Malcolm Turnbull has made clear his apparent enthusiasm for a rail line to Melbourne Airport – with or without state government support.
AAP/Julian Smith
A rail link is a big step towards transforming transport access and land use in ways that will enable a much bigger city to remain liveable. And Melbourne can learn from Sydney about this.
Gold Rush garbage.
S.Hayes. Artefact is part of Heritage Victoria's collection.
What we buy has defined who we are since the Gold Rush. In the 1850s and 1860s, people communicated their social status by buying stuff - dinner sets, junk jewellery - and throwing their old things away.
Our land-title system originated in the mid-19th century when Sir Robert Richard Torrens campaigned to reform Adelaide’s chaotic deeds-based land system.
National Library of Australia
Sir Robert Richard Torrens – the man behind Australia’s ‘Torrens system’ of land-title registration – was an economic liberal who might have approved of privatising title registries.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas announced a raft of spend measures in the latest budget.
Julian Smith/AAP
The Victorian budget brought with it an increase in privatisation, which follows on from other state budgets, but the evidence for efficiency in this type of system isn’t there.
Successive reviews and inquiries have revealed that mandatory sentences fail to achieve their stated aims.
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At a time when many Australian jurisdictions are imprisoning more people than ever, any policies that increase prisoner numbers must be seriously reconsidered.
The Hazelwood mine will fill with water once it’s closed.
AAP/Country Fire Authority
What do you do with a giant pit mine once it closes? One option for the Hazelwood mine is creating a recreational lake – but there are economic and environmental issues to consider.
To meet the needs of lower-income households, housing should be both affordable and located near public transport and other services.
Graeme Bartlett/Wikimedia
Victoria has been lagging behind other states in developing an affordable housing strategy. Now that one has been released, how well does it meet the needs of households on lower incomes?
Police across Victoria made it clear that family violence was considered to be ‘different’ to the primary investigative mandate of their work.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Police remain critical in the effort to tackling family violence in all its forms. But more than just a commitment to extra police and training is needed to improve outcomes for victim-survivors.
Gifted children can benefit from being grouped together in specialist schools or classes.
from www.shutterstock.com
Failing to provide an appropriate education for students who are gifted increases the risk of mental health issues, boredom, frustration, and behavioural problems.
Australian sport may only account for 1.6% of total household spend, but its macro impact on the economy is strong.
from www.shutterstock.com
Australian sport will never have the commercial clout to bring the economy out of recession or solve a regional unemployment problem. But it is more than a fringe player in the economic game.
Victoria’s mountain ash ecosystem is vulnerable to collapse.
David Blair
In the age of social media and online self-promotion, being the subject of a moral panic can not only be a source of pride, but also an inducement to offend.
Road fatalities could increase if young people start driving solo at 17.
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The potential shutdown of Victoria’s Hazelwood power station could leave a large gap in coal-fired baseload generation. But other coal power stations have plenty of spare capacity to fill the gap.
The car-based logic of Melbourne’s 1969 transport plan has been deeply implanted into Victorians’ collective consciousness.
AAP/David Crosling
The Grampians, like much of Australia, has swung from Millennium Drought to Big Wet and back again, putting animal populations on a rollercoaster that could get worse as climate change bites.
Protesters march against fracking in Melbourne.
AAP Image/NEWZULU/DAVID HEWISON
Victoria will permanently ban unconventional gas, and extend a moratorium on onshore gas until 2020.
The Western Distributor project announced by the Andrews government will benefit Melbourne’s suburban residents in the west and north, but inner-city elites are mobilising against it.
AAP/Melissa Meehan
It’s a project that creates benefits for Melbourne’s western suburbs and the state as a whole. But the inner-city elite don’t like it and recent experience suggests their opinion holds sway.
Victoria has joined three other states and territories in setting a renewable energy target.
Wind energy from www.shutterstock.com
With a popular state Labor government and premier in charge, the economy picking up speed and the state budget in substantial surplus, federal Labor had every reason to see Victoria as its own.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne