Can cooperative federalism deal with South Australia's dire lack of water, asks Robert Milliken on our partner site, INSIDE STORY.

SOME COMMENTATORS see the Greens victory in last Saturday’s Fremantle state by-election as an ominous sign for a Labor Party juggling the conflicting demands of its inner urban and outer suburban support bases. This may be so, but several caveats need to be borne in mind. In its candidate selection, Western Australian Labor seemed to...

THERE are three great recurring themes in Australian defence policy. One is the fear of a threat from Asia. Another is a fear of change. The third is expressed in the belief that “it’s better to fight them up there than down here.” All three have come together with renewed vigour in the Rudd government’s...

“DORA AND ANDREW ARKALIS will never forget receiving the news,” began a recent article on childhood cancer in the Age. The couple had taken their four-year-old son, Michael, to the Royal Children’s Hospital to have recurring headaches diagnosed, and a registrar brought them a scan of their boy’s head. “The doctor said, ‘Michael’s got a...

ON 30 SEPTEMBER last year the Australian Navy intercepted a boat off the coast of Western Australia and took the twelve Middle-Eastern asylum seekers on board to Christmas Island. These individuals who had made their way from Indonesia were the first unauthorised boat arrivals of the Rudd government era. Since then several more boats carrying...