In his new collection of eight wide-ranging essays, the distinguished photographer Michael Collins makes a plea for the art of close observation. The viewer’s role is to look, not merely to glance and ...

Less than a year ago a little band of educators travelled to Canada to investigate why that country always seems to be ahead of Australia in the school achievement and equity stakes. The travellers ...

An evolving monument of Australian foreign policy has reached its thirteenth volume. Now covering the seven decades from 1950 to 2020, Australia in World Affairs is sustained and shepherded by the ...

One recent summer’s afternoon my wife and I were finishing a picnic with friends overlooking the North Saskatchewan River, with the prairie stretching out to the horizon in all directions. Our host ...

Books & arts Dropping out, burning out, tuning out Andrew Dean 27 June 2025 Nobody’s happy about the state of Australian universities, but a seasoned academic has some remedies ...

Few who sat down to hear Ken Henry speak about environment law this week would have been surprised by his blunt analysis. But they may not have expected the sharply plain-speaking former Treasury head ...

The world’s highest court has just given the Australian government a giant climate headache. For all the rhetorical, political and practical support Australia offers the small Pacific island ...

Tasmania presents something of a political conundrum. Back in May 2023 its Liberal government fell into minority after the defection of two members, John Tucker and Lara Alexander. Premier Jeremy ...

The United States is slip-sliding towards authoritarianism under Donald Trump. Elected leaders in Israel, Turkey and Hungary have blurred the line between democracy and dictatorship. North Korean ...

Last week, kicking off a 15 per cent reduction in the US state department’s workforce, more than 1300 officials received termination notices. Those considered surplus included officials with expertise ...

There’s a story about Hubert Parry, King Charles’s favourite composer, hearing Arnold Schoenberg’s atonal Five Orchestral Pieces Op. 16. It was in 1914, two years before Parry composed “Jerusalem” to ...

The obituaries for former Treasury secretary and National Party senator John Stone — who died last week at the age of ninety-six — have so far focused on his thirty-year career as a public servant, ...