Pholeros the fearless architect
Elizabeth Farrelly 9:00 PM We who are left should make PP’s big-heart small-ego heroism the stuff of legend. We should teach our kids his sustaining insight, that architecture is our dance with nature.
Latest Comment
For voters, elite is a dirty word
Paul Sheehan 11:15 PM Voter distrust towards the political class has become potent in the US, volatile in Europe and evident in Australia, where the electorate has dispatched ten major party leaders in just 12 years.
Asylum seekers on Nauru in a legal black hole
George Williams 3:52 PM All this means that Australia's treatment of asylum seekers by way of offshore processing will now raise few legal questions. Instead, it will be governed by the politics of the day.
GST hike is a solution in search of a problem
Peter Martin 12:00 AM We need a clear goal if the attempt to change the tax system is to succeed.
What we lose with the death of handwriting
William McKeith 9:28 PM There is much more to handwriting than that which meets the eye. There is a culture. A tradition. A way of thinking. Yes, it has a cost, but maybe that’s a cost that a mature society should be prepared to bear.
Geneva peace talks must have long-term goal
Joseph Camilleri 12:00 AM One thing is clear: both global and regional powers have much to answer for in the tragedy that is Syria.
Americans united by a single emotion: Anger
Nicole Hemmer 12:30 AM Candidates in the presidential race are not promising hope, they’re chasing mad-as-hell voters who feel the system is rigged against them.
View from the Street
Andrew P Street 7:22 PM Let's stop beating around the bush: how can hurting children be a sane and compassionate policy? Your news of the day, as a heartbroken rant.
Moral blight: kids paying for 'sins' of parents'
7:37 PM So Australia's offshore detention regime at Nauru and Manus Island is legal, the High Court has ruled. But is it moral?
FEBRUARY 4
Letters to the Editor
9:00 PM Paul Keating's sage advice is timely. Health and education, once the envy of other countries, have been so mismanaged by successive state governments that we are left with but a shell of what we had.
Column 8
9:00 PM "To answer Suzanne Wicks' 'Why paper bags?' query from the other day, in the US you cannot have nudity and sell alcohol in the same venue," we're told by Gerry Brooks, of Haberfield.
In the Herald: February 4, 1931
Stephanie Bull 12:00 AM Queries over the Sydney Harbour Bridge tramway and concerns over unrest in Darwin.
Raising the GST to 15% is fiscal folly
Paul Keating 1:42 AM If Australia goes down the path of increasing the GST to 15 per cent, it will be on the way to joining that collection of West European countries which are the highest taxed countries in the world.
Banks are using us to hedge their bets
Ross Gittins We only need a tiny part of the financial services industry – the rest is just speculation and it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.
Logic says Valizadeh shouldn't get a visa
Tim Wilson In the past few days there have been increasing calls on the Federal Government to block the so-called "neo-masculinist" from entering Australia.
Your table manners suck: I want a divorce
Alan Stokes If couples can't agree on never touching that cutlery until every single person at the table has been served, then no amount of sex, money or friendship will help.
Iowa sets scene for volatile presidential race
Andrew Hammond This year's race is only in its infancy and remains potentially very volatile as it heads into the New Hampshire primary on February 9.
Why we need to fight domestic terrorism
Jennie Hill This is why it's so important to speak out about groups like Return of Kings and Real Social Dynamics and others.
Let's take control of synthetic drugs
Matt Noffs Prohibiting recreational drugs hasn't worked, so it's time to try regulating them.
View from the Street
Andrew P Street Who's adorably pretending that they're bestest mates with Obama? Your news of the day, reduced to a snarky rant.
Voters deal Trump his first losing hand
Has Mr Trump simply scared off too many people to be a viable candidate against the badly shaken Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton?
Malaysia's reputation sinking in scandal
It's almost a year since Malaysia's highest court rejected former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against a dubious charge of sodomy to uphold his five year jail sentence.
FEBRUARY 3
Letters to the Editor
The government's moves to send babies to Nauru are part of a repugnant and cruel saga.
Column 8
"I can testify for Barry Riley's sake (in your column of February 1) that the great singular pronouns still survive in the North of England," writes Thomas Keneally, who knows a thing or two about words.
Previously in Comment
Highlights
Disgrace oddity - how I tried to help David Bowie
Thirty years ago the writer interviewed David Bowie - and blew it entirely.
15 of our best comment pieces of 2015
Highlights from the Herald's opinion pages in 2015 - our most-read, most-discussed, most-shared pieces (plus a few editors' favourites).
From the desk of our chief comment moderator
Fairfax Media's chief comment moderator Rob Ashton discusses the most-commented stories of the year, and offers advice for those who get rejected.
In defence of the hangover
The common or garden hangover is a terrible and wonderful thing, a device of startling ingenuity designed (one can only assume) by the bloodless Calvin himself.
Bystanders struggle to do the right thing
I boarded my flight from Paris, happy to be going home. Until I met the man in the seat next to mine.
Why New Year's Eve is the most hypocritical night
One of my starkest New Year's Eve memories comes from when I was at university in New Zealand. I was at a house of a friend of a friend, and in that house I saw a man demonstrating his talent at opening beer bottles using his mouth.
The Australian fair go is dead
Elizabeth Farrelly: Why are we OK with this? How did the fair go slip so seamlessly into tooth and claw? Or was it always thus?
Captain's speech doesn't represent the Ravenswood I know
Throughout my time at Ravenswood, I experienced an environment that encouraged hard work, equality of standing, humility, and gratitude – virtues that I believe are the very foundation of the school itself.
Where to now for a newly unseated PM
Peter Hartcher: The government may have moved on, but Tony Abbott is still adjusting to his new reality and coming to grips with life beyond the prime ministership.
Big karma hits big pharma
Paul Sheehan: When a venture capitalist bought the rights to a drug and increased its price by 5500 per cent, there was widespread outrage. Now comes corporate revenge against corporate evil.
Islamic State thrives as big boys squabble
Waleed Aly: Force will not wipe out Islamic State because it is a byproduct of a much bigger conflict that needs to be resolved first.
Why Turnbull will be our longest-serving PM
Elizabeth Farrelly: It is a relief to have a leader who uses intelligence to connect with us.
The only thing worse than having your family murdered
When Ann O'Neill woke up in hospital after her estranged husband had shot her and killed their two children, she wasn't prepared for the public response.
A photo diary of France's week of terror
For photographer Andrew Meares, a dinner in Berlin turned into a week of terror after attacks ripped through the heart of Paris.
Why I won't be changing my Facebook profile
I am a self-confessed Francophile. I speak French; have a degree in French; in my 20s I did the obligatory year as an au pair, in Limoges, working for the family of a famous French porcelain house.
Turning hateful tweets into a force for good
Susan Carland: Bombarded with hateful tweets from trolls, it was only natural that my response would be rooted in the fact that I am Muslim.
