Homelessness will be a test of the Rudd Government, write David MacKenzie and David Eldridge, from the National Youth Commission Inquiry into Youth Homelessness.

Next month's conference on Afghanistan should consider a novel scheme to neutralise the impact of soaring opium production, argues Hamish McDonald.

We should be careful about trying to impose a single identity on Islamic communities in this country, argues Liza Hopkins.

State government debt can be a force for good, argues Nicholas Gruen, as the Unsworth committee looks again at NSW electricity privatisation.

Labor has moved to review national defence and security policies, but will it break substantially with the Howard era, asks Geoffrey Barker.