It’s the race that stops a nation … and is worth a cool A$6.2 million. So what goes into the raceday preparation for the equine stars of the show? Thoroughbred racehorses have unique anatomy and physiology…
Gas guzzled: OPEC’s 1973 oil embargo threw America into crisis and underlined the political power of energy.
David Falconer/Wikimedia Commons
The Australian Financial Review recently trumpeted America’s “re-emergence as a world oil power”. It is an accomplishment four decades in the making and its success is still under debate. Energy security…
Who’s afraid of a little economic history?
johnwilliamsphd/Flickr
Behind every economic policy initiative lies a narrative justifying that course of action: immigration increases unemployment; public debt is unsustainable; manufacturing is interminably declining; city…
Are scholarships to help out students in need? Or to make universities look good?
AAP
The University of Sydney’s Vice-Chancellor, Michael Spence, presumably achieved his political aim by announcing that his university could offer scholarships to almost a third of its students if fees were…
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull outlines his metadata plans.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has finally presented proposed legislation to the Australian Parliament regarding the Abbott Government’s plans for the retention of metadata. The proposed legislation…
Over half of Australia’s imported goods come from the Asia Pacific, which has 78 million child labourers, including these three in a Bangladesh balloon factory.
EPA/Abir Abdhullah
The fragmentation of global production has dramatically increased the length and complexity of supply chains. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that more than…
Many Indigenous families fear the welfare system.
AAP Image/Neda Vanovac
In some jurisdictions of Australia, the rate of Indigenous children in foster, kinship and residential care on any one night has reached almost one in ten. This rate is almost ten times higher than non-Aboriginal…
Activists have a range of options available to them to voice their anger at a company’s decisions.
Dan Peled/AAP
As part of its program to cut red tape and bureaucracy, the Australian government is set to repeal the 100-member rule. The rule contained in the Corporations Act forces a company to hold a general meeting…
Where the rainforest meets the plantation: there are probably a lot more insects.
Ryan Woo for Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Palm oil plantations have an overall negative impact on biodiversity, according to research released this week. The study, published in Nature Communications, found palm oil plantations are home to fewer…
How do you know if your fish supper is sustainable?
Mw12310/Wikimedia Commons
Australians love seafood. Whether it’s fish and chips by the seaside or prawns on the barbie at Christmas, it’s integral to many of our traditions and social gatherings. Yet very little of the seafood…
Mining has become an industrial actor central to many of the most compelling political and social debates of our time.
AAP/Dan Peled
Miners do much more than extract minerals and make profits. All over the world mining corporations are collaborating with governments, local populations and NGOs. Their logos, mottoes and CEOs seem to…
Study the form guide all you like – on big race days, your money’s probably safer in your pocket.
AAP/Joe Castro
Australia’s iconic sporting event – the Melbourne Cup – will see more than 100,000 punters pack into Flemington Racecourse this Tuesday, while those at work around the country pause to tune in to The Race…
Managing the cattle can be easier – and cheaper – with digital tracking technology.
Flickr/Jim Bendon
Farming cattle in northern Australia can be tough, especially in times of drought, but producers are increasingly turning to digital technologies to help them look after their herds. As these new technologies…
The facts about mining revenues and taxation in Australia aren’t as clear as they should be under global transparency benchmarks.
AAP/Rebecca Le May
It’s a far-from-perfect instrument of global governance. But as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) coalition celebrates its 12th birthday, it can point to steadily increasing membership…
Five years on, the bush and people are recovering well from the Black Saturday fires.
AAP Image/Joe Castro
Five years on from the devastating Black Saturday fires that swept through central Victoria in February 2009, research shows that people and communities are largely recovering well. In the first major…
Elon Musk has invested heavily in artificial intelligence – and yet he’s warning of its dangers.
JD Lasica
Last week, Elon Musk warned an audience at MIT that: we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. Musk is the…
The performance of ASIC in regulating financial fraud remains under question, despite Chairman Greg Medcraft’s recanted statement that Australia is a “paradise” for white-collar criminals.
Britta Campion/AAP
Recently, the head of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Greg Medcraft, called Australia a “paradise” for white-collar criminals. Soon after he recanted, claiming he didn’t want the…
In the lead-up to the London G20 summit in 2009, many businesses were boarded up, and some removed company logos from their premises.
Scott Burnham/Flickr
When the G20/G8 summits moved on from Toronto in 2010, they left an US$11 million bill in business compensation claims. To minimise the effect of preparations on businesses preparing for next month’s G20…
The Earth is finite - so are there limits to growth?
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center/Flickr
“But who do you think’s right, Prof? The optimists or the pessimists?” At the end of my sustainability economics course in 2007, students were challenging me to end 20 years of professional fence-sitting…
Season of contrasts: while Melburnians were deluged this week, Sydneysiders spent last weekend sunbathing.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Spring in southern and eastern Australia is a bit like an annual game of weather tug-of-war, with summer and winter pulling at each end of the rope. While Melbourne has been lashed by stormy weather this…
Twenty years on, Paul Keating’s Creative Nation remains a vital reference point in the history of Australian cultural policy.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
Today marks 20 years since the publication of Creative Nation. An ambitious and expansive project by Paul Keating’s Labor Government, it was the first Commonwealth cultural policy document in Australia’s…
Positive portrayals of people with mental illness exist in the media but these are the exception rather than the norm.
Network Ten
When Homeland first aired in 2011 starring a CIA agent with bipolar disorder, Carrie Mathison (played by Claire Danes), it was commended for its realistic portrayals of people with mental illness. Courtney…
To see off challenges to its dominance, Malaysia’s government exploits Muslim sentiment at every turn. This has been a factor in sodomy charges against opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim.
EPA/Azhar Rahim
Fuelled by the rise of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, debate about Islam and violence has flared again in Australia. In a predictable cycle of provocation and reaction, governments launch a wide-ranging…
Research shows children in early learning benefit from having a stable relationship with one teacher, but with 180 qualified early learning teachers leaving every week, that can be difficult to maintain.
Shutterstock
Last year in an open letter to the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, early childhood employers and peak bodies joined forces to ask for a commitment to early learning. They warned the political…
A galloping horse puts four tonnes of pressure on lower limb joints with each stride.
AAP/Hamish Blair
In elite racehorses, biology is pushed to the limit – about four tonnes is placed on the joint surfaces in a galloping horse’s lower limb with every stride, and these repeated loads have the potential…