Budget Projected To Blow Out By $26.1 Billion Over Four Years
ASSOCIATED PRESS
View mobile site
David Rowe/Fairfax Media 
John Abbate via Getty Images
It's high time for Federal and State Governments to take action to deliver housing market outcomes that actually house people. The combined annual cost (or national loss) of the capital gains tax concession and negative gearing is around $7 billion. This in itself should drive pressure for reform.
Andrei Spirache via Getty Images
The Counting Dead Women campaign is an admirable, desperate effort by an inspirational group of people to highlight the savagery that widely exists behind closed doors in our community. Yet my mother, and thousands like her over the years, will not be counted among the 78.
Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images
Mental illness is the greatest threat among the non-communicable diseases to the Australian and global economies over the next 20 years.
The Heart Foundation
Ticks and Stars are perceived as "rewards" and people interpret them as being "healthy". Why not just get rid of this system altogether? It detracts from the real message, which is that people should be eating whole, fresh, unprocessed foods.
I know that when Christmas comes I will be brave, and the actual day will be much better than the build-up. We're going to spend it with my parents, my sister and her family and there will be so many happy kids around I know I'll find it hard to feel too sad - or even have the time! But on Christmas Day I'll be thinking of Rog, wherever his soul may be, and sending him all the love in the world.
20th Century Fox
So 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' will be released in the coming days and the world has lost its collective mind. Except for me.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
I'm glad we've begun to raise our daughters more like our sons -- but it will never work until we raise our sons more like our daughters.
OJO Images via Getty Images
If, as Prime Minister Turnbull believes, there's never been a more exciting time to be an Australian, we must embrace the responsibility to play our part in reducing global poverty and building prosperity. Not just as a good global player but also as one that realises what it takes to keep Australia strong.
Chesnot via Getty Images
One cannot understate the importance of the agreement arrived at in Paris. For the first time, world leaders have faced up to the stark warnings that climate scientists have been issuing for years, instead of shrinking away with denial and delay. And while the commitments made in Paris aren't on their own enough to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at safe levels, they are enough to begin bending the emissions curve towards a safe climate. Paris is a beginning of a process.
Cassie Trotter/Getty Images
By sharing information about key threats and tools for addressing those threats we can take a practical, cooperative approach. That will help us minimise the impacts of chronic stresses and deal with shocks when they come.
McMillan Digital Art via Getty Images
For those who say biting is disgusting (admittedly true) -- how is it any more disgusting than all that crap that collects under your nails when you have them long? I tried to do some gardening the other week and by the end my hands looked like I had clawed myself out of a grave.
Antonio_Diaz via Getty Images
1) "Aren't you worried she'll sleep with your husband?"
NO. I like to think my life choices include a future husband who doesn't sleep with...
Tony Feder/Getty Images
A-League fans are not just a voice on the terraces anymore. As they executed their boycott of matches last weekend, the general consensus was that...
Stu Spence
This week's three photions include the end of The Enlightenment, David Attenborough's new doco about outdoor furniture, and why age -- and picket fences -- are no barrier.
One of the first things I discovered was that my own country, the USA, are actually the current Olympic rugby champions, having won gold at the 15-a-side game in 1924, beating hosts France.
At the medal ceremony, The Star Spangled Banner was apparently drowned out by the booing and hissing of French fans, and the American team had to be escorted to their locker room under police protection. I'm pleased to say that things have changed a bit since then and the atmosphere that greeted me at the Dubai tournament is one of the things I'll certainly take away with me.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
In an age of mollycoddling, I think it helps kids to feel challenging, difficult emotions from time to time. Vary things up a little. Give them an emotional roller coaster to ride. It might just prepare them for a phase of life called adulthood.
J Pat Carter via Getty Images
MEXICO CITY -- Maybe the reason why we Mexicans find ourselves so comfortable among the dead is precisely because as a nation we hold nothing dear, not even life.
BEN STANSALL via Getty Images
The majority of Australia's constitutional framers believed that representative and responsible government would suffice to protect our rights (at least, if you were white). This is a proven myth, but one perpetuated today by Australia's answers to persistent international criticism over our failure to implement a bill of rights.
