Health has taken centre stage of the election campaign. Here’s what you need to know to make sense of the claims (and counter claims) of the major parties so far.
Rob Stokes, pictured at the swearing in of the new ministry, is New South Wales’ first minister for planning and public spaces.
Joel Carrett/AAP
New South Wales now has a minister for public spaces, a nod to their importance to the life of a city. But not all is well with public spaces and some issues demand the minister’s attention.
Voters are active on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, so that’s where the parties need to be.
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After the 2016 US election and ensuing Cambridge Analytic scandal, there was a lot of scaremongering around digital election campaigning. But this hysteria is, for the most part, unfounded.
What’s not to like about a flatter tax system? Well, for starters, the one laid out in this budget won’t actually simplify our lives.
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Steven Hamilton, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Flat tax is simple, Kondo simple. But that doesn’t mean it simplifies lives.
Labor’s campaign communications are organised around the word ‘fair’, while the Coalition is focusing on ‘strength’ and ‘security’.
Daniel Pockett and Mick Tsikas/AAP
Around 20,000 Australian children are being homeschooled. Some parents do so because their child has a disability. Others may disagree with traditional schooling methods or the social environment.
What goes up must come down, and that includes the protection the flu vaccine offers against influenza.
Irina Bg/Shutterstock
Ian Barr, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
Protection wanes after four or five months, so for most people, it makes sense to get a flu shot in mid to late May or early June so you’re protected when the flu season peaks in August or September.
Establishing relationships with people who are different from ourselves is one of the best approaches to reducing prejudice.
(AAP/Jono Searle
Kumar Yogeeswaran, University of Canterbury; Chris G. Sibley, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Danny Osborne, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Marc Wilson, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, and Mike Grimshaw, University of Canterbury
New Zealand’s response to the Christchurch terror attacks reinforced an image of an inclusive society, but we still have work to do.
An illustration of Palorchestes azael, a marsupial tapir from the Pleistocene of Australia. There is evidence that this extinct species is depicted in rock art from the Kimberley.
Nobu Tamura/Wikimedia Commons
That Victorian Liberals have to change candidates in three seats draws attention to an issue that should be properly fixed but won’t be any time soon – the problem of section 44 of the constitution.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg verballed his department.
ROHAN THOMSON/AAP
All these years later, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has failed to learn from Bowen’s mistake. He has misused and verballed his department, and been caught out.
London Metropolitan Police officers arrested Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on April 11.
STR/EPA
If the Swedish charges against Assange are revived he could face a second extradition request, on top of the existing request from the US. Then it will be up to the UK to decide which to prioritise.
Businesses are structuring their lending practices to exploit loopholes in consumer credit laws.
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Here are the four common lending practices identified by the Australian inquiry into credit and financial services targeted at those at risk of financial hardship.
Known sweat-collecting stingless bees, Tetragonula sp., from the bee family Apidae.
Tobias Smith
Bees might not be able to survive inside a person’s eye, but they can be drawn to disgusting food sources.
The numbers of buyers able to celebrate moving into their first home are still well down on pre-GFC levels – and low-income renters are faring even worse.
fizkes/Shutterstock
Housing policy is a stark point of difference at this election. While the government took promising steps to set up social housing finance, it has yet to give any sign it will finish what it started.
Dr Michael Whitehead is campaigning to rename the Gimlet Gum to the Sexy Gum.
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The court’s decision should reassure the South Australian and Western Australian governments that there is no constitutional impediment to enacting safe access zone legislation.
Smart meters can help share the load of charging electric cars.
Chris Hunkeler/Flickr
Concerns about the strain electric cars can put on the electricity grid are not unfounded, but there are some relatively simple fixes available.
The Coalition government has rejected the Uluru Statement’s call for an Indigenous voice to Parliament, just one of many disappointments for Indigenous peoples.
Jeremy Ng/AAP
Governments are addicted to tax revenue from harmful activities. It is stopping them from doing what is in society’s best interests.
This large ‘Do Not Forget Australia’ sign in a yard at the Victoria school in Villers-Bretonneux, is the heir of smaller signs once placed in classrooms by Australian authorities.
Author provided
Since the end of the first world war, the Australian media has often reported that ‘the French’ care about, remember and even venerate the Anzacs. But is this true? And which French people?
Seen here with the Prime Minister, Karen Andrews is one of few recent ministers for science who has a university education in STEM.
Mick Tsikas / AAP
We’ve had ten federal ministers with titular responsibility for science since 2007 – five under the coalition and five under Labor. That variation and a lack of consistent vision has an impact.