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Australian National University

ANU was established, in 1946, to advance the cause of learning and research for the nation. It is consistently ranked among the world’s best universities and many ANU graduates go on to become leaders in government, industry, research and academia.

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Federal treasurer Wayne Swan’s election year budget has to reconcile huge revenue writedowns with spending promises for schools and the disability insurance scheme. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Federal budget 2013: expert reactions

Stephen Howes, Australian National University; Arusha Cooray, University of Wollongong; Ben Spies-Butcher, Macquarie University; Cameron Gordon, University of Canberra; Carol Johnson, University of Adelaide; Clive Bean, Queensland University of Technology; David Willis, Queensland University of Technology; Hal Swerissen, La Trobe University; John Quiggin, The University of Queensland; Lin Crase, La Trobe University; Matthew Bailes, Swinburne University of Technology; Paul Burke, Australian National University; Simon Marginson, The University of Melbourne; Stephen Duckett, Grattan Institute, and Zareh Ghazarian, Monash University

Australian Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has handed down his sixth budget, facing an almost impossible task: how to reconcile an enormous revenue shortfall with big spending promises, all while keeping…
The extreme rate at which greenhouse gases and temperatures are rising is leading to extensive fires. AAP Image/Kim Foale

As carbon dioxide hits a new high, there’s still no Planet B

Andrew Glikson, Australian National University

On May 9, 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US recorded CO2 levels in the atmosphere at of 400 parts per million. This signifies a return to the atmospheric conditions similar…
Any agreement to end the forest ‘wars’ should neither prop up a failing industry nor shut down dissent. AAP Image/Matthew Newton

Tasmanian Forests Agreement: liberal society needs an alternative

Andrew Macintosh, Australian National University

Fred Gale’s article, Tasmanian Forests Agreement: deeply flawed, worth backing, provides interesting insights into the views of one segment of the Tasmanian community that supports the Tasmanian Forest…
A Trans Pacific Partnership meeting hosted by US President Barack Obama with the Sultan of Brunei and prime ministers from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia , Singapore and Vietnam, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on November 20, 2012. AAP Image/Auspic, David Foote

Trans Pacific Partnership puts member countries’ health at risk

Sharon Friel, Australian National University; Deborah Gleeson, La Trobe University, and Libby Hattersley, Australian National University

International trade agreements bring new transnational food companies into countries, along with new food advertising and promotion. This has often led to an increase in unhealthy foods entering the domestic…
Paying attention to the interests of the elderly and disabled people ensures we use appropriate eligibility criteria in euthanasia legislation. SalFalko/Flickr

Safe assisted dying laws are possible, so let’s make them

Ben White, Queensland University of Technology; Lindy Willmott, Queensland University of Technology, and Robert Douglas, Australian National University

A report we recently prepared with independent think tank Australia21 calls for state governments to institute laws allowing and regulating voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide – in defined and limited…
The federal government’s Farm Finance package includes concessional loans to help farmers restructure and improve productivity - but carries the risk of heaping them with more debt.

Farm Finance package is flawed - and there is a better option

Linda Botterill, University of Canberra and Bruce Chapman, Australian National University

The Federal Government’s new Farm Finance assistance package includes concessional loans to help farms restructure debt and invest in productivity. But this is a back-to-the-future response that carries…
Down? Stay as it is? Commentators are divided about the direction of the cash rate. Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com

Stay the course with interest rates: shadow board

Shaun Vahey, Australian National University

The Reserve Bank of Australia should leave interest rates unchanged this month according to the consensus of Shadow Reserve Board members. Amid market uncertainty over whether the RBA board may choose…
This Green and Golden Bell Frog is one of the few species to be successfully protected using offsets. Flickr/eyeweed

Can we offset biodiversity losses?

Megan C Evans, Australian National University and Martine Maron, The University of Queensland

Clive Palmer’s China First Coal Project is entering the last stages of review for its proposed coal mine in Queensland’s Bimblebox Nature Refuge. As part of the Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement…
Julia Gillard meets with Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2011 CHOGM meeting: should Australia boycott the 2013 meeting in Sri Lanka over human rights concerns? AAP/Daniel Munoz

Sri Lanka and human rights: Australia’s CHOGM dilemma

James Jupp, Australian National University

Given its long association with the Commonwealth, it is no surprise that Sri Lanka is hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in November this year. These biannual meetings are normally…
The Pakatan Rakyat coalition leader Anwar Ibrahim will need to form ties within Malaysia’s diverse and biased electorate system to defeat the ruling coalition in Sunday’s election. EPA/Shamshahrin Shamsudin

A tale of two coalitions: Malaysia heads to the polls

Gerhard Hoffstaedter, The University of Queensland and Gregore Pio Lopez, Australian National University

Malaysia’s general elections on Sunday (GE13) will be a battle of the coalitions, pitting the world’s most successful ruling coalition – the 13 party Barisan Nasional (BN/National Front) - against the…
Although tightly linked to each other, airlines and the aircraft manufacturing industry don’t generally seem to be heading in the same direction. Flickr/FreeFoto

One flies planes, the other makes money: the two sides of aviation

Hamza Bendemra, Australian National University

A few months ago I was invited to a small gathering organised by executives from a large international airline (one you most certainly have heard of). About a dozen of us were there and the mix was varied…
Young people have less and less electoral clout as our population ages. AAP/Marianna Massey

How Australia’s ageing population threatens our democracy

Luke Kemp, Australian National University

An ageing population is a threat to not just the Australian economy, but also our political system. In The Republic, Plato wrote: “it is for the elder man to rule and for the younger to submit”. This concept…
ANZAC Day once was a day to commemorate the sacrifices made by Australian soliders in war - but is it now being hijacked by companies with a profit motive? Australian War Memorial

Should we be consuming more than just patriotism on national days?

Andrew Hughes, Australian National University

Australian brands are increasingly looking to exploit national holidays like ANZAC Day. Given soft retail conditions, such efforts are understandable. But is it welcome? Sure, there is no law against associating…
There’s no need to temper our efforts to address the obesity epidemic just yet. Image from shutterstock.com

Monday’s medical myth: overweight people live longer

Emily Banks, Sax Institute; Grace Joshy, Australian National University, and Rosemary Korda, Australian National University

We’ve long known that too much excess weight increases your likelihood of dying prematurely. Or does it? A large review of the evidence published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA…
Media freedom in Myanmar has dramatically and rapidly improved, but is still not fully secured with repressive laws still in place. EPA/LYNN AAP

Starting the presses on Myanmar’s reform agenda

Trevor Wilson, Australian National University

A vital aspect of the historic reforms currently underway in Myanmar is the growing - and for some people unexpected - liberalisation of the media. The latest step in these changes was the appearance on…
But that’s exactly what investors are doing, says a new report. Takver/Flickr

‘Unburnable’ fossil fuels set to leave investors stranded

James Whitmore, The Conversation

Investors are continuing to pour money into fossil fuel reserves that could end up being worthless due to efforts to combat climate change, a new report has found. The Climate Tracker report found that…
The way it ends… from the mining tax to super reform and now the Gonski plan, Labor has surrendered to sectional interests. AAP/Alan Porritt

Labor’s super tax backdown hints at the party’s hollow core

John Passant, Australian National University

This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. TS Eliot, The Hollow Men The Labor government’s attack on universities to fund…
If funding for Aboriginal artists and organisations is cut, performers like The Black Arm Band will not receive adequate support. IFACCA

Indigenous cultural policy: Creative Australia or creative accounting?

Jon Altman, Australian National University

Like many others, I was pleasantly surprised by the government’s announcement last month of A$54 million in funding for Indigenous languages as part of the national cultural policy – Creative Australia…
Breast cancer activists outside the Supreme Court of the United States of America. American Civil Liberties Union

Who owns our genes? Myriad Genetics’ monopoly challenged

Matthew Rimmer, Australian National University

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States held oral hearings in a landmark case on patent law and cancer. The question before the court was whether human genes are patentable. The American Civil…
Dugongs rely on seagrass for food - damage to grass beds is a bigger threat to the species than Indigenous hunting. sandwichgirl/Flickr

Banning Indigenous hunting won’t help dugongs

Jon Altman, Australian National University and Seán Kerins, Australian National University

In the 1990s some international animal rights and environment organisations instigated a concerted campaign to stop the hunting of pilot whales by Faroese people living in the northeast Atlantic. The thousand-year-old…

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