Abbott and Co must make honest call on budget
MICHAEL GORDON 11:45pm Tony Abbott could do worse than take a leaf out of Julia Gillard's book.
Returning to the essence of Australian football
SHANE GREEN In recent weeks I have undergone something of a VFL conversion.
Why do we send our young to war?
MARTIN FLANAGAN Each year what disappoints me is the lack of critical thinking about sending young men off to war.
Power dressing, in a girlie kind of way
DANNY KATZ As a cheap-arsed, tight-wadded unfashionista, I'll take anybody's hand-me-downs.
Memo Abbott: if it keeps on waning, levy is going to break
WALEED ALY Tony Abbott is about to vanish in a puff of existential meaninglessness. Sorry if that sounds heavy, but it seems an inevitable consequence on budget night if he goes ahead with this debt levy proposal. “No new taxes,” he boomed in the throes of his anti-carbon tax blitz before adding ecstatically: “This is my whole reason for being in politics.”
Tony Abbott playing a longer game
MARK KENNY Opinion If Tony Abbott can come through the current budget session with his credibility still in tact, he believes he will have set course both economically and politically, for a sustained period of governing.
An audit of the present, a vision for the future
AMANDA VANSTONE Opinion A seminar on vertical fiscal imbalance is not something many of us would sign up for.
Why the numbers of our WWI dead are wrong
David Noonan New research shows Australia’s official casualty statistics are seriously distorted and must be revised immediately.
Politicians should and can do better
Rob Hulls The business of politics – and government, in particular – can be a messy one
Fat cats are advising us on the rich-poor gap
Mark Triffitt Ludicrously well-paid CEOs should not be telling us how to slash public spending.
Infrastructure: the new election battleground
JOSH GORDON The Coalition hopes to convince Victorian voters of its credibility on transport pledges.
Challenging Putin's values
Thomas Friedman The additional sanctions imposed on Russia by the US are justified, but they are unlikely to change the aggressive behavior of the Russians.
We have the power to curb domestic violence
Natasha Stott Despoja A woman is killed nearly every week in Australia by a male partner or ex-partner – often while she is trying to leave the relationship.
Wealth, inequality and the Picketty debate
MATT WADE In the age of Twitter, a 700-page book about wealth distribution is an odd pathway to celebrity.
Why we'll be friends with Indonesia again
JOHN GARNAUT China's naval push is forcing Canberra and Jakarta to put their political problems aside
Direct action: three big unanswered questions
Marcus Priest and Grant Parker Labor and Greens senators should focus on the effectiveness of the Emission Reductions Fund's safeguard mechanism.
It's just Joe Hockey starting class wars
John Legge There’s no financial crisis in Australia. The Treasurer is exaggerating the numbers.
Reconciling warfare shopping list with reality
HUGH WHITE Abbott wants us to believe there's a full piggy bank for defence, but there isn't.
Public in the dark on East West Link planning
Andrew Herington The road tunnel's planning is being treated as a state secret.
Reputations on the line in first budget
PETER REITH To do the job properly, the government's first budget will have to be unprecedented.
Why should men read books by women?
Louise Swinn If you value the opinion of the women in your life, then read books by women.
Our banks can't turn a blind eye to money trail
Helen Szoke Australia's big four banks have a duty of care to the community, whether in Australia or overseas.
Facing the very heart of life and death
AMANDA VANSTONE Make healthcare directives mandatory and readily available to hospital staff.
No risk, so let's drop the desal charade
KENNETH DAVIDSON Why are we paying millions to honour a contract that would cost less to break?
Napthine needs more than gloss and spin
FARRAH TOMAZIN Get ready for a policy document: big on slogans, heavy on rhetoric and laden with action photos.
Disabled children must be treated with dignity
Stephanie Gotlib I am concerned that there is a misconception that the battle has been won.
The things we stand for when we walk on by
Suzy Freeman-Greene A Friday night in town, just after nine. Lights twinkling, tram bells dinging, shop windows blinging, when everything turned bad.
Tale of tunneler highlights a terrible war
MARTIN FLANAGAN The statue, of a youth blindfolded and tied to a pole, was erected in 2001 at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
Blessed with remote control karma
DANNY KATZ If you're looking to invest in a high-tech boom industry, I highly recommend the little phone-fixing shop round the corner from my place.
Was Australia's 'birth' at Gallipoli?
John Hirst The first Anzac Day passed unremarked in Australia. Australians did not receive a good account of the Gallipoli landing until two weeks later when they read a report in their morning newspapers.
Clive Palmer's jive seals his party's fate
MARK KENNY Opinion Parties built around a strong individual rarely succeed and never last.
Not the only war to define Australian warfare
Gary Foley I am always deeply concerned each Anzac Day about the way in which Gallipoli has become so politicised in the evolving memory of so many Australians.
Maybe we don't need racial vilification laws
GAY ALCORN Keating's race hate reforms went too far in 1995. Brandis' amendments are just as bad.
The republic cause is receding
Nicholas Reece With the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge winding up their trip to our southern land it is time for a bit of straight talk amongst we Australians.
Time to honour sacrifices on Western Front
Jonathan King The focus on Gallipoli overshadows the remembrance of other lives.
We should shoot horses to save alpine regions
Bruce Jacobs Part of our precious land is being trampled under hoof. It must be stopped.
ALP reform must also tackle branch stacking
Geoff Lake Bill Shorten's push for internal Labor Party reform is both a welcome and a significant development. However, it needs to be the start of a reform conversation and not the end.
Indian election: Hidden wife is a good wife
Amrit Dhillon Indian culture has brainwashed women into thinking oppressing women is acceptable.
18C amendments are stupid or shameful
Jonathan Holmes If amendments to 18C are passed, it will only prohibit vilification and intimidation: nothing else.
Abbott's biggest broken promise
PETER MARTIN Expect an avalanche of broken promises in the first Abbott budget four weeks from today, none of them as important as the promise he has just broken.
Anzac Day: how the media should cover it
Sharon Mascall-Dare As the Anzac centenary approaches, the media faces significant challenges in how the coverage should be managed.
Filling a gap, a new nanny state at $5 an hour
Maria Platt Migrant domestic workers: is that the answer for Australia or is it exploitation?
Ferry disaster questions Korea's future
Silvia Kwon A closer look at this high-tech nation's relentless search for growth would be revealing.
Republican movement lacks political vision
GEORGE WILLIAMS This year is shaping up as an annus horribilis for Australia’s republicans. They have had to contend with Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s reintroduction of Knights and Dames, and now a highly successful visit by the royal family’s new glamour couple.
Ukrainian villagers dream to the West
Nicholas Kristof To understand why Ukrainians are risking war to try to pluck themselves from Moscow’s grip, I came to the village where my father grew up.
Children's complaints should be heard
Paula Gerber and Melissa Castan Australia is a glaring absence from a human rights process to protect our young.
A journey from trauma to recovery
Lawrence Harmon Opinion The Boston Marathon is a road of healing for all touched by the horror of terrorism.
Our own 'real housewives'? We deserve better
Wendy Squires Good citizens of Melbourne, you deserve an apology. For you have been defamed and disparaged in the most grotesque and undignified manner.
When a policy turns to cruelty
Jacob Varghese Australians know the Government's approach to asylum seekers is tough. But having just returned from a visit to Christmas Island, it is clear to me this policy goes way beyond tough: it is cruel.
The smaller the gift, the larger the fallout
PETER MARTIN The shocking thing about the gifts and favours uncovered by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is that they are small.
Spying misses intelligence quotient
DANIEL FLITTON Bob Carr's diary has made for plenty of public sport, thanks to Carr’s eccentric obsessions. But his comments on intelligence are substantive and deserve attention.
These bugs do not compute
Michael Hanlon The trouble with letting wizards run things is that when things go wrong we are at their mercy.
The real price of stopping the boats
MICHAEL GORDON The boats have stopped coming but at some point there will be a reckoning on the price that's been paid.
Getting to know Jesus as a man
MARTIN FLANAGAN Good Friday is about the universal heart, how it is endlessly injured, how it triumphs because it never stops.
It was the last supper, but who was to know?
DANNY KATZ Easter and Jewish Passover always happen at the same time of year for a very good reason.
Hockey's new trick: cutting is really spending
MARK KENNY Opinion As the storm clouds gathered in 2008, Labor was told to spend the lot.
The slow-motion desecration of politics
WALEED ALY Perhaps the most telling aspect of the now infamous thank-you note that ended Barry O’Farrell’s premiership this week is that it was sent so soon after his bone-crushing election victory.
Funding, it's not rocket science
Suzanne Cory If I had to name one of the big political heroes of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the first to come to mind would be Sir Robert Menzies.
The gap between political slogan and reality
JOSH GORDON A couple of days ago Denis Napthine addressed a gathering of Liberal party faithful flanked by two large banners.
Working mothers: they should not feel guilt
Bryony Gordon I tell people that I have just come back to work after a year on maternity leave.
Putin's shadow Ukraine invasion
David Blair What is really going on in the mind of Vladimir Putin in relation to Ukraine? This is seizing control of the region by subtle coercion.
The pressures on the justice system
Liz Richardson and Liz Porter The old joke about the man who represents himself having a fool for a client was never very funny.
Rise of the machines
ROSS GITTINS Many of our worries about the economy are misplaced, or based on out-of-date facts.
Australia's security can't be subdivided
HUGH WHITE Defence Minister David Johnston must tackle the big questions to solve the submarine crisis, and the nation's security.
Why our pension scheme is too generous
PETER MARTIN Sorry pensioners, but the scheme needs a thorough overhaul.
Anyone for Hockey? Not this future pensioner
Diana Elliott Gen Exers face an uncertain future as the Treasurer hints at lifting the retirement age.
Beware stings in tail of free trade agreements
Sharon Beder Corporations have widened the scope of agreements far beyond their original purpose. A push for the free flow of labour could be next.
Trust is of the essence in politics
AMANDA VANSTONE Former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr has made a bad mistake with his blabbing.
Shunted back to the past on 'high-speed' rail
Sian Watkins Nearly 160 years after rail services were introduced, it still takes 14 hours to travel between our two biggest cities.
There's no way I'm swearing off cussing
Sammy J McMillan Our land is girt by profanity but any word can offend.
Today's Editorials and Letters
The budget debate we really need to have
The Age This newspaper broadly welcomed the commission's view that the health, education and welfare systems require an overhaul.
Health 'solution' will cost more, long-term
MAY 3 There is a wealth of evidence that preventive health is more cost effective than treating.
Editors' picks
Joe Hockey's budget will hurt your hip pocket
If you think you're having trouble with the cost of living, wait until you see what the politicians have in store for you, writes ROSS GITTINS
Brandis' race hate laws are whiter than white
Unspoken at the heart of the race hate debate is a contest over the way race relations works in Australia - and on whose terms.
Only departmental secretaries can save the Australian Public Service
Ministerial decisions are often made without departmental input. That has to stop, writes DON RUSSELL
In this agony of a lost plane, hope still rules
The baffling story of the vanished airline flight MH370 has focused the world's attention like no other, writes BORIS JOHNSON
Coalition finds ideology, but does it have a vision?
The government has woven a narrative around its decisions. But Labor's lack of ideological zeal means it has no smart come-back, writes WALEED ALY
Dancing on the glass ceiling on International Women's Day
Today is International Women's Day. A year ago, on this day, we had a female prime minister and three women in cabinet.
Excess in the Anzac centenary
Beyond the crass commercialisation, this extravaganza perpetuates a myth that undercuts the work of modern soldiers, writes JAMES BROWN.
