The Turnbull government says it won’t allow refugees to be resettled in New Zealand because it’s the “back door” to Australia. Its argument rests on a series of misconceptions Malcolm Turnbull sounded decidedly uncomfortable when Fran Kelly switched the topic to offshore detention at the end of his post-budget interview on Radio National Breakfast. The...

Are Facebook, Google and Apple as different from the old news media as they claim to be? Downsizers must be a problem for the embattled newspaper industry. Late last year my husband and I sold our family house and bought a small apartment on the edge of the city, closer to my job. But if...

By taking the initiative on the dreaded three-letter word, Labor has scored an important win Federal Labor has released its climate change policy for the election, or at least an outline, and in one crucial respect the opposition can declare mission accomplished. Its big win was in the battle over terminology. Leader Bill Shorten and...

Working out whether a treatment works, and for how many people, is trickier than it sounds. Here’s how you should go about doing it WHEN I had been a doctor for ten years, I enrolled in a postgraduate course in epidemiology and biostatistics. It was at a time when my brain could still absorb information...

Kevin Rudd’s fate is a cautionary tale for an announcement-prone Malcolm Turnbull WHEN Kevin Rudd began his fleeting second prime ministership in mid 2013, he immediately set about filling the gaping authority vacuum that had troubled Australians for three years. His every move was aimed at generating incumbency, reassuring Australians that finally someone was in...