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Opinion

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If we change the date prematurely we lose the spur to discuss and debate the meaning of what it is to be Australian.

This country has a habit of forgetting history, let’s keep the date

If we change the date prematurely we lose the spur to discuss and debate the meaning of what it is to be Australian. We need to find a way to celebrate our discomfort.

  • by Wesley Enoch

Latest

Violence against women is both a symptom and a cause of gender inequality.

The factors putting First Nations women in danger

As we approach January 26, a painful day for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, inequality is squarely on my mind.

  • by Patty Kinnersly
On occasions – such as this year – when January 26 falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, the whole economy suffers.

The economic case for a guaranteed Australia Day long weekend

Australia’s public holiday schedule is confusing and inconsistently applied across states, creating significant headaches for businesses and failing to give workers optimal breaks throughout the year.

  • by Jessica Irvine
Illustration: Andrew Dyson

How Putin and Xi are putting Western might to the test

America and its allies have no appetite for a war with Russia, yet that is also a message to China: that US hegemony is finished.

  • by Peter Hartcher
Bitcoin continues to fall

Crypto’s $US1tr collapse is testing the faith of the true believers

With the blink of an eye, more than a trillion dollars in crypto-market value has evaporated. The meltdown pouring salt on an already-deep wound.

  • by Emily Nicolle and Vildana Hajric
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Letters
Letters

Disaffected young voters won’t fall for Libs’ tax ploy

Tax office figures might provide fodder for Coalition election marketing, but they are useless to any young person trying to buy a house or get job security.

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In the Herald

In the Herald: January 25, 1970

John and Yoko get shorn, girl rescued from lion, gate-crashers run off

  • by Brian Yatman
Aboriginal flag designer Harold Thomas.

I created the Aboriginal flag as a symbol of unity and pride

Copyright for the Aboriginal flag now belongs to the Commonwealth, as custodian for the people of Australia.

  • by Harold Thomas
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has delayed the reopening of his state’s border.

WA Premier is violating the rights of his fellow Australians

Mark McGowan’s self-serving decision to keep Western Australia’s border shut to other Australians ignores the changed realities of the pandemic.

  • by Luara Ferracioli and Ryan Cox
Double denim has Kanye West spreading love in Paris at the Kenzo show, with girlfriend Julia Fox.
Opinion
Style

Double denim is Kanye West’s revenge dress

With new girlfriend Julia Fox the rapper signals Kim Kardashian as he refuses to go solo with style.

  • by Damien Woolnough
Don’t look up - look down
Opinion
Volatility

Why investors are selling first and asking questions later

Now is not the time for negative news - investors are taking no prisoners in the current market as the hammerings of Adairs and Netflix shows.

  • by Elizabeth Knight
Peng Shuai supporters at the Australian Open.

Where is Peng Shuai? Nothing to see here

Tennis Australia, by banishing pro-Peng Shuai protestors from Melbourne Park, has shone an uncomfortable light back on its priorities at the Australian Open.

  • by Greg Baum
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

Time for restoring the hopes of younger generation

The promise of tax cuts for young Australians will only go part of the way to restoring their hopes in owning a home or in building a more certain future.

  • The Herald's View
Please Explain co-host Nathanael Cooper.

Who will take the title at the Australian Open?

Today on Please Explain, The Age’s sports reporter Sam McClure joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss the Australian Open, as the competition enters its second week.

  • by Nathanael Cooper
Vladimir Putin’s Russia has less to lose than its rivals if they are to employ economic sanctions over Ukraine.

Putin has carefully built his advantage and will never have another chance like this

If Vladimir Putin is to attack Ukraine, he must act soon. His cat-and-mouse game across political and economic fronts has created a narrow window for an invasion before the ground turns into a bog.

  • by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Wall Street has begun the month on April in a positive mood.

Investors have woken up and sharemarkets are sinking

It took a while for investors to grasp the implications of the U-turn in the US Fed’s monetary policies late last year. But last week’s savage selloff suggests they’ve finally come to grips with them.

  • by Stephen Bartholomeusz
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Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Pandemic highlights the importance of a sustainably funded WHO

Making the world safer and healthier means member states of the World Health Organisation must tackle its long-term funding challenge.

  • by Helen Clark, Graça Machel, Paul Martin, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Elhadj As Sy and Gordon Brown
Oil prices gained in New York trade with Brent Crude flirting with $US82 a barrel.

The world’s oil stockpile is nowhere to be found

The world should still be awash in oil stockpiles built up during the pandemic. But that’s not what the actual data on oil supplies show.

  • by Julian Lee
Tech shares have been hammered in the first month of the year, sending the Nasdaq into a correction.

Wall Street’s lockdown winners are getting hammered as workers return to office

Technology shares have suffered their worst week since the start of the COVID crisis amid a global return to the office that threatens to derail lockdown winners such as Netflix and Peloton.

  • by James Titcomb and Louis Ashworth
Cryptocurrencies are the new frontier for Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey picked a bad time to go all in on Bitcoin

The founder of Twitter quit to push further into his love of cryptocurrency - but has he backed the wrong horse?

  • by James Titcomb
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - AUGUST 12: Displaced Afghans from the northern provinces are evacuated from a makeshift IDP camp in Share-e-Naw park to various mosques and schools on August 12, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. People displaced by the Taliban advancing are flooding into the Kabul capital to escape the Taliban takeover of their provinces. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Australia must heed urgent calls for increased visa places for Afghans

The federal government has failed to address an urgent need for an expansion of protective resettlement for Afghans who are in imminent danger from the Taliban regime.

  • by Sajjad Askary and Sitarah Mohammadi
The education sector is at risk of staff shortages, excessive turnover and further disruptions.
Opinion
Education

Want the best outcomes for students in 2022? Let the teachers teach

Teachers want their administrative workloads reduced and to have time to innovate and invest in developing their professional knowledge all for the benefit of their students.

  • by Joanne Gleeson
Frontline public hospital healthcare staff in NSW are struggling with burnout.

On Omicron’s hospital frontline, goodwill is wearing thin

The Premier’s statements that the public hospital system has capacity and is coping have offended many frontline healthcare workers whose sacrifices have, and continue to be, been immense.

  • by Dr Tony Joseph and Dr Ruth Arnold
Masks are likely to remain a fixture of schooling in term one

Getting back to school is crucial, so it must be safe for everyone

As teachers and students return to school, we must continue to heed the best scientific evidence available - in both health and education - to deliver safe and productive classrooms.

  • by Jenny Gore and Nick Talley
Illustration by Jim Pavlidis

To tell the truth, our flawed emotional logic must be laid bare

To achieve true reconciliation, difficult discussions about Indigenous dispossession and disadvantage can no longer be confined to the week of Australia Day.

  • by Sean Kelly
Australian Open 2022. Nick Kyrgios v Daniil Medvedev on day 4. 20 January 2022. The Age Sport. Photo: Eddie Jim.
Letters
Letters

Tennis louts are bringing the country into disrepute

The crowd during the Nick Kyrgios/Daniil Medvedev match confirmed to the world we are a bunch of yobbos - now that’s not something to be proud of.

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In the Herald

In the Herald: January 24, 1840

The passport solution, Windsor waistcoat swindler, and a floating bridge

  • by Brian Yatman
Column 8 Granny dinkus with mask.
Opinion
Column 8

Losing the plot all over the place

Predatory worms are the worst.

More than 400,000 international students are studying at Australian universities.
Opinion
University

Study languages and save: uni fees discount lost in translation

The cost of studying languages at university has been slashed, so why don’t school-leavers know about it?

  • by David Reeve
Remote learning may be necessary once the school term starts later this month.
Opinion
Education

Era of remote learning must end – our children have sacrificed too much

One of the toughest aspects of the myriad COVID-19 restrictions over the past two years has been the impact on children.

  • by The Herald's View
Diana, Princess of Wales wearing the Lover’s Knot tiara on a 1985 visit to Washington.

Why I don’t want to see any more movies about Princess Diana

I’m probably one of a handful of people (along with Camilla and Charles, I’m guessing) who’ve had a right royal gutful of movies about the People’s Princess.

  • by Natalie Reilly
CC030K A glass bottle of fresh milk is delivered to the doorstep of a cottage with a blue door in England’s picturesque Cotswolds area of Great Britain (GB).. Image shot 1999. Exact date unknown. Foil top glass milk bottle

The summer I ... became a milkman

Desire helped me quickly remember the milk order for one house. But standing on the running board of a small truck that rattled and shuddered its way through the suburbs, I felt sure I would never remember what all the other houses were meant to get.

  • by Simon Castles
A person walks past a Beijing 2022 sign inside the main media center at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Burner phones and free-speech threats: Olympians brace for ‘joyless’ Games in Beijing

When the Olympics are staged during normal times and in normal countries, athletes race to get there, beaming. It is a different story for the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.

  • by Barry Svrluga
Cryptocurrency investors have had a rough two months.

Bitcoin value cut in half since November

The sell-off accelerated a two-month slide in the global cryptocurrency market that has vaporised nearly $2 trillion in value.

  • by Tory Newmyer and Rachel Siegel
Joe Root and England had a miserable summer.
Opinion
The Ashes

Why a series of three Tests, not five, can revive the Ashes

Long series with rotated teams no longer looks like sport’s pinnacle - and perhaps less may prove to be more. Victory feels altogether less meaningful if it is not accompanied by the sense of having overcome a worthy foe. 

  • by Tim Wigmore
Joe Biden’s first year in office has been disappointing.

‘These are not good times’: Democrats are in the doldrums, but Republicans are no better

The revival that the Democrats promised – that electing Biden would end the pandemic chaos, restore unity within America and respect for it abroad – has fizzled.

  • by Parnell Palme McGuinness
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Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis in a scene from the Sex and the City reboot, And Just like That,
Analysis
Pop culture

Has our appetite for TV reboots been exhausted?

A string of cancellations and lukewarm relaunches has thrown a wrench into the accepted industry wisdom about trading in nostalgia.

  • by Robert Moran
Workplace experts say the unproductive habits workers picked up during the pandemic are leading to burnout and fatigue.

Reworking the week: Let’s lose a day and find more time for life

Many companies and countries are actively trialling a four-day working week. Surely it’s time for Australia to give it a go, too.

  • by Helen Pitt
Food fraud is suspected to be a $3 billion industry in Australia.

This election must deal with the increasing inequalities in our community

As the Prime Minister prepares to face voters in just a few months, he might care to reflect on how that good old Australian hip-pocket nerve is faring.

  • by The Herald's View
Lead image of Amanda Anisimova and Ashleigh Barty for Paul McNamee colu

No easy task: Barty can’t afford to slip up in Australian Open quest

Ashleigh Barty has breezed through the opening rounds of the Australian Open so far, but the assignment is about to become harder as she prepares to face Amanda Anisimova.

  • by Paul McNamee

This election must deal with the increasing inequalities in our community

The rapid spread of Omicron has undermined consumers’ confidence in the economic outlook, their ability to afford essential items, or plan their financial future. Despite Australian households saving significantly during the pandemic, they have a cautiously negative mood about the path ahead.

  • by The Age's View
Many Australians question whether January 26 is a date that should be celebrated as a national day of unity.

Would a modern Australia choose January 26 to celebrate our nation?

If we were choosing a day to unify us as a country, would we choose the moment the Union Jack was first planted on this land? I don’t think we would.

  • by Linda Burney
A flash mob of ‘partygate’ anti-Boris Johnson protestors at Downing Street.

Booze-busted Boris still rules the party room, for now

British PM Boris Johnson’s political self-immolation would be harder to come by in NSW, where our leaders ingeniously insulated themselves from breaking their own rules by not having many.

  • by Dom Knight
James Pearce says it’s “ridiculous” to say Australians should spend their savings and then chastise them for not saving.

‘Damn lot of money’: How households plan to spend their pandemic savings

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is hoping the $260 billion in cash saved by households during the pandemic will fuel the economic recovery, but many Australians have other ideas.

  • by Caitlin Fitzsimmons
NSW Police will not fine Hillsong for a youth camp that was ordered to stop singing and dancing earlier this week.
Letters
Letters

Megachurch lording it over the rest of us

The highly questionable decision by the authorities not to fine Hillsong for flagrantly breaching COVID orders at their recent youth camp sends an unwanted message to Hillsong devotees.

Is food getting more expensive?
Analysis
Shopping

Are groceries really getting more expensive?

From wrestling in the aisles over toilet paper to fears of continuing supply shortages, the pandemic has inflamed a perpetual anxiety among Australians about the rising cost of filling a shopping trolley.

  • by Jessica Irvine
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How I saved $537 on my electricity bill

If you haven’t shopped around for a better energy plan in a year or more, this is your annual reminder to jump on to your relevant government price comparison website today.

  • by Jessica Irvine
More people are clearing their credit card balance each month, avoiding interest.

Why some credit cards are not all bad

A zero per cent balance transfer credit card allows you to kick the credit can down the road, however, far better is to use the interest-free period to bust out of card debt forever.

  • by Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon
Emily in Paris star Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu attends Paris Fashion Week on January 19, 2022.
Opinion
Style

Philippine Beaulieu-Leroy’s naked dress was daring – and that’s the point

The Emily in Paris star turned heads in a sheer dress this week. But would it be quite so topical if the nipples on display belonged to a 26-year-old rather than a 58-year-old?

  • by Melissa Twigg
Pat Cummins.

England were woeful, but Pakistan tour will tell us a lot more about Australia

England’s Ashes capitulation was the meekest performance from the oldest enemy in my recollection. So, just how good is Australia’s Test team then?

  • by Geoff Lawson