Michelle Grattan

A disaster waiting to happen

Opinion The legal danger in Labor's much-vaunted Malaysia solution should have been sniffed and better judgments made.

Lenore Taylor

Talk's cheap but manufacturers want solutions

Opinion POLITICIANS talk big about helping crisis-stricken manufacturers, but they can do relatively little, unless they are prepared to either contravene Australia's international trade obligations or spend a shed load of money.

Ross Gittins

Invest in children of knowledge revolution

Opinion It's annoying the way business people keep slipping the words ''going forward'' into almost every sentence and it was even worse when Julia Gillard kept repeating the slogan ''moving forward'' in the last election campaign. But I have to admit they've got the right idea: we do need to keep our minds focused on the future and what we need to do to secure it.

Comments 145

Paul Sheehan

The lack of real edge makes for a dull Razor

Opinion Sex, in the wrong hands, can be dull. Nakedness can be a bore. Even the combination of sex and violence can be tedious to watch. Which is why 800,000 Australians tuned out of the con job on Channel Nine known as Underbelly: Razor after the first week. It is not enough to parade scantily clad women and rugged men. There has to be an emotional connection. Razor doesn't deliver one.

Comments 111

Phillip Coorey

Gillard will feel the blow the most

Opinion THE High Court decision that put the Malaysia plan to the sword is especially damaging for Julia Gillard because she began the push for a regional solution to the people smuggling problem.

Geoff Gallop

Do our politicians disagree too much?

Opinion Adversarial politics: why the public isn't buying it.

Comments 23

Mike Carlton

Agog at latest card-carrying contortions

Opinion Success brings its own rewards. Here at the Mike Carlton column, we understand that your success demands a level of service and luxury beyond normal expectations.

Daniel Flitton

There are no winners, not even the asylum seekers

Opinion The relationship with Malaysia is in the toilet, the Gillard government looks foolish.

Cynthia Banham

For the whole truth about Hicks, look neither left nor right

Opinion It's terror season on television. With the 10th anniversary of September 11 upon us, we are being presented with a spectrum of viewpoints about that "epoch-changing" event.

Comments 80

Paul Austin

The figures point to electoral wilderness for Victorian Labor

Opinion The ALP has suffered a bad defeat but the worst might be yet to come.

Comments 35

Paola Totaro

Berlusconi finds his number is up

Opinion Italians shake off their legendary apathy to leave their leader on shaky ground.

Comments 9

Paul Daley

He who lives by the sword

Opinion IT SURE ain't pretty. In fact, it's ugly as hell. But boy, it's effective.

Andrew Darby

Whaling's knockout throw for Japan

Opinion It takes a lot of grunt to throw a sumo wrestler, but in the end what counts is that extra ounce.

Comments 47

Kenneth Davidson

Desalination plant's quality hard to swallow

Opinion Wonthaggi's boron levels would make the contract dead in the water.

Comments 33

Tim Colebatch

Do we need industry when we have a mining boom?

Opinion The drastic cuts at BlueScope Steel raise two key questions.

Comments 76

Melissa Fyfe

Memo Mr Baillieu: you're not in favour of discrimination

Opinion Victoria's premier has chosen an odd way to show off his progressive credentials, writes Melissa Fyfe.

Chris Berg

Forget compassion - our better angels aren't listening

Opinion Silly rhetoric means the refugee lobby is shooting itself in the foot.

Charles Waterstreet

Pure gold to the naked eye

Opinion IN A shrinking economy, one show that hasn't skimped on the costume budget is Miss Nude Sydney 2011.

Geoff Strong

To tap into tourism's money tree, let's take a leaf out of Kev's book

Opinion Imagine selling Australian-manufactured products to the Chinese.

Elizabeth Farrelly

Keeping quiet allows intolerance to thrive

Opinion I was shocked to attend my first bar mitzvah in Sydney's eastern suburbs and find the room formally segregated by gender, with potted monstera thicket between. Many of the Jewish women around me were also surprised but, finding the service mainly in Hebrew and directed male-wards, settled down with a collective shrug to chatter through till food time.

Comments 94

Richard Ackland

Plenty of activity, if not activism, coming from High Court justices

Opinion Will we start to hear the present High Court being denounced as ''activist''? After Wednesday's drowning of the ''Malaysian solution'', you'd think a fresh burst of ''j'accuse'' from the darker recesses of the commentariat or blogosphere can't be too far off.

Comments 82

Josh Gordon

Noble sentiments count for nothing if they're not backed up

Opinion If the electorate loses faith, the death knock isn't far away.

Comments 8

Tanveer Ahmed

We're all slaves to the market now

Opinion As markets plunged amid predictions of a financial crisis mark two, I had a rare moment of worry about my superannuation, even though I can't touch it for three decades.

Comments 28

Jason Koutsoukis

Jubilation fills the streets as the people get their wish

Opinion A PHONE call, a shout. In Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the Egyptian revolution, the news came bursting out of momentarily disbelieving mouths.

George Williams

While the guilt is not certain, the damage is beyond doubt

Opinion The only definite in the Thomson affair is that it will be a drawn-out one.

Richard Glover

Technology? Hah! Try finding buried treasure using your GPS

Opinion We're near Nowra, driving down the Princes Highway, when we see a sign to the right.

Gerard Henderson

Literary festivals and prizes champion politics over quality

Opinion Premiers come and premiers go. But premiers' literary prizes, like state government-funded writers' festivals, do not change much at all.

Comments 109

Peter Costello

Without a carbon tax, steel industry jobs might stand a chance

Opinion The high Australian dollar does not affect our mineral exporters, because their prices are booming in whatever currency you choose. But it makes life tough for manufacturing exporters - as shown by last week's decision by the steel manufacturer BlueScope to cut 1000 jobs and close a blast furnace.

Comments 132

Rick Feneley

Games guests can expect a monsoon wedding

Opinion Eight sleeps till the opening ceremony, so this is no time for us to gloat. We should focus, with humility, not on what distinguishes Australia from India but on the qualities we share.

Heath Aston

Ministers, your slips are showing

Opinion BARRY O'FARRELL should buy Craig Thomson a beer.

David Rood

Baillieu's singin' in the rain

Opinion Ted Baillieu shares an obsession with his predecessor as Premier, John Brumby — the weather. Both are (and were) known to keep a fastidious eye on the rain radars. And in his almost 10 months as Premier, Baillieu has been bloody lucky it has rained.

Comments 50

Leslie Cannold

Don't let disability scheme be yesterday's news

Opinion Just more than two weeks ago, the Australian government announced its commitment to introducing a National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Simon Mann

Massive boost for ailing Obama

Opinion Barack Obama's stunning late-night revelation that America had finally got its man makes for a profound moment in his presidency.

Comments 59

Heckler

A tip for Father's Day: give him a hug

Opinion DON'T you just hate being stereotyped? Father's Day is coming up and all of a sudden my letterbox is full of flyers and brochures for blokey stuff. Apparently, all dads want fancy new stainless-steel six-burner barbecues, cordless electric drills, GPS navigation, 50-inch LED LCD 1080 HD TVs and Top Gear DVDs.