If Turnbull or Shorten are the answer, then what's the question?
Jessica Irvine 12:00 AM Australians only get one chance every three years to have their say, and even then, our voices are muted.
Latest Comment
How to get outraged in three easy steps
Jacqueline Maley 11:36 AM Here's a handy list of some of the things we should be getting outraged about.
The times I 'lost' my children
Joan Vennochi I was critical of the mum whose son ended up in the gorilla enclosure. Then I remembered when it nearly happened to me.
Democracy now in disrepute
9:00 PM Over the past 30 years many services once seen as core government business have been sold off, corporatised or leased out, including the preparation of advice to government about how these decisions may affect the public interest.
Column 8: No playing around in conflict-ridden Origin footy
9:00 PM Origin "Have you noticed that sporting teams never "play" against each other? They "clash" or "battle" or "face-off" or "challenge" or "fight against". No wonder there are so many injuries." Wait until round two.
The Great Barrier Reef is losing its adjective and it's our fault
Tim Flannery 12:00 AM A few weeks ago I dived the Great Barrier Reef, near Port Douglas. I am haunted by what I've seen.
Why do we get so upset about hipster coffee?
Claire Connelly 7:23 AM A deconstructed coffee is the art student of the coffee world: an easy target.
Copyright proposal won’t mean cheaper books
Louise Adler 12:00 AM The book industry is again being reviewed by the Productivity Commission.
Books are too important to be left to economists
Richard Flanagan The abolition of parallel importation rules will mean a profound contraction in Australian publishing, and could lead to the destruction of the country's book industry.
The issue that should sway the youth vote
Alex Dore Young Australians have enjoyed an unprecedented quality of life, but a never-ending Budget deficit would threaten that prosperity.
Opinion
Is Elon Musk the Willy Wonka of the car world?
James Quinn Tesla's founder is selling the future, dreams big, and to date has, despite some production delays, made them happen for a relatively small few.
The racist history of our flag cannot be denied
Madeline White A republic is inevitable. And then the Union Jack will have to go, too.
NRL scandal demands national watchdog
Little has been done since the dire warnings about drugs, betting rorts and organised crime on the darkest day in Australian sport more than three years ago.
June 3
Where's offence in gender-neutral "guys"?
Australian of the Year David Morrison seems to have a bee in his bonnet over the use of the word "guys" in the workplace.
Time to wise up to smart drugs
Daniel D'Hotman We happily accept participation in risky activities from bungy jumping to snow skiing. Why should smart drugs be treated differently?
Authors attacking paper tigers
Peter Martin Leading authors concerned about cuts to copyright don't seem to have done their homework.
ABC suffering slow death by a thousand cuts
Ranald MacDonald Tell us, ministers, how the ABC is now better off under your government?
Ethanol laws put small local servos at risk
Mark McKenzie The Baird government is being economically and socialy reckless in the pursuit of laws to force more service stations to sell ethanol blended petrol.
Economic boost aids Turnbull's sales pitch
An appeal to economic continuity is much simpler for the government than trying to explain what the slogan "jobs and growth" actually means when it comes to reviving a struggling economy.
JUNE 2
Port Botany may fit the bill for superliners
Why couldn't Port Botany be considered as an alternative to overflows for superliners to the overseas passenger terminal?
How can you reach voters who don't care who you are?
Laura Demasi Politics has a fight on its hand to prove its relevance in this new world order where power has shifted from "them" to "we" and "me".
Queenslanders spread like cane toads, only not as cute
Alan Stokes That feeling of Queensland uniqueness and superiority is dying out both on and off the rugby league field.
Could Sydney be the answer to the Olympics' zika crisis?
Amir Attaran We could turn Zika's negative into an unprecedented positive: the first transcontinental, truly global Olympics.
How Kmart ate Target
Gary Mortimer Facing more than $1 billion in impairments and a further $145 million in restructuring costs, Wesfarmers’s Target is expected to post an end-of-year loss of $50 million.
Hospitals are meant to be our safest places, even in war zones
Kathleen Thomas Two hours before, Dr Kathleen Thomas had assured her patients they were safe. But incapacitated, they were burning to death in their beds.
Wondering why your kids drink and use drugs? Look at your own behaviour
Aubrey Perry We shouldn't imply an acceptance of this behaviour in the example we set for our children with our own.
Leaks, secrets and the scary NBN raids
Jonathan Holmes These days, it seems, the police and security forces can get just about anything they want, even when the issue has nothing to do with national security.
Why election campaigns make me want to move house
Andrew Brown The Hills area is a great place to live, but come election time I wish I live in Rockhampton or Parramatta.
JUNE 1
City waiting for improvement, not change
Planning Minister Rob Stokes doesn't get it. The city isn't waiting for change: it's waiting for improvement, and by that I don't mean development.
Trump's failure to disclose on tax returns trashes transparency principle
A Trump presidency must now be rated as a realistic possibility, but his failure to release his tax returns could prove disastrous.
Column 8
Column 8: "Doctor Blake takes no notice of historical accuracy at all. He wears a quartz watch (perhaps sponsored). Such watches were not available until the 1970s.''
What Australia needs to do to stub out smoking
Mike Daube Big Tobacco is losing battle after battle. But nearly two million Australians now alive will die prematurely because they smoked.
Veterans should tell their war stories
Clinton Romesha
Generally, soldiers don't like to talk about their most painful experiences. Most combat veterans have shorthand, watered-down versions of what happened to us that we recite, politely and dutifully, when asked. The real stories are almost never shared.
Why we can't do rude and angry like Trump
Peter Hartcher When Bill Shorten accused Malcolm Turnbull of being Tony Abbott at Sunday's debate, it was as rude as it got. We're world's apart from the US.
No one has cut health spending
Peter Reith I have seen a few porkies in my time in politics but Labor takes the cake this election.
Sydney, it's not me: it's you
Andrew P Street The moments where I remember why we fell in love in the first place seem to be getting fewer and further between.
Reports of Sydney's death are greatly exaggerated
Rob Stokes We should be more alarmed when change isn't happening than when it is.
Sydney is at tipping point, but good planning is the way to the future
Chris Johnson The NSW government's latest Intergenerational Report clarifies that big changes are coming to Sydney and our state.
Council dismissals are authoritarian and undemocratic
Darcy Byrne Mike Baird's unilateral dismissal of elected mayors and councillors from 42 local governments across NSW is the most authoritarian and undemocratic action taken by a NSW Premier in living memory.
How to avoid nuclear catastrophe
Sam Nunn Obama's visit to Hiroshima should remind the world that we are in a race between co-operation and catastrophe.
Why it's time to ban pornography
Matthew Schmitz Pornography's enjoyments may be private, but its harms are inescapably public.
Previously in Comment
Highlights
Don't take this personally
Cartoonist Cathy Wilcox shows you how to get more out of your seething outrage online.
Sydney will be unrecognisable
Everything that you (or at least I) love about this town under threat, the city's planner are conspicuous by their silence.
What young voters want (and it isn't selfies)
Our politicians can learn a lot from Bernie Sanders, who can't tell a joke and I doubt he could DJ to save his life.
Baird's light rail is bastardry of the first order
Tree-felling, park-gouging, history-trashing, bus-killing and street-closing. For what? You can have light rail and trees, high density and parks. It's a false dichotomy.
Turnbull will lose unless he wins back Liberals
The Prime Minister has not actually done anything to explain his rapid downhill trajectory. But contradicting himself almost every week, Turnbull has stood fast in indecision.
The story that sums up a mad world
If Donald Trump is elected president of the United States, London's new mayor would be barred from entering the country because he's a Muslim.
Turnbull's 30-minute city is a silly idea
Should the development of new rail lines be based on their potential value to property developers? The government thinks so.
Labor can't deny its role in Manus Island tragedy
'Stopping the boats' was a bipartisan policy and both sides of politics are responsible for its monstrous outcomes.
The fight China will take to the brink of war
Peter Hartcher: The world's two greatest powers are competing for military dominance of the western Pacific Ocean and the contest is about to intensify.
Wrong museum, wrong place, wrong reasons
Elizabeth Farrelly: Does the Baird government's planned Powerhouse-to-Parramatta move make any sense at all, to anyone?
Why you don't really need health insurance
Marcus Strom: Every year people rail against private health insurance companies hiking up their premiums. I couldn't care less.
The Trump plan that is a real danger to Australia
Peter Hartcher: Donald Trump has made an idiotic and potentially incendiary claim about one of the world's most flammable strategic tinder boxes.
The unfair truth about a woman's handbag
Annabel Crabb: Like our brains, women's bags have to do 10 things at once. And that's tiring enough, even before tax.
With friends like Malcolm, equality is far away
Tim Dick: 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.
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
Jessica Irvine: We know we've got a problem when it comes to sugar and obesity.
Class clown Joyce has centre stage to prove himself
Peter Hartcher: 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.
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
Annabel Crabb: One key point of illumination from Julian Assange's announcement on Thursday is the rich impotence of the UN.
