New South Wales has announced an overhaul of its Higher School Certificate syllabus with a renewed focus on writing and advanced maths. It's the first major reform in sixteen years and will come into effect from 2018. The state government says the changes will better prepare students for the job market—by improving overall literacy levels...

A new term has entered the lexicon—'alternative facts'. It was used by Donald Trump's adviser Kellyanne Conway to defend those claims by the administration that the crowds at Trump's inauguration last month were bigger than Barack Obama's in 2008. Media organisations have loudly and regularly called out US President Donald Trump for falsehoods over the...

Later today, the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will deliver the ninth Closing the Gap address to Parliament in which he'll argue his government is turning the tide on Indigenous disadvantage. He'll draw on the latest Closing the Gap report which is expected to show some improvements in health and education outcomes. But there are obvious...

Cory Bernardi's decision to quit the Liberals to start a new conservative party has dominated the start of parliament. 'I fought within the Liberal Party tent to uphold the principles and visions and values that attracted me to the Liberal Party in the first place, and that our grassroots overwhelmingly support', he said. 'But the...

Those who support watering down the anti-hate laws in the Racial Discriminaton Act have received a boost this morning. Polling commissioned by conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs shows that almost one in two people support removing the words 'insult' and 'offend' from section 18C of the Act, which also makes it an...