No arguments seem to sway right-wing politicians and commentators in the United States and Australia. Will we have to wait for demography to do its work? The abolition of the carbon tax has raised, yet again, the question of how to convince those on the political right to accept mainstream climate science and the need...

John Howard’s gun buyback scheme had more than one benefit Did the buyback save lives? As someone with a connection to two of Australia’s worst gun massacres, I’ve always been interested in finding out. But the public debate seemed frustratingly simplistic. Some anti-gun campaigners described firearms owners as “gun nuts,” and seemed to have difficulty...

Labor and the Coalition are caught between vying for the middle ground and differentiating themselves in the political marketplace. Behind it all, there’s one vital difference If a new poll reflects opinion across the electorate then we are in the midst of a disturbing spike in public disaffection with Australian political parties and the political...

The free speech debate has been marked by selectivity and score-settling Acres of ink and gigaloads of bytes have been spilled in recent times over “free speech.” Sadly, the debate has mostly been self-serving. Much of it has been driven by right-wing voices opposed both to vilification laws and to a now-defunct proposal to strengthen...

What happens when you add a hypothetical to a hypothetical? Why does the Australian media publish opinion polls week-in, week-out, all year, every year, no matter how far away the next election is? And why are they studied, discussed and obsessed over…? Read the full article