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SMH Editorials

First language of Sydney key to culture celebration

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Bujarri Gamurruwa … That's g'day (or perhaps something more formal) in the Gadigal language of the Eora nation. We greet our readers this way to mark NAIDOC week, the annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, in the year of the 50th anniversary of the referendum which was the first step in recognising the rights of Aboriginal Australians.

London tower fire has lessons for Sydney

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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.

Old phones: from waste to valuable resource

Editorial dinkus.

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.

And the winner from this week's footy weep-a-thon is: the AFL

Shattered: Boyd Cordner faces the press after the NSW State of Origin loss.

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

Danger of over-reach on citizenship changes

Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton during a doorstop interview in Canberra over the citizenship ...

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.

City can afford to dream large on Sydney Modern

Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand with designs for the Sydney Modern project.

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.

No pension for politicians who betray the public

Eddie Obeid (left) and Ian Macdonald.

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.

A needlessly bumpy ride for privatising bus services

Drivers across State Transit Authority depots  declared Thursday June 1 a 'Fare Free Day' in protest at the state ...

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.