Nuance drowned out by pub-test politics

• COMMENT

Is introducing a headline-grabbing test going to achieve anything other than feed a climate of fear towards new Australians?

Australians are dying on our roads, and it's getting worse

After a long and steady decline, Australia's road toll is suddenly on the rise.

Bashar al-Assad: The doctor who grew up to be a mass killer

Assad improbably started his career as a doctor, training in London. But got his tyrannical break when his older brother died, catapulting him into the heir-apparent spot.

Putting Scott Morrison's tax cuts to the pub test

'I tell you what, if you go down the pub and you talk to small business people, they're not talking about econometric models. What they're talking about is how they're going to grow their businesses,' said Scott Morrison.

Stop the campaign complaints! Elections are as good as politics gets

• COMMENT

It may be cool to act like elections are a horrible affliction we are forced to endure on a triennial basis. But really, we should be celebrating their arrival, not complaining.

'He just did it 'cause he likes you'

The Coalition government has launched a confronting new ad campaign, designed to get parents, teachers and coaches to clamp down on disrespectful and aggressive behaviour by boys and young men.

Tumbleweeds roll across the chamber as DD looms

It was almost as if bringing Parliament back was a stunt.

Australia, why do you hate big ideas?

It is a much-honoured national pastime to shoot down ideas and resist even the slightest hint of change. We might be surrounded by sea, but we are also girt by the status quo.

'Astounding silence' over disability abuse royal commission

Disability advocates have slammed the federal government's "astounding silence" over a landmark Senate report, which called for a royal commission into disability abuse more than four months ago.