As the ICAC hearings in New South Wales are showing, the issue of integrity in Australian politics is a murky one that is rightly being held up to scrutiny.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian needs to shed the Treasury view of housing construction as a silver bullet and back former premier Mike Baird’s social and affordable housing program.
Nikki Short/AAP
The new NSW premier is right to identify housing affordability as a priority for the people and economy of Sydney. It’s not just housing supply that’s the problem – action is needed on many fronts.
Gladys Berejiklian was elected unopposed to lead the NSW Liberal Party and become the state’s next premier.
AAP/David Moir
Gladys Berejiklian becomes NSW premier with a great deal of experience, but she needs to overcome several problems – internal and external – to arrest sliding polls.
Mike Baird is to resign as NSW premier and retire as a state MP.
AAP/Paul Miller
Mike Baird is the fifth New South Wales premier in ten years, and only one of them lost their job to an election. There’s little time, it seems, to learn and grow as a political leader.
Some homeless youth facing criminal charges in NSW are being accommodated in prisons.
Adrian Fallace/flikr
Homeless children charged in NSW with a criminal offence who are unable to meet bail conditions are being kept in custody. It’s due, in part, to a well-meant but flawed section of the Bail Act.
Will Mike Baird be the premier to stop the intergenerational cycle of abuse and neglect of children in care?
AAP/Dean Lewins
The NSW government’s latest promised solution to well-documented abuse in the out-of-home care system is, in fact, a re-run of promises made by the Carr government more than a decade ago.
Mike Baird has announced a backdown on NSW’s greyhound racing ban.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Good governance is the right thing to do, and boosts the legitimacy of decision-making. If moral chivalry doesn’t appeal, here are two more reasons: it’s cost-efficient and delivers better solutions.
Mike Baird is battling opposition from the greyhound industry, some in the Nationals, and the Labor Party.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Mike Baird is coming under enormous pressure over his bold and controversial reform – to put an end to greyhound racing in the state from mid-next year.
Greyhound racing needs a consistent approach, or trainers will move to jurisdictions where rules are more lax.
Kay Nietfeld/EPA
New South Wales’ ban on greyhound racing is a response to the high rate of animal deaths in the industry. But what about other states, and other animal industries, where the problem is prevalent too?
The White Bay Power Station is a prime harbourside redevelopment site.
Wikimedia Commons
The fact that the NSW government has stepped in to take back control of the White Bay redevelopment is actually an amazing story. One would hope this is a process of learning at work.
Those opposed to forced municipal mergers have reason to be sceptical of NSW Premier Mike Baird’s promises that it will improve councils’ performance.
AAP/Paul Miller
If forced amalgamations proceed, we may well see hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer and ratepayer funds squandered simply because policymakers preferred dogma to empirical evidence.
The critical issues underlying the debate about Sydney’s nightlife include worsening inequality and who is getting left behind.
AAP/Richard Ashen
Without the public mobilising over inequalities that are so ingrained in its psyche, Sydney is unlikely to see its nightlife reflect true social inclusion and diversity.
Malcolm Turnbull may struggle to persuade Daniel Andrews and some other state leaders to back major tax change, though Mike Baird has been arguing for reform.
Sam Mooy/AAP
Despite all the media coverage, don’t expect any clear decisions on national tax reform on Friday. But we should see more progress on other issues, including domestic violence and violent extremism.
Issues of how to fairly compensate for a change to the GST in a cost-effective way have yet to be dealt with in detail.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The current GST debate slides over the issue of compensation - proposals so far are poorly defined and run into cost and fairness problems.
Scientists are starting to think that young white sharks could be responsible for clusters of shark encounters.
White shark image from www.shutterstock.com
A recent increase in shark encounters has prompted New South Wales to investigate new technologies.
A greynurse shark complete with a tracking device - scientifically the best way to keep tabs on what sharks are up to.
AAP Image/NSW Ministery for Agriculture and Fisheries
Calls are growing louder for a shark cull in New South Wales. But like in Western Australia, which infamously experimented with culling last year, a NSW cull would harm sharks while failing to protect people.