Comment

SMH Editorials

Matt Canavan and Malcolm Roberts.

High Court dispels some of the fog over Canberra

Australian voters will be looking askance at the remarkable effect an appearance before the High Court can have on our politicians. Where some have no qualms about being less than candid when the audience is only the voting public, in front of the judges of the highest court in the land they – or their legal representatives – raise their standards quite quickly.

Mixed message from our man in Manila

SMH editorial dinkus

By chumming up to President Duterte publicly, the head of ASIS appears to risk both negating the government's justified stance against Mr Duterte's domestic policies, and complicating the campaign against Islamist terrorism.

An illusion smashed: the avocado's been framed

Sun Herald Editorial dinkus.

The relief in cafes across Sydney will be palpable today: the avocado is innocent. The lumpy green fruit has not been stopping the millennial generation from buying a house. That is the conclusion from the figures we report today on the price and availability of avocado meals.  

We need a banking royal commission more than ever

CBA chief executive Ian Narev, whose bank stands accused of breaching the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Funding ...

With scandal after scandal, the call for a banking royal commission gets stronger. The Commonwealth Bank's alleged failures hindered law enforcement and exposed the community to "serious and ongoing financial crime", Austrac says.

Untrusting voters demand tangible action

Justice Party senator Derryn Hinch.

There is much to trouble Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten in the findings of focus groups conducted for Fairfax Media in recent days, but more for their dispirited constituency.

Same-sex marriage: if not now, then when?

Dean Smith (front left) and Tony Abbott listen to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a Liberal party room meeting in ...

That loving gay couples should be able to declare a lifetime commitment to each other before the law with the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual couples do is now mainstream thinking. So when will it happen, and why not now?

Urgent fixes needed for mental health care

National Mental Health Commission chair Professor Allan Fels wants the Productivity Commission to look into mental ...

It is shocking indeed that in Australia, where we enjoy one of the best healthcare systems in the world, people with a serious mental illness die younger on average than the general population by between 14 and 23 years.

No more room for excuses on sexual assault at universities

Female students from universities throughout Australia protested in July at Parliament House over inaction on sexual ...

The onus is on universities to change culture on campus and in residential colleges where unacceptable sexual behaviour has for too long been tolerated as part of university life, to be preferably ignored or if necessary covered up.

No quick fixes in school education mix

Australian schools are full of success stories, but performance across the system is slipping.

Every family involved with a school knows that up close there are brilliant success stories every day. At a system level, though, things aren't going so well.

NSW voters won't easily forget botched council mergers

Running back down the hill: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister for Local Government Gabrielle Upton arrive at a ...

The backdown on local council mergers is a humiliating defeat for Premier Gladys Berejiklian and local government minister Gabrielle Upton, their predecessors Mike Baird and Paul Toole, and the NSW government as a whole.