Does compulsory voting encourage turnout among voters in the “centre” with little interest in politics who would otherwise stay at home — or does it perhaps encourage political entrepreneurs such as ...

From the big end of town, the perspective is grim. Global investment in Victoria’s property sector halved in three years, down from $10 billion to $5 billion. The Property Council is quick to blame ...

National affairs A poll that answers Dutton’s dreams… Murray Goot 10 March 2025 … winning without defeating any teals or Greens National affairs Losing ground? Murray Goot 9 June 2023 Support for the ...

Essays & reportage Yet more truth-telling? Dean Ashenden 11 April 2025 A Yes voter’s journey into her family’s past raises the question: what about those who voted No?

Books & arts (Not) talking politics Caitlin Mahar 18 December 2025 Social theorist Sarah Stein Lubrano says the “marketplace of ideas” doesn’t work. But is the alternative any more promising?

As we enter the second decade of the Australian debate about constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, one thing has become clear. The only viable way forward — as ...

“I cannot live with You —” goes Emily Dickinson’s poem. “It would be Life —/ And Life is over there —/ Behind the Shelf.” Once upon a time many Australian homes had the books of Patrick White out ...

Late July 1923, Newdegate district, Western Australia. It is not a sublime landscape, but beauty may yet be found in its intricate, fragile detail. The slender trunks of the merrit mallees glow pink ...

Nations are built with pens and brushes not just hammers and nails. They exhibit their character in what they say about themselves as much as what is said about them. — Bruce Pascoe, Convincing Ground ...

It is salutary to turn on the television on the morning after the biggest landslide to the Labor Party since 1943 and the Liberal Party’s worst-ever election defeat. We must have had Sky on by the ...

Seventy-four years ago an outfit called Australian Public Opinion Polls conducted a Gallup survey about Australians’ attitudes to immigration. The headline in Melbourne’s Herald emphasised the ...

On his way to Canberra airport recently, Rohan Greenland asked his cab driver to pull over. For anyone who knows Greenland — a public health advocate who likes to “walk the talk” — it will come as no ...