Facing fees: how ‘free’ are public schools?
Are public schools really ‘free’? Families can pay hundreds of dollars in voluntary fees, says EMMA ROWE.
Opinion
Views on the news from Canberra’s top columnists
Support for changing date of Australia Day softens, but remains strong among young people, says new research.
"My only concern is Trump's dealing with China, but even there I think his tariff threats are part of his so-called Art of the Deal. Will he sacrifice American lives to prevent a Chinese takeover of Taiwan? Really?" writes ROBERT MACKLIN.
"Hopefully politicians will learn from LA that spending funds on fortifying our city against the natural disasters of climate change is more important than running a tram to Woden before it is too late," writes BEATRICE BODART-BAILEY.
Opinion
The problem with too many or too few people
In 1947 overseas migration was seen as essential to increase living standards by developing natural resources and to increase national security. But what now, wonders MIKE QUIRK.
Opinion
Here’s why the snail-pace ACT Integrity Commission has to go
"It’s bad practice [for] the commission to take four years to investigate and report on an issue where the facts were readily discoverable." HUGH SELBY doubles down on his call to abolish the snail-pace ACT Integrity Commission.
Opinion
Where is religious leadership when the going gets tough?
"At least 50,000 innocents have died in Gaza since October 2023 and the failure of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders reveals the chasmic gap between religious teaching and religious-based conduct," writes HUGH SELBY.
Electric car sales have slumped. Misinformation is one of the reasons, say MILAD HAGHANI & HADI GHADERI.
Whimsy columnist CLIVE WILLIAMS devotes his column to digital living – the art of being constantly connected, yet somehow never truly there.
The default position these days from those we elect is to ignore any call for action unless it will likely increase their re-election prospects, writes legal columnist HUGH SELBY.
Los Angeles is on fire. How will Australia cope when bushfires hit Sydney, Melbourne or another major city, asks pyrogeography professor DAVID BOWMAN?
Pompeii comes to Australia, and ancient and contemporary stories of disaster and loss converge, writes KYLIE MESSAGE.
Letter writer SUE DYER, of Downer, believes Labor should be worried if the plan is to have the current treasurer, planning and transport minister Chris Steel take on full parliamentary party and government leadership duties any time soon.
Why do we dream – and why do we dream what we dream? Why does time seem to fly during happy moments and drag during tedious ones? CLIVE WILLIAMS devotes his Whimsy column to pondering the imponderable.
"Unfortunately, the human mind is a precision instrument of self-delusion. Its most fearsome power is its capacity to provide self-sustaining fables that support its natural desire to escape its own demise," writes columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.
Letter writer JACK KERSHAW says it's in the national interest to get the light rail route to Woden right – and it's not too late to make the change.
Book reviewer COLIN STEELE recently came across a secondhand copy of a book published in pre-internet 1975 in which 15 "leading Australians" forecast how the country would look in 2025. How close did they get?
Star Wars can teach us about the economy or as Yoda might say, ‘about economics, it can teach’, writes JOHN HAWKINS.
"This article is about some sus stuff... the the way in which we taxpayers fork out to keep undeserving people enjoying a lifestyle that they have forfeited," writes legal columnist HUGH SELBY.
