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SMH Editorials

The new English syllabuses focus on grammar and punctuation.

HSC reforms pass the first test

Perhaps the best change is the shift away from the social and historically context of physics, to be replaced by a focus on the rules and formulas that explain processes.

Sports stars gone wrong, and hope for recovery

Grant Hackett won the 1500m gold medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004 but has struggled to build a stable post-sport life.

Cases such as Grant Hackett's highlight the importance of mentoring young athletes as the pressure builds on them to not only perform but also to try new things that their status and income allows.

More work to do on Closing the Gap

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with Ngunnawal elders on the eve of the Closing the Gap report release at Parliament ...

Descriptions of poverty, domestic violence, drunkenness and homelessness may be well-intentioned attempts to draw attention to ongoing problems, but they do not convey the full picture of Aboriginal lives.

Truth, not hypocrisy, is the answer to One Nation

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson wants an inquiry into Islam.

The Liberals' deal to preference One Nation ahead of the Nationals in the Western Australian election in March smacks of desperation. Voters will rightly wonder whether the same kind of desperation will lead to similar pacts around the country.

A depressing tale of two ministers

Sun-Herald editorial dinkus.

The longer you look at it, the odder it seems. In reshuffling her cabinet, Gladys Berejiklian made some moves that were interesting, some that were inevitable, and some that were just strange. Two moves in particular were so bizarre that they look like mistakes: Adrian Piccoli and Rob Stokes. 

If the Immigration Department was a business it would be bankrupt

AFR. Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Scott Morrison delivers a press conference in relation to a death of ...

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.

On sexual abuse, the Catholic Church can hide no more

Cardinal George Pell strongly rejects the child sexual abuse allegations against him.

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.

Dial T for a thorough Trumping

Donald Trump's aggressive phone call to Malcolm Turnbull reflects the dangerous unpredictability he has brought to the ...

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.

Turnbull's donations delay feeds voter distrust, demands reform

Malcolm Turnbull waited seven months to reveal his donation because that's what the law allows. But it's a bad law.

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.

'I am not a political animal'

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull set out his 2017 agenda on Wednesday.

Malcolm Turnbull tried to claim outsider status but offered more of the conventional rhetoric and policies that almost cost him office last July.

Prejudice trumps principle in US immigration ban

People protest at Indianapolis International Airport against President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily ...

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.

Unity from a complex past

Young Girl Guides at the Australia Day flag ceremony at Parliament House.

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.

Big pharma should have to come clean

Almost daily there are new cures as a result of pharmaceutical companies' research, or new ways to relieve painful or ...

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.

Will Trump be different as President?

President-elect Donald Trump has signalled disdain for the political and legal systems that are  supposed to keep him in ...

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?