Wrong museum, wrong place, wrong reasons
Elizabeth Farrelly 10:34 PM Four sites a-begging, three glossy players, two museums morphing, one marginal seat - and a pork barrel in a pear tree.
Latest Comment
Unis need funding reform, not more cuts
Michael Spence 9:00 PM Whatever happens on budget night, a 20 per cent cut to universities must come off the agenda.
The job I wish I didn't have to do
Kate Jenkins 2:00 PM I thought we'd be there by now, but it's 2016 and we're still so far from equality.
Morrison needs a reality check on tax
Peter Martin 1:56 PM The government's theme for selling the budget reads like a Seinfeld script.
Costello's 'debt-free day' still clear today
David Alexander 12:00 AM Ten years ago today Australia celebrated an unusual milestone – the federal government announced that its debt had finally been paid off.
Who are the real victims in 60 Minutes story?
Julie Szego 10:14 AM Two young children are caught in the contest between their Australian mother, Lebanese father, and a commercial TV program.
Opaque campaign finance rules fail every test
Maxine McKew 12:00 AM Politicians on the election trail need to come clean about where their campaign funds come from.
What tricks has the government got up its sleeve for the budget?
Alex Malley 1:59 PM The government will be eager to show its commitment to cracking down on multinational tax avoidance.
Sydney needs a marine park to protect its biodiversity
Kate Smolski 12:38 PM Despite high public support for marine parks and sanctuaries, the government is dragging the chain.
Classroom warfare in the inner city
9:00 PM The Baird government will need to find many billions of dollars to meet surging demand for new schools and additional classrooms over the next 15 years.
APRIL 21
Letters to the Editor
10:01 PM The government in a previous budget cuts the budget for ASIC. Now it wants to increase the budget for ASIC. Does this government have any idea how to govern in a meaningful manner?
Column 8
9:00 PM "We must prepare ourselves for the multitude of misreadings of the opening words of the fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon's epic poem, For the Fallen, commonly known as 'The Ode'," warns Ken Tucker, of Castle Hill.
Innovation isn't just about making it easier to do things we already do
Thomas Maschmeyer Australia needs to stop the rhetoric and decide where we wish to innovate. New banking apps to make your credit card debts 'easier' to service? New ways to re-distribute what is already there (think Airbnb, Uber) by optimising software?
Turnbull needs a big win or we'll all lose
Alan Stokes Assuming Labor falls short, simply getting back into power won't be enough for the Prime Minister to consign the Abbott era to history.
Why do swimmers struggle after retirement?
Darby-Perrin Larner Swimming is nearly synonymous with Australia. It's also an identity for some of our most famous faces – an all-consuming career that dominates athlete's adolescences and the rest of their lives, even after retirement.
Is this the end of Catholic guilt?
Timothy Egan The Pope has lightened up on love and sex, for those who are still listening.
We must change our rape culture
Steve Biddulph We need to change the mindset of boys and young men to put a stop to rape culture.
More hits than misses for Mark Scott's ABC
Jonathan Holmes The outgoing managing director handled the politicians well but blundered with News 24.
Turkey takes the goat by the horns in EU crisis
Boris Johnson Angela Merkel is cynically sucking up to Turkey’s president and undermining free speech with her outrageous response to a silly joke.
APRIL 20
Letters to the Editor
I fear for my mental health at the prospect of a seven-week binge in electioneering ("Trigger happy: building watchdog rejected, July 2 election looms, high-risk strategy for PM," April 19).
Malcolm Turnbull's second-chance election
Australia needs a new government - of either Coalition or Labor persuasion - with a solid mandate on economics, tax and social issues.
Column 8
"Randwick City Council has letterboxed an invitation to residents to attend the Anzac Day Service at Coogee Beach," reports Dean Hartigan, of Maroubra.
Australia is being courted by two superpowers, not caught between them
Peter Hartcher As rivalry between China and the US intensifies in the Pacific, must Australia choose between its biggest trading partner and its security ally?
History keeps repeating in politics
Peter Reith Many MPs and media commentators have little grasp of Australia’s political past. That’s a pity because knowing the past can explain today.
Why not select politicians at random?
Terrill Bouricius, David Schecter, Campbell Wallace and John Gastil Juries are already pulled from the general population - why not legislatures?
An avoidable Pistol to Boo's head: the case for VIP jet screening
Justin Wastnage The incident of Johnny Depp's dogs should be the impetus Barnaby Joyce needs to put the topic of dedicated private jet quarantine screening back on the table.
A drug-free world is an impossible dream
Greg Chipp The vision of a drug-free world has faded. We are instead presented with a nightmare scenario, where a multi-billion dollar black market funds organised crime and terrorist organisations.
Clinton's task is to unify US Democrats
Nicole Hemmer She might win the nomination and even become president, but Clinton could also build a lasting Democrat legacy.
Undercurrents affecting submarine decision
Nicholas Stuart If the government chooses to build Japanese submarines, the move is being seen in Beijing as a proactive choice to trash the China relationship.
View from the Street: Are we having an election yet? How about now?
Andrew P Street And the proud legacy of Bronwyn Bishop continues, in the form of bitter factional in-fighting. Your news of the day, reduced to a snarky rant.
Memo Turnbull ministers: bank customers are always right
By refusing a royal commission, the government is treating bank and financial services customers - the voters - with disdain .
APRIL 19
Everyman PM was bound to disappoint
The disappointment of Turnbull's leadership, the unethical approach to the trucking industry and the lack of colour left following Bronwyn Bishop's departure.
Column 8
"From much discussion about fan blade rotation lately comes the 'dooverlakie'," notes Janelle Scott, of Cronulla. "Now that's a word I haven't heard for decades!"
In the Herald: April 19, 1988
Lyn Maccallum Comedian Robin Williams found a "rough audience" at the Harold Park Hotel.
ABCC row a distraction from the main game
Aaron Lane The debate over the ABCC should not be the substitute for advancing a positive industrial relations policy that promotes employment through the entire economy. On this front, the government is sorely lacking courage and ambition.
The dark shadow of dispossession continues
Tim Dick Despite the strenuous efforts of some, the gulf between the hope of reconciliation and the reality of mass incarceration of Aboriginal people is growing.
Women's empathy beats too much macho
Judith Woods Women's empathy is not a weakness - it beats macho posturing at work.
Turnbull's highwire act has no safety net
Nick Xenophon "Democracy" said satirist H L Mencken "is the art and science of running the circus cage". So, to prepare myself for Monday's special sitting of Parliament, I went to the circus.
Truckies need a fair go or more lives are lost
Tony Sheldon This is what happens when a truck driver isn't paid a decent rate to cover the costs of running his truck or his labour. He speeds, drives longer than he is permitted to, skips mandatory rest breaks, forgoes maintenance on his truck.
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?
