Grattan on Friday: Turnbull sees even a difficult new Senate as an opportunity for a fresh start
Apr 14, 2016 23:18 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Malcolm Turnbull says bluntly that he expects the coming special Senate sitting to reject the industrial legislation. Labors Penny Wong indicates the opposition wont be playing silly buggers by trying to delay the...
Jeremy Corbyn could transform the Brexit debate – but does he want to?
Apr 14, 2016 23:14 pm UTC| Insights & Views
The tone of the debate ahead of the European Union referendum on June 23 has been shrill and disappointing. As with the 2014 Scottish independence referendum campaign, arguments on both sides have been simplistic, focusing...

How the rich helped create 2016's angry populism
Apr 14, 2016 23:10 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
The author F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that the rich are different than you and me. Fitzgeralds observation rings especially true today. The growing divide between the wealthy and everyone else is one of the...
Spending away Australia's Triple A?
Apr 14, 2016 23:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views
This week: The IMF warns of secular stagnation while Moodys ponders a credit downgrade for Australia if GST and negative gearing are not tackled. The big news this week was domestic. And it was about the big...

What prairie dogs tell us about the effects of noise pollution
Apr 14, 2016 23:04 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
In todays busy online world, our brains are constantly stimulated by an onslaught of information. When faced with distractions such as ringing phones, noisy colleagues and floods of incoming emails, focusing on a complex...

Russia: a global energy powerhouse that's much more than a petro-state
Apr 14, 2016 16:30 pm UTC| Insights & Views
Russia is not what you think. Most discussion about its energy influence has focused on oil and gas, particularly gas. Russia can be described, and is routinely described, as a petro-state. This is only partly...
Free trade is once again tearing apart the Republican Party
Apr 14, 2016 16:27 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Free trade has become the Republican elephant in the room, thanks to Donald Trump. The GOP front-runner has helped make trade one of the hot-button issues of the 2016 presidential race. And its tearing the Republican...