The inferno in London's Grenfell Tower has rung alarm bells across the globe. As British authorities scramble to check cladding on high-rises and struggle to cope with large-scale evacuations, the whole government approach to social housing is now under attack. But the fire was still smouldering when wider repercussions started to emerge. If a design flaw in the tower contributed to the blaze, then buildings elsewhere could have a similar problem.

They're launched each year with a fanfare: the latest model mobile phones are held aloft to cheering crowds by their designers and promoters, photographed in loving close-up like jewels or miracles of nature, exhibited 20 metres wide on billboards, or flashed across the internet on fan sites and ads. And their appeal is instantaneous and almost universal.

• Editorial

The secretive process surrounding the sale of the Sydney GPO raises questions.

• Editorial

Parliament heads off for the winter break with the Turnbull government on a high from perhaps its most significant political victory yet: the passing of the so-called Gonski 2.0 school funding reforms through the House of Representatives. 

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Who is weeping more copiously, the Rugby League fans of this state who watched their team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on home ground in State of Origin II? Or the long-suffering followers of Rugby Union who had to witness the Wallabies' ignominious loss to Scotland

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Playing to the crowd can sometimes, paradoxically, undermine precisely the democratic values that underpin the privilege of Australian citizenship, especially when it involves a cynical appeal to fear.

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The state's finances are in rude good health but the government seems deaf to the resulting opportunity for significant tax reform

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Australians like to think we are all equal under the law but in the area of racial inequality, criminal injustice grows unhindered.

The "roid in Android" ad was a sick joke reflecting a concerning disconnect.

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The battle lines over the Finkel climate change review have been rapidly drawn, but there remains plenty of room for compromise.

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The government would not have parted with a single dollar, let alone $90 million, if it believed it could successfully contest the claims of negligence and false imprisonment on Manus Island in court.

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It is quite clear that the Chinese Communist Party is waging an opaque campaign to interfere in Australian politics and institutions, using the political donations system to gain access.

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Sydney can afford to dream large with Sydney Modern or, more to the point, can't afford not to. We need a contemporary cultural precinct to compete for tourism visitors not just with Melbourne and Hobart but also with London, Paris and New York.

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Australia has lost myriad opportunities, thanks to carbon tax scare campaigns and political self-interest.

• Editorials

Mr Trump may be vulnerable to the charge of obstruction of justice. It's likely to be just another step on the path to a political demise which seems more than ever inevitable,

Since Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975, its post-colonial relationship with Australia has had its ups and downs, but it remains strong.

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The woman they had called the accidental prime minister after she seemed to fall into the job when all the other candidates dropped out may have engineered her last political accident.

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Anyone who threatens, assaults or harasses their fellow citizen should be punished according to the law. There should be no exceptions or cover-ups for students or incidents that occur on campus.

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It is hard decisions more than hard rocks, oil and gas that explain our "miracle economy", but we don't kid ourselves growth is now permanent.

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Premier Gladys Berejiklian's move to strip Eddie Obeid and his one-time colleague Ian Macdonald of their ongoing parliamentary entitlements may yet turn out to be the single most popular act of her time in office.

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The West will not bow to terrorism, yet it inevitably changes our lives. The authorities simply cannot monitor every person on the terror watch list – in Australia's case, numbering 200 – all the time.

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It is no fun to stand on the street in the cold wind or the hot sun and have a bus zoom past you, especially if it appears to have plenty of room for more passengers. It's also frustrating to pack your kids off to school in plenty of time and then have to explain why they were late - the buses, again.

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Australia wastes a shocking amount of food while hundreds of thousands go hungry.

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Toxic State shows that governments and anti-pollution agencies need to do better to protect the people who pay their salaries.

A Paris Accord without the US will set back global efforts to limit temperature rises and is likely to inflame leadership tensions in the Turnbull government.

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Any political threat to hold the public broadcaster to ransom and threaten its independence undermines confidence in the parliament and democracy. It is especially hypocritical when One Nation was behaving in a manner not unlike the apocryphal swamp-inhabiting political insiders the party claims to despise.

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The Uluru statement is a historic breakthrough and a powerful working tool towards constitutional recognition of Australia's first peoples.

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We salute the people of Kiama, Orange and Gulgong; and a big call-out to the good burghers of Tuggeranong, Wollongong and especially Old Bar near Taree. Seven out of the 17-strong Blues squad were born outside Sydney in towns and suburbs that don't always have the best facilities but they usually have the best sense of community and family.

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By now many of us have had the dismaying experience of being shut out of a favourite piece of park because it has been hired out for the day or the week for private use. That will keep happening until a sustainable way is found to pay for maintaining and improving our parks.