Politics is a tricky business. Being in government is even trickier. But it should be pretty simple. It’s like any other business, isn’t it? It’s all just marketing. You find out what they want, you tell…
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Home – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 51526 - 51550 of 51995 articles
The Gillard Government just can’t sell its message. That was the view of independent MP Andrew Wilkie speaking on ABC Radio National this week. Recent opinion polls confirm the government has communication…
Under the cover of last week’s budget splash, the Federal Government has quietly changed tax laws which currently allow students and potentially jobseekers to claim a deduction for expenses against government…
Despite stunning progress on the sport field in the past 100 years, women’s representation off the field remains a serious challenge. While there was not a singe female athlete at the first modern Olympic…
On May 13 2011, the federal government released its eagerly awaited population strategy, Sustainable Australia – Sustainable Communities. But in avoiding population projections, the strategy is selling…
The marketing of public health messages can bear some disturbing similarities to the way the tobacco, alcohol and food industries go about promoting their products. Recent suggestions by the Cancer Council…
Watching films such as Superman Returns or The Day after Tomorrow, you would have seen dramatic sequences of surging water and crumbling buildings. While doing so, mathematics was probably the last thing…
In our efforts to address climate change by avoiding or sequestering CO₂, we have shown a lot of interest in “engineering” solutions (such as carbon storage through pumping and storing CO2 underground…
The funding woes of the Australian Synchrotron – a landmark scientific research facility located in Melbourne – have made news in recent weeks. How can such a fabulous resource, with such potential to…
There has been a massive revival of interest in Australian history in the last decade. Under Prime Minister John Howard, Australia’s military history, particularly the ANZACs, became little short of a…
In a ceremony at London’s Frontline Club on Tuesday, May 10, before an array of television crews from around the world, WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange received the Sydney Peace Foundation’s gold medal…
When we think of dementia, we tend to imagine it as a condition that goes hand in hand with old age. What’s not talked about is the fact the diseases that cause it have a long genesis. Alzheimer’s Australia…
The Euro, Europe’s adolescent single currency, is in rough waters. This week European finance chiefs signed off on a 78 billion Euro bail-out for Portugal, while calling for Greece to accept stringent…
The Government’s plan to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products has been raised at the Council for TRIPS meeting in Geneva this week. In a note to TRIPS delegates, the Indonesian Government has…
Ask us what we mean by “science” and you’ll find us a little circumspect. In fact, we think the word “science” is close to useless. This might seem odd, given we work at the Australian National Centre…
Should we bother to ask whether some gifts and donations could be interpreted as thinly veiled bribes, or is the distinction always clear? A recent example of the potential ambiguity of gift-giving was…
The western liberal’s capacity for self-flagellation is seemingly endless. There is no enemy that the liberal west did not create. There is no inhumanity that the west did not begin. There is no crime…
Energy efficiency is globally seen as the biggest and best option for cheaply reducing greenhouse gas emissions and dealing with rising power bills. But in Australia it still struggles for recognition…
The Gillard government’s recent budget announcement again raises the issue of how much Australia relies on skilled migrants to backfill skills shortages at a time of economic growth. The shift in emphasis…
With its electoral support eroding, the federal government has been careful not to trigger frustration or disappointment in higher education and research. These have been largely Labor constituencies since…
The full bench of Fair Work Australia ruled yesterday that gender is a major factor in the low pay of thousands of workers in the social care and community sector. There are around 150,000 largely female…
The tobacco industry has launched a national media campaign today, questioning the Federal Government’s proposed plain packaging legislation. It will also release a series of confidential government documents…
The global financial crisis has occasioned a vast literature purporting to analyse the causes and consequences of the crisis. The crisis literature ranges from morality play narratives, insider accounts…
The most serious environmental problems facing our planet require cooperative solutions. Ensuring the sustainability of the Murray-Darling river system requires the cooperation of several states. Preserving…
Google’s so-called Chromebook will be launched next month in the US and much of Europe, and, not unusually, “some time later” in Australia … The move was announced at the company’s flasghip I/O conference…