Opinion
Opinion
Coronavirus pandemic
Freedom of speech or promotion of lies? Who gets to decide what’s true?
Whatever you think of YouTube’s decision to suspend Sky News, it is clear social media platforms can control the message while being accountable to no one.
- by Margaret Simons
Latest
Analysis
Tokyo Olympics
Forget heartbreak, there are lessons for Matildas to learn for 2023 World Cup
Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson is trying to use disappointment to fuel Australia’s 2023 World Cup campaign. But tactical failures can’t be forgotten.
- by Dominic Bossi
Opinion
Visual art
A Balzac story has inspired famous artists — and a pretentious movie
Honore de Balzac’s famous story ‘The Unknown Masterpiece’ hit a chord with Picasso, Cezanne and a host of others. Why?
- by John McDonald
Analysis
Please Explain podcast
Celebrating Australia’s Olympic success
On this episode of Please Explain, The Age’s chief reporter Chip Le Grand joins Tory Maguire to discuss Australia’s incredible showing at this year’s Olympics.
- by Tory Maguire
Opinion
AFL 2021
Dealing with racism can’t be left in the too-hard basket
Taylor Walker is facing the consequences of his racial slur but care and energy needs to be directed towards those who are subject to vilification and are courageous enough to confront it.
- by Peter Ryan
Opinion
Good Weekend
‘A classic self-mythologiser’: the larger-than-life story of Jock Zonfrillo
Celebrity chefs, Indigenous ingredients and the fallibility of human memory.
Opinion
Australia's Pandemic
Pandemic probe: There must be an inquiry into what went wrong
There was a royal commission into the Rudd government’s pink batts program. Its problems pale against the importance of, and the inadequacies in, the vaccine rollout.
- by Michelle Grattan
Opinion
Export & trade
Our dealings with the world have reversed, but don’t get the wrong idea
It’s time to stop assuming all deficits are bad and all surpluses good.
- by Ross Gittins
Opinion
Tokyo Olympics
At end of a Games like no other, is it time to backpedal on the medals?
There are lots of reasons not to get sucked in by the medals table, a gimmick and guilty pleasure too often turned into a boast. It excludes too many successful achievements.
- by Malcolm Knox
Analysis
Corruption
Death of accountability, one car park space at a time
Coalition MPs laughed ... but the government’s approach to accountability around its car park program would arouse a saint’s wrath.
- by Shane Wright
Opinion
Property prices
Will they ever own a home? The scariest thing about having adult kids
When your children grow up fears of them getting sick, making friends, learning to drive begin to lessen but these days are replaced by the million dollar question.
- by Kate Halfpenny
Analysis
Bledisloe Cup
Where the All Blacks are strong, and where the Wallabies will target them
The partnership between Richie Mo’unga and David Havili is where the All Blacks’ strength lies, but also where the opportunities present themselves for Australia.
- by Paul Cully
Opinion
Census
The Census is a marriage stress-test disguised as a survey
The Bureau of Statistics wants to establish how many couples are divorced. My question: is that before or after the couple has filled in the Census?
- by Richard Glover
Opinion
WordPlay
Ignore that office block – the sunny room of your young romance exists
In lockdown, we roam our past and speculate our future. You can time travel in your mind.
- by David Astle
Opinion
Coronavirus pandemic
PM’s sermon to his worried troops from a ‘muddy track’
Scott Morrison has told his MPs they’re in a tough spot, but can still win. Anthony Albanese’s ranks, meanwhile, are not free of worry.
- by David Crowe
Opinion
Coronavirus pandemic
JobMuddle: Why didn’t we just bring back JobKeeper?
JobKeeper was flawed and costly, but no one could blame the government for its hiccups on the run. What is less understandable is that it wasn’t improved - and resurrected when we inevitably needed it again.
- by Andrew Charlton
Opinion
Work therapy
My boss is making me feel guilty for taking maternity leave
How do you maintain a good relationship with a boss who keeps contacting you to ask when you’re coming back after you made it clear you are taking a year off.
- by Jonathan Rivett
Analysis
Tokyo Olympics
Australia’s Insane Games: Best gold haul since modern Olympics began
But forget medal counts; Australia is having a crazy run in Tokyo, dude.
- by Chip Le Grand
Analysis
Rugby League World Cup
Hemispheres, and powerbrokers, collide over decision to postpone World Cup
The decision to postpone the Rugby League World Cup has been as divisive as it was inevitable.
- by Adrian Proszenko
Opinion
Casinos
How investors got Crown Resorts so badly wrong
Without a licence to operate in NSW, Victoria and WA, Crown will move from a redemption/rehabilitation story to a liquidation story
- by Elizabeth Knight
Analysis
Please Explain podcast
How the federal government plans to address inequality faced by First Nations people
Today on Please Explain, Nathanael Cooper is joined by Indigenous affairs reporter and Gamilaroi man Cameron Gooley.
- by Nathanael Cooper
Opinion
Government debt
America has hit its debt ceiling, and the ‘X-date’ looms large
The Biden administration has been forced to take “extraordinary measures” to conserve cash as it seeks to head off a US default on its debt - a development that would have global ramifications.
- by Stephen Bartholomeusz
Analysis
Social media
As Twitter retires Fleets, the social media site is stuck with itself
Seemingly talked about more than it’s talked on, Twitter has struggled to find a way to expand.
- by John Herrman
Opinion
Web culture
What if humans just can’t get along anymore?
Are we capable as a species of coordinating our actions at a scale necessary to address the dire problems we face? Maybe humanity’s capacity to cooperate has been undone by the very technology we thought would bring us all together.
- by Farhad Manjoo
Analysis
Hospitals in crisis
WA’s frantic efforts to deal with one health crisis leaves another exposed - and our children may pay the price
The state government is trying to ‘strike the balance’ between staffing vaccination clinics and hospitals as Delta strikes - but we just don’t have the nursing numbers.
- by Aja Styles
Opinion
Crown royal commission
Crown’s conclusion: The buck stops with the Andrews government
If Crown continues to operate the casino in the light of all that has been revealed, then proper regulation is not a serious activity for the government of Victoria.
- by Charles Livingstone
Opinion
Political leadership
Damaged not destroyed: PM in trouble but could again land on his feet
Morrison’s skill at triple backward somersaults could save him, unless it reaches the point where people no longer believe his smudging of fact and fiction.
- by Niki Savva
Opinion
NRL 2021
Why Manly and Souths – not Penrith – can trouble Melbourne Storm
To beat the Storm, you need a little magic. The Sea Eagles and Souths have plenty of players who can wave the wand.
- by Andrew Johns
Opinion
Religion
Has Australia lost its religion, or merely its affection for institutions?
Australians nominating as Christians are about to dip below 50 per cent in the coming census, but that doesn’t necessarily make us a godless nation.
- by Mark Stephens
Opinion
Indigenous justice
A national disgrace: most First Nations kids won’t witness equality on incarceration in their lifetime
The Prime Minister will announce his Closing the Gap plan on Thursday morning, but still it will take many decades to close the chasms that separate First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians.
- by Dean Parkin
Opinion
Fintech
Banks square up to Afterpay and Apple in payments fight
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the major banks have a fight on their hands, and the threat is coming from both fintechs and “big tech” players such as Apple.
- by Clancy Yeates
Opinion
Tokyo Olympics
My Olympics First XI: Ten bouquets and one brickbat
This doesn’t pretend to be an objective list. But for what it’s worth here are my first XI impressions from these fabulous Olympic Games.
- by Peter FitzSimons
Analysis
Please Explain podcast
Why is Afterpay’s takeover such a watershed moment?
On this episode of Please Explain, business editor John McDuling joins Tory Maguire to discuss how Afterpay became the subject of Australia’s largest ever corporate deal.
- by Tory Maguire
From the futon
Tokyo Olympics
What climbing could learn from the ancient Olympic sport of rugby league
Sport climbing has made its debut at the Tokyo Olympics. Why?
- by Andrew Webster
Opinion
Regional Australia
Moving to the country? You’ll meet a lot of great teachers, but your kids’ education could still suffer
The city-bush divide is sadly reflected in the quality of school education. But the current big population move out of cities, pronounced by the pandemic, is Australia’s chance to fix this inequality.
- by Sean Barrett
Opinion
Coronavirus pandemic
Doherty modelling suggests COVID reopening plan is reckless
The national cabinet should not be pulling a trigger too early and consign Australia to even more lockdowns and a higher number of COVID-19 deaths.
- by Anika Stobart and Stephen Duckett
Opinion
Regulation
Afterpay takeover highlights the need to rethink financial regulation
Fintechs aren’t banks and aren’t regulated like banks. But they are increasingly offering a range of services and products that look like - and compete with - banking services and products.
- by Stephen Bartholomeusz
Analysis
MeToo movement
Andrew Cuomo’s Trumpian bid to survive his sexual harassment scandal
The governor’s response to the accusations is laughably feeble, but the polls will be closely watched - do regular New Yorkers really want Cuomo to go?
- by Matthew Knott
Opinion
Coronavirus pandemic
The vaccine passport paradox: its design will determine its success or failure
The more of us who become vaccinated, the safer it becomes for those who aren’t. And that could undermine the success of a vaccine passport.
- by Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden
Opinion
Coronavirus pandemic
Our leaders would do better if their followers were thinking harder
Yes, we get the politicians we deserve. But we’ve lost sight of the truth that well-functioning democracies require diligent citizens, not just honest and smart politicians.
- by Ross Gittins
Opinion
Political leadership
Porter’s elevation betrays PM’s chilling apathy towards survivors
To see Christian Porter assume the role of leader of the House of Representatives is an insult to all survivors of sexual abuse.
- by Grace Tame
Opinion
Coronavirus pandemic
Cash incentives not a bad idea to avoid an Australia divided by vaccine status
It is clear is that we are heading, in real world practice if not codified name, to a system of vaccination passports which will divide Australian society into the jabbed and unjabbed.
- by Gareth Parker
Opinion
Tokyo Olympics
Bol’s bolt a bridge for a nation
This Wednesday, Peter Bol competes for gold. And many people across Australia, including my family and I, will be cheering him on.
- by Nyadol Nyuon
Opinion
Vaccination
Vaccine race goes around in circles
Five months after getting Pfizered in his Australian flag mask, Morrison is again leveraging the mystical “Aussie spirit” to mobilise the populace.
- by Julie Szego
Opinion
Money psychology
Pandemic shifts our investment psychology
ETFs have put portfolio construction tools that only a few years ago were the domain of large institutional investors onto the laptops and phones of retail investors.
- by Robin Bowerman
New super laws mean you need to check your insurance
The government’s stapling measure has been celebrated for its ambitions to stamp out duplicate superannuation accounts and stop workers paying multiple fees. But they could also leave you without suitable insurance cover.
- by Charlotte Grieve
Opinion
Schools
How to give home-schoolers a financial break
It is time for the federal government to step up and make the extra costs involved in home schooling tax deductible.
- by Joel Gibson
Opinion
Aged care
Retirement village disputes can be tough to solve
Disputes – whether they are between residents or a resident and a village operator – can come at high price both financially and emotionally.
- by Rachel Lane
Opinion
Property prices
House prices take a breath as affordability crunch bites
First home buyers are retreating from the property market as cashed-up investors attracted by the prospects of significant capital gains outbid them at auctions.
- by John Collett
Analysis
Coronavirus pandemic
How do we know vaccines won’t have long-term safety risks?
Vaccine trials are shorter than you might think but time and time again, they produce safe and effective jabs, so it’s a fair bet we’re not going to start turning into horrifying lizard creatures.
- by Liam Mannix