to count LGBTI communities in the next census – here's why
The ABS should include detailed questions about gender and sexuality in the 2021 Census. AAP/Brendon ThorneThere’s an old maxim: not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything tha…
Australia could see fewer cyclones, but more heat and fire risk in coming months
Northern Australia is likely to see fewer cyclones than usual this season, but hot, dry weather will increase the risk of fire and heatwaves across eastern and southern Australia.The Bureau of Meteoro…
Define the boundaries in new phase of Australia-China relationship: Wong
Shadow foreign minister Penny Wong says Australia needs to “define the boundaries” of its engagement with China now the relationship between the two countries is in a new phase.Focusing on…
There's no airport border 'crisis', only management failure of the Home Affairs department
In the past five years, more than 95,000 people who arrived by plane have lodged a claim for asylum in Australia, new statistics show. Labor’s Immigration Spokesperson, Senator Kristina Keneally…
Three charts on: why congestion charging is fairer than you might think
Peak-time drivers to the CBDs of Sydney and Melbourne typically earn much more than the average worker.Taras Vyshnya/ShutterstockCongestion charging should be introduced in Australia’s largest c…
Location, location, location: why up to two-thirds of property investors may get it wrong
How likely is it that where you happen to live will always outperform every other location?ShutterstockThe housing market is moving again. In the past month, national prices have climbed 0.9%.What mat…
Why we need to treat wildfire as a public health issue in California
Fires that affect populated areas raise different safety and public health issues than wildfires.AP Photo/Marcio Jose SanchezDeadly fires across California over the past several years have shown how w…
Presidential 'debates' aren't debates at all – they're joint press conferences
Democratic presidential contenders gather Tuesday evening in Ohio for the latest in a series of televised question-and-answer sessions in the lead-up to the 2020 primary season. These sessions are cal…
Blind people have increased opportunities, but employers’ perceptions are still a barrier
A woman walking with a white cane, which has become a symbol of independence for people who are blind. Akemaster/Shutterstock.comCommunities across the world observe White Cane Day on Oct. 15 to recog…