This Month
- Opinion
- Health insurance
Keeping premiums affordable requires modern healthcare
If Labor wants to keep health insurance affordable to take pressure off the public system, tougher reforms are needed to make our health system more efficient and sustainable.
- Rachel David
- Opinion
- Schools
A chance to fix the inequity chasm in Australian schools
A report handed to education ministers last week has outlined a plan for real change after decades of reforms that have failed to bite.
- Doug Taylor
Nearly half of Australians chronically sick
A surge in mental health diagnoses has pushed the number of people with chronic conditions to the highest level since records began.
- Euan Black
Here’s how to plan for a sober Christmas
Life can be better and richer if you feel in complete control of your drinking habits, rather than them controlling you.
- Richard Piper
How alcohol became a crutch for professional women
Some high-achieving women workers still drink to prove themselves, but those going sober have found benefits.
- Emma Jacobs
Bill Ackman, Harvard, and the limits of money-driven power
The billionaire Wall Street fund manager thought his donations would give him clout at the university. He was wrong.
- Maureen Farrell and Rob Copeland
- Opinion
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict
I’m ashamed of Harvard, a university I loved
University administrators and academics have allowed a cult of anti-Jewish activism to flourish under the banner of anti-colonialism.
- Aaron Patrick
- Opinion
- PISA
What Australia must do to lift flatlining student scores
This country may have averted the worst of the COVID-era education destruction, but that doesn’t mitigate the many flaws in our school system.
- Glenn Fahey
- Opinion
- Education
Too many Australian students still failing
Only just over half of the country’s 15-year-olds can demonstrate more than elementary skills expected at their year level.
- Jennifer Hewett
- Opinion
- International students
Overseas student tax is a spiky idea that needs the boot
The universities accord went looking for big ideas that build on our reputation as a clever country. This is no time to be dumb.
- Merlin Crossley
- Exclusive
- International students
Coalition considered, then rejected ‘envy tax’ on foreign students
The idea to place a levy on international students did the rounds under the Coalition, but was scrapped. Now it’s on the cards again.
- Julie Hare
November
Legal letter warns private school not to admit girls
A group of parents warn that Newington College’s plan to go co-ed could breach 160-year-old trust rules that specify the Sydney school’s purpose is to teach boys.
- Samantha Hutchinson
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
Scientists need to admit they got COVID-19 wrong
Public health officials assume they can rebuild trust through clearer, more persuasive communication, rather than acknowledge the unnecessary pain they caused.
- F.D. Flam
- Opinion
- Childcare
Childcare doesn’t cost anywhere as much as you’re being told
Recent official inquiries into prices underestimate the effect of big government subsidies, which might be better spent on the more needy.
- Ben Phillips
Women ‘priced out of the workforce’ by childcare fees
Australian women are being priced out of work by excessive childcare fees and that is bad for them, skills shortages and the economy.
- Julie Hare
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Australian Curriculum gets an F for failing teachers and students
Correlation isn’t causation, yet surely it is fair to connect poor student achievement with the deficiencies in a curriculum setting out what is taught in schools.
- The AFR View
Aged care taskforce to overhaul at-home cleaning, gardening
The government’s aged care taskforce is poised to recommend retirees living at home contribute more than just the 2 per cent they currently pay for the cost of at-home care services such as cleaning and gardening.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Education
Australia’s curriculum gap is failing science teachers and students
Compared with the best systems, our national science curriculum is far from being world-class, as its creators claim.
- Mailie Ross
Calls to cap international students ‘nonsensical’
Foreign student numbers are at a record high, but capping them would be a simplistic solution to a complex problem that might resolve itself, experts say.
- Julie Hare
- Opinion
- University
Gonski schools model will boost uni funding and skills
Disadvantage does not stop when students leave high school. Now is the perfect time to rethink how university funding can change this reality.
- Adam Shoemaker and Peter Hurley
