Why are Australians so gloomy about the future?

Despite our wealth, health and good weather an international survey has revealed consumers here are ...

Trump's plan that is a danger to Australia

Donald Trump has made an idiotic and potentially incendiary claim about one of the world's most ...

The problem with how we celebrate Easter

The dates for our second-longest holiday break are imposed not by law nor by rational agreement, ...

Handbag dilemma compounds as roles get weightier

Like our brains, women's bags have to do 10 things at once. And that's tiring enough, even before ...

Turnbull a policy mouse that is prepared to roar

Puzzle of Turnbull falls into place revealing a man playing the political long game to stay in The ...

Why Tony Abbott was right

Tony Abbott was wrong on a lot of things, but not on this policy for working women.

Why banks may start dropping money from the sky

Ken Courtis went to the bank on Saturday. He wanted to withdraw some cash. Nothing unusual so far. ...

Does the rise of Trump remind you of anyone we know?

Like Pauline Hanson two decades ago and the European nationalists today, Donald Trump appeals to ...

In defence of grass: it's far more than outdoor carpet

Grass is so familiar, and so thoroughly downtrodden, that we barely see it. Take another look.

There needs to be more to work than money

Has it ever occurred to you that, in all our economic striving, most of us – almost all our ...

Iran visit is a chance to fight for peace

The former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger once said that Iran needed to decide whether it ...

Affair claims fail to ignite nation's interest

On whether the two most powerful people in Australia were intimately involved, we have registered a ...

City slicker Turnbull hitches a ride on urban express

Malcolm Turnbull wants his cities policy to be a trademark of his prime ministership.

Turnbull's 'ideas boom' is a bust

On their own stated goals, the Coalition won't be particularly deserving winners of the upcoming ...

Why the Sea of Malcolm has lost its sparkle

The current political landscape is a post-modern Hieronymus Bosch update, a Grayson Perry ...

Where will the jobs be after the boom?

It's a question doubting customers have been asking me through the whole of my career: but where ...

Changing your car rego shouldn't be this hard

When I moved from Victoria to NSW, I assumed my biggest challenges would be finding work and coping ...

Donald Trump would never rise to the top in Australia

Despite our drift towards personality-driven presidential-style election campaigns, there are still ...

View from the Street: Government determined to reduce, increase student debt

And it's great how the Logie nominations have proved that racism's totally not a thing, you guys. ...

Our elections aren't as good as you think

Despite its reputation for conducting free and fair elections, Australia does not perform as well ...

Australia must open the front door to Syrian refugees

Canada has shown the way in welcoming refugees, while Australia has said the right things but fails ...

Turnbull's bias revealed in school funding plan

The government proposes turning its back on the schools where most Australian children get their ...

We're rarely rational when we vote because we're rarely rational, period

Science can tell us lots about how voters will make their decisions in 2016. To appreciate those ...

The school reform options we should be debating

Schools funding from 2018 onwards has been kicked down the road until early next year – after the ...

APRIL 7

Boys' toys have no truck with violence

Children will play with any toy the way that suits them regardless of the toy's gender identity or ...

Column 8

"On the subject of ointments and unguents from days gone by, my mother was a great believer in the ...

In the Herald: April 7, 1960

The wrong horse

Why men don't iron - but do the washing up

It is simply not fair that women spend more hours doing more boring household jobs than men. But ...

ABC radio personalities need to tune out their left-wing bias

ABC management has failed to recognise a clear problem among some capital city presenters.

Gen Y: Why worry when we've got it so good

The bleak self-assessments of Generation Y ignores the many advantages up for grab.

Putin's a pauper, if he were to lose power

Russian president is as much a hostage as controller of the web of associates he helps make money ...

Public needs to keep fighting for refugees

The Let them Stay campaign's remarkable recent success in preventing almost 150 people, including ...

The story behind the contrasting responses to Zika and Ebola

Political scientists are intrigued by the starkly different reactions to the two public health ...

View from the Street: To lose the unloseable poll!

Is Teflon Turnbull disintegrating to Malcolm Powder? Your news of the day, reduced to a snarky rant.

Gun control could have prevented my dad's death

On October 2 last year, as my dad was leaving work, a 15-year old boy walked up and shot him in the ...

From bad to worse on the Great Barrier Reef

There's more dugongs, and the run-off is not as bad as before. We understand its environmental and ...

APRIL 5

If only Turnbull was more like Piccoli

Thank god for Adrian Piccoli. He is a brave and very atypical Coalition minister: he aims to govern ...

Column 8

"I'm sure there were many readers who noticed the familiar wording in Lisa Phillips item on Monday, ...

In the Herald: April 6, 1982

"British Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington and two of his senior ministers resigned today, taking ...

Abbott's harmful legacy lives on in climate silence

Together with his footsoldiers in politics and the media, Tony Abbott has succeeded in muddying the ...

Area where Sydney is letting residents down

Consider the possibility that, above the craps tables they want to lump on the side of the city, ...

Turnbull has the right idea on state reform

Late on Friday, I thought that Turnbull's two-day wonder on income tax reform for the states had ...

You shouldn't be taxed for moving house

Is the act of moving house is a sound basis for incurring a tax penalty? Why should a family that ...

Other Safe Schools campaign we're ignoring

There's another Safe Schools campaign that you may not have heard of – one where Australia is ...

Gen Y frets over a looming bleak future

Good jobs, affordable homes and peace of mind appear increasingly out of reach for young ...

Panama Papers: we all lose from tax havens

A tiny minority of professionals remains willing to help drive a dodgy financial vehicle through ...

APRIL 5

Opposition to mine about the reef not politics

The widespread opposition to this unbelievably destructive mine rests on the recognition of the ...

Column 8

The word "conversation" has been much over-used of late, but we didn't realise that it had been ...

In the Herald: April 5, 1911

"Brisbane solicitor William Morse, a passenger on the Orrieto, refused to sign the census ...

Why we need laptops in classrooms

The benefits of using laptops in the classroom far outweigh the negatives.

Ditch the one-size-fits-all lockout

Well-managed licensed premises should be exempt from the 1.30am lockout, and the 3am "last drinks" ...

We should be told how our judges are chosen

US Supreme Court appointments are infected with the bitter partisanship that pervades US politics ...

Why I salute the man who took hijacker selfie

How would you react if confronted by a suicide bomber? It's unlikely to be as you would expect.

Basic income smarter than minimum wage

Just as Britain raises its minimum wage and as Bernie Sanders' demands for a 50 per cent increase ...

Governments shouldn't play politics with infrastructure

Voters should think twice before accepting politicians' promises of a transport infrastructure ...

Shift in the way we educate children needed

Australia has to shift to a student-centric approach, rather than one that is teacher centric.

How to fund a bigger and better Australia

The PM’s latest ‘Big Idea’ may have died, but the problem of paying for our schools and hospitals ...

View from the Street: PM doesn't care if you jerks hate his tax plan

And plans for more unprofitable mines are full steam ahead! Your news of the weekend, reduced to a ...

Malnutrition has a new face, and it's fat

Not too many stories in the news cycle deliver a new perspective on the world, but a study in ...

APRIL 4

Election bubble burst along with tax plan

So what went wrong for Malcolm Turnbull? Why did the Council of Australian Governments' version of ...

Column 8

"One thing wrong with Margot's plan for sharing a prawn cutlet is who gets the tail end in their ...

In the Herald: April 4, 1949

The prodigal prisoner

First, if you don't count the others

It is hard to maintain that Captain Cook "discovered" Australia when "People were ...

ABS lacks vital statistics on housework

Imagine – such a significant slice of human activity in this country, and we don't have up to date ...

50 shades of Lyndall Hobbs

Lyndall Hobbes' remarkable memoir is a sociological drilling core sample of the whirly-gig life, so ...

Customers want to talk to people, not apps

The NSW government has recently shut hundreds of Fair Trading, motor registry and other government ...

It's time to tax soft drinks

One of the worst myths ever promoted by an industry association is that all we need is ...

How selfies hijacked our sense of self

Congratulations, world. We have reached peak stupid. This week, a man hijacked a plane flying from ...

Why Donald Trump has done women a favour

Donald Trump's run at the presidential nomination has been one giant, ego-saturated piece of ...

Malcolm Turnbull's challenge: be like Mike

As NSW Premier Mike Baird's experience so clearly demonstrates, sometimes the most difficult ...

Republican circus rockets Obama's ratings

As the rest of the world looks on in disbelief and growing fear, Americans are taking a second look ...

Research confirms you're not an automaton

While governments and private institutions can nudge us towards certain behaviours, people are free ...

Turnbull's problematic ideas fall on deaf ears

The biggest blow may prove to be his forced deferral until early next year of a decision on ...

Brazil's rough political game on road to Rio

Spare a thought for the people whose job is to co-ordinate the biggest planned event ...

APRIL 2

Righting wrongs to aid healing

​Thank you Waleed Aly for articulating how I feel about the blind spot we Australians have ...

Column 8

We have a wonderful solution to hand for the vexing question of the etiquette of divvying up an odd ...

Turnbull starts pulling the big policy levers

The cautious approach was a bad look for the PM. That's why bold policy ideas are now tumbling out.

Turnbull's most foolish investment decision

It's fair to say Malcolm Turnbull knows a thing or two about making a buck.

Why we should care about bribery in oil

The huge wealth of the industrialised West cannot be divorced from its history of exploitation, nor ...

Why you don't need health insurance

Every year people rail against private health insurance companies hiking up their premiums. Not me ...

Second divorce shouldn't be source of shame

Anyone who's been through divorce once will have been bitten hard enough to know marrying again on ...

Think laterally about how to accept refugees

Scholarships? Family reunions? Families sponsoring individual refugees? These are alternatives to ...

Compensation changes will hurt victims

The NSW Government has just announced its intention to overhaul compensation for innocent victims ...

Turnbull must fight scourge of foreign bribery

Australia's response has been particularly flawed, creating losers across the spectrum.

APRIL 1

Turnbull tax idea dismantles Federation

Either we have federal leadership for the good of the whole country or we ditch the whole idea and ...

Column 8

"I've noticed something strange during my daily commute," reports Matt Petersen, of ...

In the Herald : April 1, 1936

The Captain Cook, the oldest pilot steamer in commission in the world, was nearing the end of an ...