Our national shame

Mick Gooda and Jackie Huggins   Institutional racism in the health sector continues to be a major barrier to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people seeking medical assistance.

Comments 22

Sydney is too expensive to take a risk

Dom Knight   Who can blame today's young people for choosing a nice, safe bank job in expensive, uncertain Sydney?

Lonely mission ahead for US's deputy sheriff

Hannah Bretherton   Australia should follow Britain, Canada and New Zealand in its approach to China, not join the "containment" camp led by the US.

Comments 7

Turnbull's first budget will be great, seriously

Peter Martin   The Prime Minister is prepared to make the most of unusually low interest rates by spending up big on projects that will pay dividends.

Turnbull government's next tax target

Alex Malley   Your right to claim full work-related expenses in your year-end tax return could be at stake.

Give young a chance and they will astonish

Karen Skinner   We need to let young people empower themselves and engage, but the political system locks them out or disengages them.

Comments 1

The challenge facing some Chinese learners

Rachel Hibbert   Australian students don't study Chinese in large numbers, but this is not due to laziness as Jane Orton suggests.

Comments 54

View from the Street

Andrew P Street   That no-jab-no-pay thing might not be the best idea ever. Your news of the day, reduced to a snarky rant.

Comments 5

Impressesive on policy but union doubts linger

Barring future bungles, Bill Shorten presents today as a far more viable alternative prime minister than he did a few months back.

MARCH 17

Letters to the Editor

It is impressive how quickly these despised senators have grown into the job, not only in the tricky manoeuvres but in performing their roles more generally.

Column 8

"The guesthouse to which Eric Shackle refers," writes Michael Morton-Evans, of Mosman (Be in the right bed at the right time, Column 8, since Tuesday), "was in fact the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba.

In the Herald: 17 March 1978

Lyn Maccallum   Adventurer Hans Tholstrup and larger-than-life electronics millionaire Dick Smith drove a car across the waters of Rose Bay at 59 km/h yesterday," the Herald motoring writer reported.

There needs to be more to work than money

Ross Gittins   Has it ever occurred to you that, in all our economic striving, most of us – almost all our business people, economists and politicians, but also many normal people – are missing the point?

Comments 92

Too many kids are barely enough

Alan Stokes   Selfless or selfish? Big families bring enormous joy, but do the costs to parents and society outweigh the benefits?

Comments 36

Cut wasteful spending on infrastructure

Marion Terrill   What we really need is a regime that minimises wasteful spending.

Comments 3

Our problem with innocent until proven guilty

George Williams   Australia has a problem with the presumption of innocence. It is being displaced by a rush to judgement. The reasons for this are understandable, but problematic.

Comments 19

Anti-protest laws are an attack on democracy

Naomi Hodgson   Peaceful protests have made the world a better place. Any attack on them, such as the Baird government's proposed protest laws, is an attack on our civil society.

Comments 52

The rotten truth about our children's teeth

Koraly Dimitriadis   My child is nine and she's already had four fillings. Four. She exists in a world where reminders of sugar are blasted at her from every angle: at the supermarket, on television, on billboards and even her Smiggle stationery has macaroons and gumballs on it.

Comments 6

The US media can learn from Sarah Ferguson

Josephine Tovey   Desperate for ratings, the US cable channels don't challenge politicians' inflammatory remarks, encouraging more of the same.

Comments 19

Economists out of touch with climate change

Noah Smith   If economists are to help us deal with global warming, they need to start studying science.

Comments 21

Europe will be better after Merkel departs

Matthew Lynn   The Germany chancellor has very little to show for 11 years in power.

Comments 3

Curtailing of freedoms in Turkey out of step

The situation in and around Turkey is increasingly problematic. But in 2013, when Kurdish-led moderate political parties began to gain in popularity, Turkey changed the tune.

MARCH 16

Letters to the Editor

As both an ordinary member of the community and a mother, I am appalled that David Levine has such a low opinion of me  ("'Doing what any mother would do': Levine tells inquiry",March 15).

Column 8

"In an Oxford to Cambridge boat race," writes Geoffrey Toon, of Wagstaffe (Column 8, since Saturday), "I will be backing the crew that takes the inland canal route, Oxford Canal, Grand Union, River Nane and then onto the Cam."

In the Herald: March 16, 1954

Lyn Maccallum   "As the Queen descended the gangway from the plane, she almost trod on a lizard basking in the sun on one of the steps," the Herald reported on this day in 1954.

Democracy flounders amid voter discontent

Luca Belgiorno-Nettis   Political sailors are adept at weathering events, but no event in living memory is likely to be as unforgiving as the voters' declining trust in the crew and the ships themselves.

Comments 37

Let's rezone Point Piper to fit Big Australia

Bob Carr   Bumping up our population by adding a million every 3½ leaves most Australians cold. They have nagging doubts about what is the world's biggest immigration program, the developed world's highest population growth.

Doctors need to speak out on alternatives

Adrian Pokorny   In a world awash with alternatives, patients deserve a better understanding of the science behind our modern medicines.

Save trees: skip soy, make-up and macaroni

Allie Goldstein   Choosing products that have not contributed to deforestation is difficult, but every little bit helps.

Comments 2

Five myths about the Ku Klux Klan

David Cunningham   While the KKK's white hoods, flowing robes and fiery crosses remain resonant symbols of racial terror and white supremacy, misconceptions abound.

Comments 2

In suicide prevention, we can do better

We are spending more on suicide prevention than ever before yet suicide rates are their highest in ten years. Why?

MARCH 15

Letters to the Editor

Like traffic volume predictions that were used to justify the Cross City Tunnel, we seem always to be able to drum up "reputable" analyses that happen to support our views ("'A massive waste of time and money"', March 14).

Column 8

"Saturday's question," writes Steven Maher, of Failford (Which is longer, the Melbourne Cup or the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race?), reminded me of another: Which is shorter? Driving around Australia clockwise or anti-clockwise?"

In the Herald: March 15, 1994

Lyn Maccallum   Timber jobs are under threat in NSW while a favourite actor is bid a fond farewell.