Phone proving too smart by half
Annabel Crabb 9:30 PM I always knew, as phones evolved into smart phones, that sooner or later – when my phone finally reached the point at which it was cleverer than I am – we'd have problems.
Latest Comment
We have just hit the wrong note
Peter FitzSimons 9:30 PM I cringed at the new $5 note. And I am happy to say, judging from the response, most of Australia did too.
Well-connected Lib who works for Matt Barrie
Kirsty Needham 9:30 PM Some say it's a "coincidence" that tech entrepreneur Matt Barrie got fired up about the lockout laws and got political soon after a well-connected young Liberal came to work as his chief financial officer.
The big cities strike back
Matt Wade 9:30 PM A striking feature of post-mining-boom Australia is the standout performance of our two biggest cities
It's curtains for Clive Palmer
Adam Gartrell 9:30 PM Clive Palmer's political career is going down like the Titanic and his party is going the way of the dinosaurs.
It's not the dying of the light, but a cataract
Charles Waterstreet 11:45 PM The end of middle age has come when you not only feel old, but worse, you look it as well.
Police trolling not acceptable on any level
9:45 PM
Some may be tempted to assess the actions of some police in harassing Greens MP Jenny Leong on social media as relatively trivial. They would be wrong.
APRIL 17
Letters to the Editor
10:16 PM To claim that the Australian taxpayer is paying for an expensive "gala" lunch in China to woo investment rather misses the point.
PM's election pitch stamped 'Made in China'
Peter Hartcher 7:53 AM Our economic 'transition' is central to Malcolm Turnbull's election campaign. And China is the key to that transition, happy to play up to the 'all powerful' image.
Two family traumas show limits of will
Jacqueline Maley Two desperate mothers have made the news recently, but our reactions to their cases couldn't be more different.
Grant must stop being a law unto himself
Sean Nicholls Blistering attack from Bar Association raises the alarm on how justice policy is formulated in NSW.
Australia, why do you hate big ideas?
Judith Ireland It is a much-honoured national pastime to shoot down ideas and resist even the slightest hint of change. We might be surrounded by sea, but we are also girt by the status quo.
Ignorance is still rife about domestic violence
Anne Summers How I wish Rosie Batty had been on the Q&A panel on Monday.
World needs to go fish in South China Sea
Marina Tsirbas It's time to internationalise fisheries management in the South China Sea as fish stocks collapse looms.
Our future will be ruled by self-cleaning shirts
Richard Glover We've lost many of the day-to-day tasks that have traditionally kept humans occupied. Where to for the human race as machines take over menial tasks?
Australia's real China boom is over
Jessica Irvine Australia needs to invest in cities and education – not trade delegations – if we really want to fill the gap left by the mining boom.
APRIL 16
Letters to the Editor
Farrelly's article, in highlighting the loss, degradation to Sydney's public space amenity poses the question: who is really looking after our urban public space ?
NRL should apologise to Hazem El Masri
The Herald has raised concerns before about the tendency for Australians to rush to judgment.
Column 8
At Sydney's Central Station reader Steve Barrett spotted two passengers questioning a railway official simultaneously.
The myth of the multitasking mother
Jessica Irvine Stereotypes of the male domestic bumbler and the female domestic goddess are just that.
Against the odds the stars line up for Labor
Waleed Aly Increasing inequality has allowed Labor to start doing something it hasn't done for decades - articulate a worldview.
Turnbull primed to shine in China
Mark Kenny The Prime Minister has assembled a crack group of advisers for his China visit but they're playing to a tough audience.
Why parents kill their babies
John Fitzgerald It's almost impossible to comprehend infanticide, but the root causes have a strong social component.
Turnbull must treat Xi Jinping with care
Bates Gill Xi Jinping 's policy directions risk China's growth and the party's grip on power.
Premier throws down the gauntlet
Moo Baulch A new and long overdue benchmark has been set in the fight to end domestic violence.
National justice targets will help tomorrow's Indigenous kids thrive
Roxanne Moore Unpaid fines or drinking in public should never be a death sentence. Yet, for Indigenous people, this is still the case, a generation on from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
View from the Street: Let's game this double dissolution thing out!
Andrew P Street And what are the Treasurer and shadow treasurer yelling at each other about today? Your news of the day, reduced to a snarky rant.
Baird finds right solution on stadiums
Further west is where most Sydneysiders, rugby league fans and clubs reside.
APRIL 15
Letters to the Editor
Those of us who live on the Bankstown line will now have to take buses while this new rail line is built. But when it is finished will we be any better off?.
Column 8
Found on the Sydney Writers' Festival website: "Terms and conditions: Each pass includes one ticket per event, access to the private lounge for one person only, and a voucher for a complimentary beverage at The Hemingway Bar..."
In the Herald: April 15, 1961
Stephanie Bull The first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, returns to a hero's welcome while the ALP upholds the White Australia Policy.
Previously in Comment
Highlights
Why you don't really need health insurance
Every year people rail against private health insurance companies hiking up their premiums. I couldn't care less, writes Marcus Strom.
The Trump plan that is a real danger to Australia
Donald Trump has made an idiotic and potentially incendiary claim about one of the world's most flammable strategic tinder boxes, writes Peter Hartcher.
The unfair truth about a woman's handbag
Like our brains, women's bags have to do 10 things at once. And that's tiring enough, even before tax, writes Annabel Crabb.
With friends like Malcolm, equality is far away
What is the point of a gay-friendly prime minister if he can't slap down those keen on perpetuating teenage hate, angst and suicide, writes Tim Dick.
Apology
In last Monday's paper, the Herald reported the details of an alleged sexual assault under the headline "The horrifying untold story of Louise".
Turnbull, stop dithering on tax reform
The Turnbull government has yet to explain why we need tax reform. Meanwhile, Labor is strangely coherent on tax policies.
Why you really should pay a sugar tax
We know we've got a problem when it comes to sugar and obesity, writes Jessica Irvine.
Class clown Joyce has centre stage to prove himself
Barnaby Joyce's capacity for populist revolt made him famous and effective. But the new Nationals leader will have to control his bluster if he is to be taken seriously, writes Peter Hartcher.
Great irony of Ruddock's human rights appointment
I've heard of being kicked upstairs but this is ridiculous. I know people get promoted to their point of incompetence, but the UN? The Vatican? These are not incompetence-friendly situations.
Nauru: How long can we keep lying to ourselves?
The history of asylum seeker policy in Australia will be remembered as a story of how successive governments legislated their lies to justify a world of make-believe borders and compliance.
Fine art of ignoring the United Nations
One key point of illumination from Julian Assange's announcement on Thursday is the rich impotence of the UN, writes Annabel Crabb.
Banks are using us to hedge their bets
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, writes Ross Gittins.
Raising the GST to 15% is fiscal folly
If Australia goes down this path, it will join that collection of West European countries which are the highest taxed countries in the world, writes Paul Keating.
Why Tony Abbott should leave politics
... and a few other Liberal MPs such as Bronwyn Bishop and Philip Ruddock should stop being so selfish and move on.
Disgrace oddity - how I tried to help David Bowie
Thirty years ago the writer interviewed David Bowie - and blew it entirely.
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.
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).
In defence of the hangover
The common or garden hangover is a device of startling ingenuity designed (one can only assume) by the bloodless Calvin himself, writes Elizabeth Farrelly.
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, writes Catharine Lumby.
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, writes Tim Dick.
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?
