Imagine a business paying billions of dollars to a subcontractor without assessing whether the contract prices were value for money and without sign-off from the authorised managers. Imagine if the business failed to systematically monitor performance under the contracts and was so haphazard at keeping records that a $75 million building was uninsured when it burnt down.
Who knew? The Catholic Church knew, that's who. Now we know too, that sexual atrocities against children of a horrendous nature and on a horrendous, systemic scale have been committed within the Catholic Church in Australia.
Internal contradictions hardly engender confidence that he could find a workable policy platform.
Many of us might not like what we see in the mirror, let alone how others are thinking.
What's wrong with young people these days?
Canberra will need to plan for the US President's known unknown approach to trade, security and America's allies. Unfortunately, there's no planning for any unknown unknowns that Mr Trump and his swamp-draining team might have in mind.
Now Malcolm Turnbull's actions have revealed the stupidity of the donations rules, he will have no choice but to change them – unless, of course, the vested interests on both sides decide they'd rather do nothing substantial for fear of losing their own source of funding.
Malcolm Turnbull tried to claim outsider status but offered more of the conventional rhetoric and policies that almost cost him office last July.
The executive order which bans nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for the next three months is unprincipled, from a man whose principles are hard to discern. In the war against terror it is also, to borrow the mild language of the playing field, an own goal.
Being a maths or science teacher is a tough job, but someone's go to do it. In fact, many more people need to give it a go.
The Premier has the potential to be a talented leader, although the danger is that she will be more focused on the views of shock jocks rather than doing what she knows is right.
We salute those whose work ethic and drive to better themselves and their children have grasped Australia's myriad opportunities in education and business.
Becoming one of his neighbours might be financially appealing but it won't solve the housing affordability crisis.
Lachlan Macquarie's name is everywhere: Sydney has Macquarie Street, Place, Fields, Lighthouse, University and Shopping Centre – and more besides; NSW has Port, Lake, Mount, River and Pass, as well as a brace of towns he founded – the Macquarie towns.
Donald Trump has began a process of turning America in on itself. It is the end of an era for US trade and foreign policy.
With her appointment as premier, Gladys Berejiklian's steady rise through the Liberal Party has now reached its culmination. ustra
Everyone with an email address has received them - messages publicising a petition that seeks government recognition in some form for a medical condition; recognition of the condition itself, or for a particular treatment, or a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme subsidy for a new drug.
Once the gravity of the office and its responsibilities sinks in, a humbled Trump will modify both his speech and his behaviour, this theory goes. Such optimism is needed. But is it justified?
The founding myth of suburbia is that each landholding is a farm in miniature: a house on a plot of land, however small, in which a family may grow food.
By setting himself apart from the machine of career politics so unpopular with voters, the cleanskin with the "dad-next-door" image was able to pursue bold policies eschewed by others.
The take-home for this year's students is not to give up on their hopes if their marks fall just below the cut-off for the course they most wanted.
That state transport bureaucrats might cut safety corners in rail construction to get a project finished on time and on budget by the next state election defies common sense and decency.
Euthanasia is once again up for debate. The subject can arise for families anywhere, whenever relatives watch someone they care for suffer a lingering, painful death. Surely some means can be devised, the thinking goes, to shorten this suffering by earlier termination of life.
Sunny skies are forecast for Melbourne, with a top of 31 degrees for the start of the Australian Open. We hope the tournament is successful, and we wish all participants the best of luck.
Homeless statistics are a serious reproach for all Sydneysiders. They tell us that our current efforts are not good enough.
Barack Obama failed to achieve the "post partisan" political change promised by his campaign but the expectations pinned on him were too much for one man to meet.
Our readers are having trouble understanding why setting clear rules around politicians' work expenses is such an insurmountable task for the Parliament. It's so hard to get the guidelines right, apparently, that every few months we must have a fresh scandal about MPs making spurious claims on the taxpayer's purse.
We wanted a fairytale, but we're getting a horror story.
Michael Chamberlain's legacy is a lesson to the nation.
The Prime Minister has quite rightly asked his Health Minister, Sussan Ley, to stand aside pending an inquiry into her use of ministerial travel entitlements. She, equally rightly, has agreed.
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