The Greater Western Sydney team's achievement to finish fourth in only its fifth year is remarkable.

• COMMENT

Sydney needs a mayor who can counter excessive power in Macquarie Street.

• COMMENT

There is speculation these Paralympics will fall short of London four years ago, when ecstatic crowds marvelled at the extraordinary feats of differently abled athletes.

• COMMENT

Lifeline's "accidental counsellor" courses teach you the key skills you need to help prevent suicide, beyond asking R U OK?

• EDITORIAL

We simply cannot trust the political class to write the rules on donations, gifts and expenses or meet community expectations. That's why we need a national integrity commission.

Opal and a deep well of data that flows from it opens a vast array of new opportunities.

The exposure of the darker side of masculine culture slowly and thankfully forced changes in Australian fatherhood.

Bill Shorten has given the Prime Minister a bloody nose by taking advantage of his shaky and dishevelled government. But there are risks for Labor too.

The best thing that can be said about the increase in NSW road fatalities is that they are coming off a low base. 

The Labor senator has displayed poor judgement and reckless disregard for voters.

Premier Mike Baird is wrong when he says the Operation Spicer report "ends a very sad chapter in the history of NSW politics". The chapter is not over until voters can be sure similar rorts will not be repeated at a state or federal level.

The Prime Minister should explain to people that he plans to get things done through compromise - no matter the risk to his leadership.

The former ABC boss and NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli could be a formidable force to drive real change in the state's schools.

Government support is essential, but the system can also be a significant deterrent to mothers working more hours.

The problems are mounting in health, police and land grabs for a state Coalition government that can otherwise claim good economic and budget management.

Too many Australians laugh off the Territory's corruption and injustice, notwithstanding the suffering involved and the wastage of national taxpayer funds.

For more than half a decade Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has been the public face of the airline's difficulties. To celebrate now that Qantas is flying high again would be only human.

We know better than to be surprised, yet we can still be shocked at the culture of harassment and bullying exposed within the Australian Federal Police

• COMMENT

Many Australians simply believe that reforms on morally divisive issues require the strongest possible mandate - and that should come directly from the people.

• COMMENT

With a heavy heart the Herald asks whether the foundations of our love affair with the Olympics have been irrevocably diminished by the Rio Games.

We will never know the human cost of the Australian policy failures known collectively as the Pacific Solution.

No-one doubts that everyone on the day worked hard to bring the Martin Place siege to an end safely. But a perception of police having something to hide has hung over the inquest.

We seem destined to go round and round on race as long as a vocal minority claims ownership over the right to free speech while victimised minorities are cowed into silence because the risks to them of speaking out are too high.

At least he is highlighting common ground, offering to "reach across the aisle" and insisting his approach "is not, and should not, be about ideology".

How much longer can the current system of detaining asylum seekers be allowed to persist?

• COMMENT

It's time to change laws that criminalise people for using nicotine in a less harmful form.

If only lessening the risk posed by Pyongyang was so simple.

Broadcasters should take note: the Olympics demonstrate that given half a chance, women compete as thrillingly and ferociously as men, and audiences love it.