Anniversaries are opportunities for reflection and re-evaluation. In recent weeks, news media around the world have commemorated and reassessed the events of late August and early September 2015 that led to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, and their initially enthusiastic reception, in Germany. In Germany itself, the anniversary dominated...

Most Sydneysiders and millions of tourists know The Rocks as a historic precinct in which it is possible to have a good night out while enjoying the ambience of a genuine nineteenth-century townscape – all within a stone’s throw of the harbour and the CBD. In 1973, The Rocks was far from peaceful. The events...

Governments began watering down Gonski’s school-funding recommendations right from the start, says panel member Ken Boston. But New South Wales shows how it could have been. THE Gonski review is history. The Gonski panel submitted its report in December 2011, and the government responded in February 2012. There have been two federal elections since then...

When the WA government issued a draft of its first independent policy on Aboriginal development ( Resilient Families, Strong Communities: A Roadmap for Regional and Remote Aboriginal Communities) in mid July, it signalled the final act in a drama that began with the failure of WA land rights in 1985. This is a story of...

AFTER the 2010 election, with its drawn-out count and those interminable crossbench negotiations, opposition leader Tony Abbott pointed out that for the first time in living memory the victor, Labor, hadn’t enjoyed an immediate opinion poll boost. But then came 7 September 2013, the contest that elevated him to prime minister, and for a second...