The difference isn't as big as they want you to believe
Ross Gittins 12:22 AM I get criticised by rusted-on supporters of both sides of politics when I say this, but that doesn't stop it being true: there are differences between the two sides' policies, but they're not as great as they want us to believe (and their supporters do believe).
Latest Comment
Stop giving mothers a hard time over breastfeeding
Amanda Sheehan 5:30 PM "If you don't breastfeed your baby she will get every ear infection and cold going". Those were the less than encouraging words uttered to me by a mid-wife during a home-visit a few weeks after I had my first baby.
The conversation we should be having about our schools
William McKeith 12:00 AM It's not just money or student/teacher ratios or new classrooms or laptops. We need to talk about the point of education.
Gotcha! It's Pokemon for grown-ups
Alan Stokes 12:00 AM Your smartphone will force you to get off your bum, go outside and catch the mythical pocket monsters in your street and your town.
EDITORIAL
Obeid verdict a victory for voters and the ICAC
12:50 AM Federal Labor under Bill Shorten must be rueing the timing of this verdict, given it evokes why NSW voters tossed the party out in 2011 and were still uneasy four year later.
JUNE 29
Stop playing blame game on apprenticeships
12:05 AM The Gillard government introduced the contestable funding model for vocational education. This was either naive or stupid.
In the wake of Brexit, a slew of new conundrums
12:05 AM On the practical implications of choosing to leave Europe, David Lloyd of Kincumber reports "a friend of mine has written from the UK wondering if, after the Brexit they are still allowed to use their continental quilts".
Thank you, Eddie McGuire
Sandra Sully 3:34 PM I never thought I would say this, but thank you Eddie McGuire for your misogynist comments because they finally sparked national debate and resulted in national outrage.
Brexit is bad news for Africa
Alex de Waal 1:10 PM The damage to British interests is significant, but the losses for Africa could be greater still.
Right-wing populism is prevailing in left-wing strongholds
Nate Cohn 11:57 AM there is no guarantee that white working-class voters who stuck with the Democrats through the culture wars will stay with them if elections are waged on issues like trade and immigrationT
Keeping the bastards honest: how to vote in the Senate
Emma Buckley Lennox 12:34 PM Australian voters are lazy. But if we want to ensure our new Senate "keeps the bastards honest" we're going to have to learn to count.
Affordable housing is a key election issue
PHILIP FREIER 6:00 PM The critical shortage of affordable housing in Australia has a corrosive effect on social and economic well-being
Bill Shorten's two glaring mistakes
Peter Reith I am not convinced our political system is much worse than the past. The problem today is the world economy is not great, we've lost a lot of revenue from mining and our leaders haven;t been as good.
Australia has a strong case for talking Britain's unwanted EU seat
Luke Slattery We're here, Europe, lonely in the Pacific and we want to join the club.
Opinion
Britain will always be part of Europe
Boris Johnson Brexit finally gives us a chance to extricate ourselves from the job-destroying coils of EU bureaucracy
I'm not the Australian citizen I thought I was
Teresa Mullan If this is true, I have recently sent in an illegal postal vote.
Burn baby burn
Sarah Gill Voters' views on coal and climate are being ignored by both major parties in this election.
Why so many of us are voting early this year
Jenna Price The increase in pre-poll voting has been massive, largely due to the timing of the election.
A plebiscite made in hell
Paula Gerber Wrong, PM: Most Australians do NOT want a plebiscite on same-sex marriage.
A lesson on young people, debt and politics
Judith Bessant The idea of reducing the voting age to 16 has been in the election news, with various reasons presented for the enfranchisement of younger citizens. Some reasons relate to fairness..
JUNE 28
Minority parties keep government accountable
The election is like a wedding reception. The menu looks good but we all know we will either get the chicken or the fish and both will be disappointing.
Credit to Shorten for big, bold policy platform
But will enough voters take the chance with a leader who is less popular than his coalition rival? And will Labor get enough preferences from voters disenchanted with both major parties?
Column 8
On being an esquire one lawyer explains: "When I was admitted to the bar and joined the Victorian Law Society my mail was addressed to Susan M Jones, Esquire. So yes, there is such a thing (as esquire)
Celebrities don't need to speak up
Tim Dick The weird belief that the ease of expression brings a duty to say something should be firmly dispatched. Of all the things we need to do, making speech more compulsory than free is not one of them.
The true menace to our borders
Joseph Petyanszki In the border security debate, it has been easy to deflect the public's attention to boat arrivals.
What if no one wins the election?
George Williams With polls showing the major parties running neck and neck, attention has turned to whether this weekend's election will produce a hung parliament. What would happen then?.
JUNE 27
Don't do a Brexit and vote on fear
Whichever party wins next Saturday, let it be for good rational reasons and not for its appeal to our baser emotions.
Turnbull ramps up his 'trust me' pitch
The Prime Minister has appealed to the broader electorate, counselling them not to "roll the dice" on anyone other than Coalition candidates in both houses.
We must follow Britain to the exit
Peter FitzSimons Who saw Bill Shorten being interviewed by Leigh Sales on 7.30 on Thursday evening?
'Marriage reform' disaster waiting to happen
Mark Kenny On same-sex marriage, a potentially weakened Malcolm Turnbull is sitting on a powder keg.
The rise of the millionaire Labor voter
Matt Wade The property boom has boosted wealth in traditional Labor electorates.
Lunch with an old friend
Charles Waterstreet My friend Marcus Einfeld, post incarceration, has gone from mentor to tormentor. We meet and mourn the loss of language.
Why Malcolm Turnbull deserves his own mandate
... as long as he reconnects with his core values and keeps his promises.
Sydney's planning storm is building to a tempest
Elizabeth Farrelly Conditions in Sydney right now conspire toward a perfect planning storm of unprecedented ferocity, and the power tie-ups across three levels of government are critical enablers.
Women are behind from the start
Anne Summers Is it coincidence or is it causal? Is there a correlation between the number of women holding seats, or likely to win one next Saturday, and that federal parliamentary party's policy on women? At first glance, it would seem so.
The world's most expensive delaying tactic
Jacqueline Maley All jokes aside, it's hard not to feel sorry for Scott Morrison. It must be tough backing a doomed cause.
Europe's new nationalism is here to stay
Simon Toubeau The British referendum that has delivered a vote for “Brexit” is the latest, dramatic indication that this nationalism is here to stay.
Football's abuse of women is institutional
Rachel Matthews The abuse of women in football is ongoing. Its language. Its attitudes. And sexual assault.
New York: Impressions of a first-timer
Martin Flanagan This is a country whose citizens kill one another at a rate unmatched in the western world.
Trump's political suicide mission
Mike Murphy The political neophyte billionaire is substituting egomania for strategy.
Previously in Comment
Highlights
We must follow Britain to the exit
Who saw Bill Shorten being interviewed by Leigh Sales on 7.30 on Thursday evening?
'Marriage reform' disaster waiting to happen
On same-sex marriage, a potentially weakened Malcolm Turnbull is sitting on a powder keg.
How your father is controlling your salary
The answer to the question "Who's your daddy?" has never been more important.
For Republicans, it's easier to ban Muslims than guns
Over 40,000 Americans are dying each year partly because they live in a society in which it is more politically viable to propose banning Muslims than regulate gun sales.
Two images haunt me from the storm
They tell me I don't get Australia. I love it, but do not understand it. Do you, honestly?
Don't turn Muhammad Ali into a sanitised caricature
We're left with a man of inordinate courage who made some awful mistakes, was sincere enough to admit them, but at every moment was prepared to pay the price of his convictions.
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".
