The opposition has rejected the government’s opening negotiating position for changing the renewable energy target – but said it wants to keep talking. The government proposed the target be changed to…
I wanted to let you know The Conversation launched its US service today. The US service is the third in The Conversation’s global network, following the UK launch last year and the 2011 launch in Australia…
Former prime minister Gough Whitlam has died at the age of 98. His family said in a short statement that he died this morning. “A loving and generous father, he was a source of inspiration to us and our…
Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry have reversed their decision to segregate veiled women watching parliamentary proceedings – but the women will have to show their faces on entering…
Senior cabinet ministers are believed to be divided over whether Australia should sign up to an internationally funded infrastructure development bank that China is set to launch next month. Treasurer…
Astronomers world-wide are gearing up for what NASA calls a “once in a lifetime” event: the Comet Siding Spring will swing past Mars on its maiden voyage through the solar system in the early hours next…
If you noticed a person in grave danger would you act first and think later in order to save them? New research suggests people who put their own lives in danger to help others make the decision to do…
The boom in natural gas supplies brought about by techniques like fracking will not automatically deliver the anticipated cuts to greenhouse emissions, a new analysis has warned. Burning natural gas produces…
The federal government will fund industry growth centres in five sectors that will encourage better use by business of Australian research, as part of a $400 million innovation and competitiveness policy…
A senior Russian diplomat says Australia-Russia relations are at a “historic low”, as Tony Abbott has pledged to “shirt-front” Vladimir Putin at the G20 next month over the downing of flight MH17. In a…
The Australian National University’s decision to withdraw A$16 million in investment from seven resources companies, including gas producer Santos, has been praised by divestment campaigners and condemned…
More than 600,000 children – 17.7% of all children in Australia – were living below the poverty line in 2012, a report released by the Australian Council of Social Service has found. Just over one third…
Tony Abbott says the government won’t send doctors and nurses to help with the Ebola crisis without being “absolutely confident” all the risks are being properly managed. “At the moment, we cannot be confident…
Graduates from the prestigious Group of Eight and technology universities earn more than graduates from the lesser known and regional universities over their lifetime. A new analysis released by the Grattan…
Labor elder John Faulkner has called for a radical overhaul of the party’s structure that would drastically reduce union representation at its state conferences. Faulkner, who has been a continuing voice…
The upper layers of the world’s oceans have been warming much faster than oceanographers realised over the past few decades, according to a new study. Sparse sampling of the Southern Hemisphere’s oceans…
The royal commission into union corruption has been extended for a year and given wider terms of reference, after finding evidence of criminal conduct by union officials. Attorney-General George Brandis…
More than 80% of Australian paediatricians believe mandatory detention of asylum seeker children constitutes child abuse, according to survey results published today in the Medical Journal of Australia…
Damning levels of mental illness and self harm are documented in the Human Rights Commission’s draft report on children in detention, which went to the government on Friday. The inquiry has concluded…
A second case of a baby who was ostensibly “cured” of HIV after early treatment has been discounted as a possible breakthrough in fighting the disease. The case of an Italian baby who relapsed after appearing…
Cabinet has given the go-ahead for Australia’s Super Hornet fighter jets to strike ISIL targets in Iraq, as well as for its special forces to start working with the Iraqi military as soon as legal documents…
James Whitmore, The Conversation and Nadia Wu, The Conversation
Globally, biodiversity is in trouble, and new research shows that the situation is unlikely to improve over the next five years. Researchers from around the world analysed global progress towards meeting…
The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to remember not only information about that topic, but also other unrelated information shown at the same time. A study published today in Neuron…
Update: Tony Abbott is effectively overruling Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate president Stephen Parry’s decree that would see Muslim women with facial coverings confined to glass boxes when they observed…
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not ruled out a proposal by the expert panel reviewing the telecommunications industry to break up and sell off parts of NBN Co. However Mr Turnbull, responding…