HSC trends hark back to gender stereotypes of '50s

AMY MCNEILAGE Looking at trends in this year's HSC results, one could be forgiven for thinking the results were from the 1950s.

ATAR results: two years' hard work adds up to relative mystery

AMY MCNEILAGE Almost 55,000 of the state's school leavers will find out their ATAR on Thursday. But it is doubtful many, if any, will truly understand the intricacies of how it was calculated.

One year after Sandy Hook, Americans still up in arms

NICK O'MALLEY One year after the Sandy Hook massacre, America is still fiercely divided over its gun laws.

Automotive

Holden: Numbers tell the story for the small fry of General Motors' ecosystem

MARK HAWTHORNE The story of Holden and its demise needs to be viewed through a global lens if it's to be fully understood.

Sandy Hook massacre: Gun lobby targets Australia

NICK O'MALLEY Australia has again become a focus of the increasingly bitter debate over gun control in the United States.

Maths tutoring adds up for students: OECD study

AMY MCNEILAGE Many of the world's most mathematically gifted teenagers come from countries with the most lucrative tutoring industries.

University degrees worth billions to Australian wellbeing

MATT WADE Sitting through lectures and tutorials may be worth more than you think: the wellbeing value of a university degree is nearly $1 million.

Wasted decade as indigenous health fails to show improvement

INGA TING Indigenous health has not improved at all in many areas of Australia over the past decade, data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed.

Court verdicts: More found innocent if no jury involved

Michaela Whitbourn The man accused of murdering his fiancee by throwing her off the balcony of their Hyde Park apartment may have improved his chances of being found innocent by being tried without a jury.

COAG report: girls ahead at school but women lag in pay stakes

JOSEPHINE TOVEY It is the "baffling contrast" in gender equality in Australia: girls generally outperform boys at school, and are more likely to hold a bachelor degree, but men continue to earn more than women in the workplace and overwhelmingly dominate leadership roles.

Our national journey to prosperity

MATT WADE Statistics charting progress across Australian election years tell an interesting story, writes Matt Wade

Alarm over child drinking, multiple liquor outlets

AMY CORDEROY Children as young as 12 who live in areas saturated with liquor outlets are more likely to drink than their peers, researchers say.

Melbourne top for avoidable hospital visits

Dan Harrison Melburnians are being admitted to hospital at the highest rates in the nation for conditions that should not need hospital treatment.

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How Australia eats: The ultimate pie chart

INGA TING We've never been more preoccupied with what, where and how to eat, so why are we fatter than ever and less capable of preparing food for ourselves? Here are the facts and figures.

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Home truths

MATT WADE As Sydney house prices break records, economists warn that $1 million suburbs are the new normal.

200 schools worse off in new scheme

JOSEPHINE TOVEY More than 200 public schools in NSW, many in low socio-economic areas, will receive less funding next year under the new Gonski-inspired model, despite an overall $100 million boost to the sector.

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HIV increase at a 20-year high

AMY CORDEROY Australia has had the biggest jump in new HIV cases in two decades, leading experts to call for urgent action to tackle the disease.

UK

If London's still calling, young Aussies have stopped listening

NICK MILLER The British capital is losing some of its allure.

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Food shortage means thousands go hungry as data shows shift in needy

ESTHER HAN Charities are turning away more than 10,000 people seeking food parcels and free meals every month in NSW - nearly half the hungry mouths being children - because of depleted food stocks, a national report shows.

AFL

How your club fared in the free agency and trade period

Compiled by Emma Quayle and Michael Gleeson It has taken three weeks but the AFL free agency and trade period has finally ended. Emma Quayle and Michael Gleeson examine which clubs 'won' and which didn't.

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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.

Pharmacies next target of big two, say analysts

SARAH WHYTE The growing empires of Australia's two big supermarkets have been branded an international oddity amid a prediction pharmacies may be their next conquest.

Property

How to spot a housing bubble

GLENDA KWEK There's no doubt house prices are high - but are we already in bubble territory? Here's a checklist.

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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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2013 Federal Budget interactive

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

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.

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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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.

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.

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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Tornadoes in Australia

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

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.

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.

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.