SMH Editorials
Ways to end counterfeiting of Indigenous art
As much as 80 per cent of the arts and crafts promoted to tourists as Indigenous are fake, leading arts organisations have established.
Not the leadership maelstrom again …
When this week started, Malcolm Turnbull appeared intent on distracting attention from his government's weak parliamentary position.
White paper catches the chill in the air
The foreign policy white paper released yesterday is a timely document given the way things stand with our major alliance partner and our major trading partner.
Rego rebate is good only as a first step
There are some positive aspects to what looks initially like a plain election bribe.
A $3 billion boost for the liberal arts
Many young people still come to university with a dream of engaging with great books and great ideas.
Zimbabwe endgame: Mugabe inches towards the exit
Even if Mugabe does finally relinquish power, does Zimbabwe have much to celebrate?
After Don Dale, a new path for Indigenous Australians
Royal commissions are usually only appointed by governments as a last resort, for they are slow, costly and can merely make recommendations, not laws.
The real centre is reasserting itself
The result of the same-sex marriage plebiscite reveals a split in Australia's conservatism into groups we may perhaps call old and new.
Hefty toll on parents performing the school sporting shuttle
Sport is a demanding business for families. It's competitive and eats into finances and time.
Gross inequality a threat to progress and social cohesion
Continued peaceful progress here and around the globe depends on communities having faith the system is fair.
Postal vote a sign the right-wing wave has crashed
The voices claiming to represent Australia's forgotten people are loud, but how many real voters are listening?
Teaching needs a lift in status
It is time to value teaching closer to its true worth to society, the economy and the nation's future.
Bringing Parramatta Road back to life
Sydney's long-suffering commuters are a patient bunch. They have learnt to be, the hard way. Stuck on the city's clogged roads or standing on overcrowded buses, grinding their teeth or scrolling their phones, they calmly await promised improvements to their lot.
We see our own littleness: now to act
Fresh figures show a dreadful degree of inhumanity in our prosperous land we like to think is based on the notion of a fair go.
It makes no sense to force young cyclists onto deadly roads
A child taking their first wobbly pedal strokes on a bicycle as their parent runs anxiously behind calling out instructions is one of the great rites of passage of Australian childhood.
Canberra keeps up the petty pace
It looks as if the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, may be having some success at the APEC summit in salvaging what remains of the Trans Pacific Partnership after President Donald Trump decided to pull the United States out.
Genetic tests should not spoil insurance chances
We can't abolish risk, so let's spread it fairly.
Trump's Asia tour will be judged by its consequences
The success of Mr Trump's Asian tour will be judged by whether he can forge and maintain the international will to pressure Kim Jong-un to return to the negotiating table.
Rational decision-making lost in stadium power-plays
Instead of rationally assessing the city's stadium needs and proceeding on the basis of a business case, the government is trying to balance powerful interests.
Strong schools build a strong society
The breakdown of national 2016 census figures on school attendance we published yesterday comparing the suburbs and localities where students of government, private and independent schools live is interesting in itself, but it sets a puzzle for education planners.
King of Hollywood and the casting couch
The grubby glamour of the Hollywood casting couch has always featured men in positions of power taking advantage of young women. Now women and men in the entertainment industry are finally feeling free to tell their stories
Testing times: children tutored before they even start school
That parents are choosing to send their children for tutoring before they even turn up for their first day at kindergarten school, as our story today reveals, is a worrying trend. One tutoring college says preschool enrolments have increased 45 per cent in five years.
The unravelling – series two, episode whatever
Tanya Plibersek's description of the Turnbull government as a soap opera isn't far from the truth. Series one having concluded with the downfall of Tony Abbott, we are now well into series two, and things aren't going well for our current hero.
Domestic violence needs action, not a gag
Attempts to stifle the flow of information and blindfold the public should be resisted.
Another political whale lands on the beach
Just when you thought the embarrassing foreign citizenship saga was over, along comes another silly episode.
The Russia plot thickens as Trump advisers fall
President Trump may find himself in a corner he cannot tweet his way out of.
AWU raid leaves the Coalition defenceless
The streaker's defence – it seemed like a good idea at the time – looks to be the best excuse for the Federal Police raid on the Australian Workers' Union.
Citizenship seven: of courage and cowardice
The charge of Australia's 4th Light Horse Brigade on a Turkish-held town on October 31, 1917, was not merely one of the last live cavalry charges of warfare, it may have been its greatest.
Tangled wires on the way to national broadband
For many Australians, the NBN is a lottery.