The new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) is the latest instalment in the long-running saga over the classification, nature and dimensions of mental illness. But it’s not the only system of classification…
When cows are going hungry, should their rights trump those of national parks?
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Due to a serious drought that has seen one-third of Queensland drought declared, farmers are struggling to feed their cattle. There’s inadequate feed on their own land, feed is hard to source in the marketplace…
Children are vulnerable consumers and aren’t capable of making rational, informed choices.
AAP/Dan Peled
Have your children watched a footy match recently? Well, if they watched AFL on TV they also consumed about 50.5 separate episodes of sports betting marketing, from TV and stadium ads, to footy jumpers…
Personality assessment is often used by recruiters to predict workplace success, with varying degrees of accuracy.
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Employers recognise that work performance can’t be predicted perfectly by formal qualifications, references and interviews. Job candidates may have sheaves of diplomas, incandescent recommendations, a…
The Gonski reforms will mean different levels of funding for different schools according to a variety of factors.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
In an attempt to pressure state leaders on schools funding reform, prime minister Julia Gillard revealed new data showing the difference her package would make at the national and state level. The June…
Commercial interests intruding on business reporting is not new, but as newsrooms shrink, the pressure on fearless reporting grows.
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Political forecaster Nate Silver’s excellent book The Signal and Noise explores living in an era of information abundance. Information is not in short supply, but how to interpret it accurately — as he…
Playing politics with transport will only lead to a train wreck.
Flickr/awmalloy
The 2013-2014 Federal budget includes billions of dollars allocated to transport, including a new Melbourne rail tunnel. At the same time the Victorian State government has plans for a different tunnel…
Excising mainland Australia from the migration zone will drastically alter the legal landscape for asylum seekers.
AAP/Made Nagi
The twists and turns of Australian immigration policy grew even more complicated yesterday with the passage of legislation in parliament to excise the mainland of Australia from the “migration zone…
Wayne Swan’s budget has been disappointing for Labor’s education legacy.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The last Labor budget has seen the top half of the Education Revolution fizzle. The ideals that powered the 2009 Gillard policies are in fragments.
Demand-driven higher education will survive until the…
This year’s federal budget failed to provide any hint of meaningful tax reform for businesses and individuals.
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Budget night has come and gone again. For those sad folks (I count myself among them) who follow tax and fiscal policy obsessively, it’s the most glamorous night of the year.
But the budget does matter…
The tobacco industry has stated publicly that it’s helping countries bring claims against Australia’s tobacco plain packaging law.
LUKAS COCH/AAP
Earlier this month, Cuba became the fourth country to challenge Australia’s plain tobacco packaging law by requesting consultations with Australia through the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Tobacco companies…
The Federal Budget has attempted to fill a A$6 billion revenue hole left by the collapse of the EU carbon price – but has cut into renewables as a consequence.
John Goodridge
The decision to link the Australia’s carbon price to the European Union emissions trading scheme has wiped A$6 billion from the federal budget. Treasurer Wayne Swan has dealt with that loss of revenue…
Julia Gillard’s visit to Papua New Guinea – including meeting PM Peter O'Neill – yielded little in advancing Australian or regional causes.
AAP/Eoin Blackwell
Prime minister Julia Gillard returned from her first official visit to Australia’s nearest neighbour and former colony Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Saturday with little to show for it.
Reports of the visit…
Health-services research can help work out how best to share the health-funding pie.
Wout/Flickr
In the eighth part of our series Health Rationing, Philip Clarke and Nicholas Graves suggest ways to make the health-care system more efficient and affordable.
Who would want be the health minister…
How will we know whether or not Treasurer Wayne Swan’s federal budget is a good one? The popular test used to be pretty simple: deliver jobs for all or face the axe. Even when the old Keynesian-style…
Looming cuts to expenditure and probable tax increases mean there will inevitably be winners and losers. But just how should these be chosen?
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The government is facing two options to tackle its budget deficit: significant cuts in government expenditures or increasing taxes to close the gap with spending.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has already…
Alcohol marketing is ubiquitous in AFL broadcasts as can be seen in this shot from a match on Saturday, May 4, 2013.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
The Australian Football League (AFL) and Cricket Australia have refused to sell advertising space to a Tasmanian man trying to raise awareness of the impact of junk food and alcohol advertising linked…
Tony Abbott’s industrial relations policy launch attempts to neutralise Labor’s advantage and bed down fears of a resurgence of WorkChoices.
Industrial relations is the one area of public policy that traditionally marks a major fault line between the Coalition parties and Labor. It is also one area of policy where neither side finds it easy…
Victoria Police arrest a Hells Angels member. Links between bikies and police have come under intense scrutiny after a series of leaks from inside the police.
AAP/Julian Smith
A police officer meets someone in a bar, one thing leads to another and within a few weeks a relationship blossoms. The officer then discovers that the person’s brother is a known criminal.
Or an officer…
Sydneysider bats, such as this lesser long-eared bat, are susceptible to predation even when they keep on the move.
Tracy Morris
When I started my PhD to gain understanding of factors affecting the plight of bats living in our cities, I had no idea I’d be stuffing a freezer full of faeces one day.
Sorry – I’m getting ahead of myself…
Zebrafish at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.
Joan Heath
Our series, Animals in Research, profiles the top organisms used for science experimentation. Here, we look at Danio rerio – the zebrafish.
Zebrafish are probably not the first creatures that come to…
Are students “customers”? The answer is not so simple.
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With the rise of mass higher learning, tight public funding and intense competition for students, universities are often encouraged to see students as “customers”. But should they?
Commentators who criticise…
Your daily movements are simple, predictable and useful to know.
Thuany Gabriela
We lead busy, complex lives. But how many different places will you visit today? And how many different ways could you organise your travel between those places?
The answer, according to a new study published…
Ah, the freedom of the open road!
Walter Parenteau
Although the national budget is now apparently $12 billion in debt, a welter of state governments are pressing the federal government for support to build new freeways. The Victorian Government has just…
Media organisations, such as the Kim Williams-led News Limited, have united to dispute the government’s new whistleblowing legislation.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The Australian media industry is united in its opposition to some key provisions of the federal government’s new whistleblower legislation – now before parliament – and is pushing for some significant…
