Geography loses as HSC students map their futures

AMY MCNEILAGE HSC students are increasingly choosing subjects such as legal studies and construction with their eye on a future job, at the expense of languages and complex maths subjects.

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Suicide link to ADHD drug

Amy Corderoy A nine-year-old boy has killed himself and two other children have attempted suicide while taking a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, federal drug authorities have said.

Broncos top of the league teams

MICHAEL CARAYANNIS Brisbane Broncos are officially the most successful team in rugby league history.

Generation EEO

RACHEL BROWNE Our federal cabinet might have only one woman but since the 1980s equal employment opportunity has been in place. We look at women who have moved to the top of their professions on this 'level' playing field.

Rudd saved Labor, leaked polling shows

Jonathan Swan, Bianca Hall, Rick Feneley Labor would have been reduced to a parliamentary rump had it not replaced Julia Gillard with Kevin Rudd as prime minister, according to leaked internal polling.

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Few women, lots of private school Catholics

Matt Wade The lopsided gender balance of Tony Abbott's cabinet has caused a stir. But how does it compare with the Australian population on other major demographic characteristics such as age, religion, schooling and occupation?

Comment

Sorry kids, to be honest, we're not a charity

DANIEL FLITTON Opinion Australia needs to make sure it spends wisely when it helps overseas.

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Washington massacre: Don't expect gun reform

NICK O'MALLEY Early on Monday afternoon in the US most of the nation was gripped by the notion that while one gunman was "down" in the DC Navy Yard others might be on the lose. That suggested the mass shooting may have been a terrorist attack.

Gen Y makes a sharp turn away from driving

Jacob Saulwick, Conrad Walters Sydney's 20-somethings are fast ditching their cars for public transport, previously unpublished figures show, revealing the trend is widespread in the city.

Wine no longer enough, buyers want the backstory

ESTHER HAN When it comes to exports, South Australia's Barossa reigns supreme over every other wine region in Australia. Last financial year alone, it splashed the world with 12 million litres worth $110 million.

State schools raise $329m to lift income

Craig Butt and Benjamin Preiss There is no such thing as a free lunch; or a free education.

Teen drinking falls but concern over risk takers

AMY CORDEROY The number of schoolchildren drinking alcohol has fallen dramatically over the past 30 years, a large study of NSW students has found.

Fine words but childcare still overcrowded

Cosima Marriner, Craig Butt One-third of Sydney childcare centres have no vacancies, forcing some parents to wait nearly two years for a place, with neither Labor nor the Coalition outlining a solution to the childcare crisis experts say is hampering women's workforce participation.

Education

Australia the world's most expensive place for overseas students

GLENDA KWEK Australia is the most expensive country for international students, ahead of the US and UK, but the falling currency and improved visa processes could soon seen a resurgence in numbers.

George St takes city's dining crown off Surry Hills

Ardyn Bernoth Where is Sydney's hottest, most happening eat street? If you thought Crown Street, Surry Hills, think again. The city's George Street takes the crown as Sydney's star culinary strip. And the CBD is our dining epicentre.

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'I've never seen anything like it': theft rates drop

EMMA PARTRIDGE Less heroin use, a booming economy and tougher policing have led to a 59 per cent drop in robberies across NSW in the past decade, new figures show.

Crackdown for payment adds to effect of rising bills

Julie Power Energy companies are cracking down on people who can't pay their power bills, as experts warn ''energy poverty'' is intensifying.

A change in diversity at James Ruse

JOSEPHINE TOVEY The number of students from non-English speaking backgrounds gaining admission to Sydney's top selective high school has fallen significantly in the past two years.

Urban sprawl eats into Sydney's farmland

ESTHER HAN Despite his family growing peaches and lemons on the fringes of Sydney for nearly 50 years, Warren Rowles says the farming tradition will end with him.

Canine aggression rises as funding bitten

Tim Barlass The number of dog attacks on people in NSW has increased threefold since 2007 but funding for companion animal issues has been cut in the latest budget.

Rental affordability plunges in south-east

Craig Butt Big drop in affordable rental properties for traditionally low-cost areas of Melbourne's south-east.

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A tale of two rail lines

Adam Carey, Craig Butt Two rail lines diverge in Altona North; some take the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.

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Ratepayers hit with 5% rise

Aisha Dow and Craig Butt Every Victorian ratepayer will have to find more this year - an average of $76 per household.

Tram squeeze eases but some still suffer

Adam Carey and Craig Butt Overcrowding on peak-hour trams has eased in the past year but remains a stubborn problem on a number of Melbourne routes.

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Book review

A pioneer retraces the data trail

CONRAD WALTERS When The Guardian marked its centenary, its editor penned an essay that declared "comment is free, but facts are sacred".

At a glance: NSW budget 2013

The main points from this year's New South Wales state budget, delivered by Treasurer Mike Baird.

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Gonski reforms: what your school will get?

Jewel Topsfield, Craig Butt and Henrietta Cook Every one of Victoria's 1522 state schools would receive funding increases over the next six years 'if the state signs up to the Gonski reforms'.

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Hospital over budget, close to capacity

AMY CORDEROY Doctors at one of Sydney's top hospitals say emergency and resuscitation beds that are desperately needed for patient care are lying dormant because of funding shortfalls.

Mental illness costing $190b a year

MATT WADE The cost of mental illness to Australia's collective wellbeing has reached $190 billion a year - equivalent to about 12 per cent of the economy's annual output.

The landscape composed of bits and bytes

CONRAD WALTERS In Code Land, California, where artist and computer scientist Jonathan Harris spends much of his time, 10,000 daisies can sway in unison and birds with identical plumage can soar across the sky in parallel lines. But it would be awfully boring.

GovHack

It's a date, for tinkering with official data

Craig Butt Welcome to GovHack, a nation-wide carnival of innovation that drew people to work with public government data.

Cycle data riding high on reader feedback

Marc Moncrief and Craig Butt He was half-naked, his body was broken and Michael Walker could not remember a thing.

GovHack 2013 gets underway

Craig Butt Hundreds of computer tinkerers, journalists, techno-boffins and curious others are gathering in cities across the country to point their skills at government data.

Comments

Would you like extra germs with that?

See if your favourite restaurant is on the state's name and shame list.

Family violence drives up crime rate

Nino Bucci, Craig Butt and Jared Lynch Family violence has again been used to explain a leap in the state's crime rate.

Immunisation rates trail poorer countries

RACHEL BROWNE Australian immunisation rates are lower than those of many developing countries including Rwanda, Eritrea and Bangladesh, according to a global report.

Cyclists' years of living dangerously

Craig Butt and Aisha Dow Serious injuries among middle-aged cyclists have almost tripled in Victoria since 2000, analysis of Transport Accident Commission data shows.

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Cyclists get warning on danger spots

Marc Moncrief and Aisha Dow Researchers have identified the five areas in Melbourne where cyclists are most likely to be killed or seriously injured.

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Our map shows where tornadoes have pummelled the US in the years between 2000 and 2012. Courtesy of the Border Mail.

Playing to the crowd puts kids in the picture

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Teacher Tim Creighton had a simple goal: raise a few hundred dollars to buy some camera equipment for his students.

2013 Federal Budget interactive

Explore this year's federal budget to see where the money comes from and goes to.

May the surplus be with you

CONRAD WALTERS It might look like Star Wars made on a budget of $7.39, but this video compresses weeks of work into just over three minutes.

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Abbott parental leave to be among world's best

STEPHANIE PEATLING The Coalition's paid parental leave would be among the most generous in the world both in its length and the amount it paid to parents.

Thirsty paddocks slip into drought again

Damien Murphy Out west of the Great Dividing Range they say if your name begins with "Mc" you never fall down.

At home with numbers

CONRAD WALTERS Surely, Excel must have a formula to calculate who does the most dinner dishes. Or takes out the trash the most frequently, while it's raining, in winter, when children are bellowing.

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Where there's smoke there's China

Tom Arup China, which emits one-quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, is about to embark on a massive and ambitious experiment in emissions trading.

Denis Napthine's road rules

Josh Gordon, Richard Willingham and Henrietta Cook Despite recent road disasters in Sydney and Brisbane, Victorian Treasurer Michael O'Brien says he's confident of private-sector interest to invest in Melbourne's east-west road tunnel.

Road to riches paved with good incisions

MATT WADE How many surgeons does it take to earn a billion dollars? Surprisingly few, according to the latest tax figures.

Catalogue of complaints keeps being delivered

SAFFRON HOWDEN Gone are the days of the pitter patter of little feet rushing to the sound of the postman delivering the mail.

Fake followers boost politicians' popularity

Craig Butt and Thomas Hounslow The Twitter accounts of Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd and other prominent politicians are being targeted by ''spam bots'', dramatically inflating their follower numbers.

One day on the Western Front

Tim Barlass An extract from the diary of Aubrey Wiltshire, a bank officer from Melbourne who served with the 22nd Battalion, D Company, AIF. Wiltshire was 24 years old when he boarded HMAT Ulysses on May 10, 1915.

Rethink on healthcare for elderly

Hannah Fairfield Alzheimer's disease, high blood pressure and heart disease are the three most common chronic conditions among residents of assisted living facilities, according to a new US government study.

NSW winning crime fight

ILYA GRIDNEFF NSW is safer than it has been for nearly two decades and crime statistics show Sydney is a city where victims are more likely to be robbed than attacked.

Inner suburban classrooms bulging

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Primary schools in Sydney's inner and northern suburbs are undergoing an explosion in enrolments, with some schools growing more than 200 per cent in the number of students in just five years.

City roads crowded with solo drivers

Jason Dowling and Adam Carey More people are driving solo in Melbourne's choked peak-hour traffic, with thousands of motorists being fined every year for driving in bus or transit lanes.

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School body claims funds cut

Jewel Topsfield and Craig Butt Almost 20 per cent of Victorian independent schools - including low-fee schools in struggling areas - would lose money next year under the Commonwealth's funding reforms, according to Independent Schools Victoria.

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Gentrification masks areas of need

Craig Butt, Daniella Miletic Emily Wright owns a cafe in Northcote, and has noticed a big change in the area's demography in the last three years.

Criminals taking root in growth areas

Craig Butt About 35 kilometres separate Ardeer and Warrandyte, and the two postcodes could not be any further apart when it comes to crime.

Survey plots where the true battlers live

MATT WADE Ku-ring-gai on Sydney's north shore has been ranked the second most advantaged neighbourhood in Australia by the Bureau of Statistics. But in a sign of how the mining boom is reshaping Australia, Perth now has four of the nation's five most socio-economically advantaged council areas.

Neighbours separated by more than a road

Craig Butt Just crossing the street can mean the difference between hardship and prosperity in one neighbourhood in Melbourne's south-east.

Victoria's most disadvantaged suburbs

Marc Moncrief Neighbouring neighbourhoods Broadmeadows and Dallas among Victoria's most disadvantaged towns according to latest Census release.

Strive

Boardroom blitz aids the needy

Larissa Ham Meet the Australian corporates who are giving up the big bucks to perform charity work overseas.

Tornadoes in Australia

See every Australian tornado visualised in this marvelous interactive feature by our colleagues at the Border Mail.

Thailand and Greece tragic for travellers

Deborah Snow More than 100 Australians died in Thailand last year and 60 in Greece, making these two countries - for different reasons - among the places where Australians are most likely to meet their end while travelling abroad.

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Revenue

AFL leaves other codes in the dust

GLENDA KWEK The AFL is the biggest money spinner among the football codes, raking in three times the revenue of the NRL, four times that of the A-League and six times that of rugby union, a private report says.

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Hard road ahead for ministers

MICHAEL GORDON Opinion Rather than call Rudd's supporters in cabinet one by one, Gillard has put the onus on them.

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Wasted Lives: Queensland's drugs battle

Marissa Calligeros and Danielle Cronin The increasing threat posed by synthetic drugs readily available online or in stores as "legal highs" and the rise of social drug users are causing serious concern among those at the pointy end of Queensland's drug battle.

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Wasted Lives: the lucrative, illicit trade

MARISSA CALLIGEROS On a sunny Tuesday morning last November, a cargo ship from Vietnam arrived in Brisbane.

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Gambling

Crown flies in the big spenders

Ben Butler and Craig Butt Crown has started flying its three luxury jets to emerging Asian economies including Thailand and Cambodia as it trawls the region for high-rollers, an analysis of flight data reveals.

Summer a scorcher but a soggy autumn

PETER HANNAM The December-February stretch broke records for heat, with the nation's average maximum of 35.7 degrees beating the record set 30 years ago.

Women voters turning from Gillard

JONATHAN SWAN Julia Gillard's campaign to portray Tony Abbott as a misogynist falls flat in western Sydney, according to a new Fairfax poll.

10,000 more waiting for surgery under Baillieu

Kate Hagan Victoria's elective surgery waiting list has grown by more than 10,000 patients under the government of Premier Ted Baillieu.

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Cyber security

US steps up efforts to protect its trade secrets

Ellen Nakashima The Obama administration warned on Wednesday it would launch new efforts to persuade China and other countries to halt the theft of billions of dollars' worth of US trade secrets.

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Water wise, dollar dumb

Nicole Hasham Sydney Water has abandoned a decade-long push for Sydneysiders to cut their usage because pursuing more efficiencies would drive up bills.

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Coal seam gas buffer zones alarm the miners

Ben Cubby, Sean Nicholls The NSW government's new coal seam gas restrictions have hit projects valued in the billions of dollars.

Voter support for Gillard and Labor plunges

MARK KENNY Support for Julia Gillard and her government has slumped, wiping out most of the gains made since the carbon tax was introduced last year and raising the chances that she could be replaced by Kevin Rudd.

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Private fees mount as education costs soar

Jewel Topsfield, Craig Butt and Lara O'Toole A parent whose child is born this year faces half a million dollars in school costs if they pick an independent school in Melbourne from pre-school to year 12.

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City sizzles in record heat

Ilya Gridneff, Tom Arup, Jacob Saulwick Sydney endured its hottest ever day on Friday, with records smashed across the city and thousands of people suffering from the heat.

Teacher entry ranking tumbles

Benjamin Preiss and Craig Butt Entry rankings to study teaching at Victorian universities have fallen again, calling into question the federal government's aim of attracting top-performing students to the profession.

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Food health claims face new scrutiny

AMY CORDEROY Nearly a third of all health claims on food sold in NSW supermarkets will have to be removed under laws to be introduced from Friday, research has found.

Universities battle for the brainy

Josephine Tovey, Amy McNeilage A Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronic) (Space) at the University of Sydney had the highest Australian Tertiary Admission Rank cut-off of any of the degrees in the main round of offers.

Anxious wait ends as tertiary offers abound

Benjamin Preiss The wait is over for thousands of young Victorians who find out this afternoon if they have been accepted into university or TAFE.

Massive fires dwarf nations

Bevan Shields The Coonabarabran fire in South Australia is bigger than about 75 different countries, including Luxembourg, Samoa and Singapore. Compare its size to your home town on our interactive map.

Oodnadatta heat beats the hot Plates

RACHEL OLDING Halfway along a dirt road between Coober Pedy and the Simpson Desert, a little sea of shimmering corrugated iron roofs marks the hottest place in Australia.

Job vacancies plunge as confidence slides

Peter Martin Australia's supply of vacant jobs is dwindling, making it harder to find work than it has been in years.

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City's poor get sick, the rich get drunk

AMY CORDEROY Behind the healthy and wealthy facade of the northern beaches lies a secret problem: alcohol.

Economy takes toll on land values

Brian Robins The fallout from the weak global economy has forced down residential land values in Sydney for the first time in six years.

Sharks: facts and fiction

Karen Thorne Bondi Beach cleared, shark sightings forcing swimmers out of Manly's surf, a lifeguard knocked off his board at Dee Why – Sydneysiders heading to the beach could be excused for feeling under threat.

Greens claim $2b will fix Newstart poverty

Bianca Hall Is $2 billion a year too much to help Australia's most impoverished people?

Newstart: where the money goes

CLANCY YEATES People in the prime of their working lives make up the largest share of those on unemployment benefits, a trend unions and social services groups say reflects greater insecurities at work.