How the deficit obsession is eroding the budget's usefulness

Apr 21, 2016 07:10 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy Politics

When government administrations change we can expect a change in the political spin, but anyone who has studied Commonwealth budgets over the years will have noticed something far more significant than swings between Labor...

Future of Coal Series

Black lung's back? How we became complacent with coal miners' pneumoconiosis

Apr 21, 2016 07:06 am UTC| Insights & Views Health

The name black lung says it all. When miners inhale excessive amounts of coal dust, the fine air filtration system of the lungs sieves out the dust, which then remains permanently in the lung. These deposits can even be...

Limits to growth: policies to steer the economy away from disaster

Apr 21, 2016 07:03 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

If the rich nations in the world keep growing their economies by 2% each year and by 2050 the poorest nations catch up, the global economy of more than 9 billion people will be around 15 times larger than it is now, in...

Individuals not the priority in the Cyber Security Strategy

Apr 21, 2016 06:56 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology

The Cyber Security Strategy announced today by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull clearly places a high priority on protecting Australian government systems from foreign powers. But when it comes to protecting citizens...

Briferendum Series

Gove’s vision for the UK out of the EU: welcome to Vote Leave's parallel universe

Apr 21, 2016 06:48 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

Vote Leave has finally set out their plan for the UKs future trading relationship with the EU, in the event of a vote to leave the Union in the forthcoming referendum. Justice secretary Michael Gove claims that Britain can...

Smart homes need to start treating their inhabitants better

Apr 21, 2016 06:45 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology

We might still be some way from coming home to robots doing the cooking and cleaning for us, but the age of widespread home automation has arrived. More and more people now have intelligent versions of devices like...

Climate Change Series

Signing the Paris Climate Agreement is easy – what comes next for Australia will be hard

Apr 21, 2016 06:39 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Tomorrow, world leaders and diplomats will converge on the United Nations New York headquarters to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change. It will be the largest UN signing event in history, with representatives from...