Care
How can we value Abbott's leave scheme when we don't value child care?
Stephanie Peatling Timing is a wonderful thing. Mother's Day is on Sunday and has had its usual build up via patronising advertisements and stories in which people talk about the enormous sacrifices their mothers made...
Ross Gittins
Big Tobacco's care all smoke and mirrors
Ross Gittins Mounting arguments for the 'public good' comes across as just a bit rich.
Pretend to care, blame each other, do nothing - grow up
Phillip Coorey IT WAS pathetic yesterday as the major parties and the Greens pretended they gave a damn and urged that politics take a back seat while bodies were being pulled from the sea - again.
Carmen Michael
Rebate for nanny care will reduce baby blues
Carmen Michael When my daughter was less than six weeks old, I made the obligatory rounds of the childcare centres in my locale. Things looked grim.
Di Winkler and Libby Callaway
Safeguard vulnerable young from aged care isolation
Di Winkler and Libby Callaway Hundreds of Australians under 50 are forced to live in nursing homes simply because there is nowhere else for them.
Sarah Toohey
Unlocking housing key to disability, aged care
Sarah Toohey The big social reforms outlined by the government last week - the aged-care package and the introduction of a national disability insurance scheme - will revolutionise the way we provide care in...
Kathryn Cook, Sherene Devanesen, Alan Lilly, Brendan Murphy, Shelly Park and Andrew Way
Nurses can provide even better care - just bend a little
Kathryn Cook, Sherene Devanesen, Alan Lilly, Brendan Murphy, Shelly Park and Andrew Way Staff fears over patient ratios and split shifts are misplaced.
Adele Horin
A big chance to show we care about those too young to vote
Adele Horin It took a 20-year herculean struggle for state and federal governments to agree something had to be done about childcare. But agree they did last December.
Analysis
It's still all about money: hospital care costs, OK?
Nick Miller Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tries to present the ''human face'' of the problems in the system in a speech outlining health reform.
A magnificent PM - when she drops her guard
Mike Carlton Julia Gillard is so much better when not trying. Stuck behind a lectern, droning away at some boilerplate speech cranked out by her office gnomes, she is cold and remote, more than a bit prissy.
Abbott's baby bonus in disguise
Anne Summers If Tony Abbott is serious about wanting to boost women's workforce participation, there are more effective and less expensive ways to accomplish this than via his paid parental leave scheme, which...
Challenge of an ageing nation
Peter Hartcher The first time the nation tried to look across the generations to glimpse the problems beyond the horizon, it received a jolting wake-up call.
The battle won, woman of steel sheds armour
Tony Wright Julia Gillard once spoke of having been a shy, reserved schoolchild who had grown a shell hardened by the rigours of politics and who had learnt the arts of ''holding a fair bit back, and hanging...
Constitutional change makes sense
George Williams Australia's first referendum in 14 years promises a small, but significant change to the Constitution.
Opinion
When did the lucky country become selfish?
Tim Soutphommasane There isn't a better time to introduce a national disability insurance scheme.
PM will be judged as skilled at policy, but inept at politics
Mark Kenny In just his first 30 days in office, an impatient Gough Whitlam signed off on a vast array of reforms.
Gillard's fine reforms slip between the gap
Mark Kenny The PM's policy record holds up well. It's her political skills that let her down, badly.
Revenue collapse hits the budget: the Gillard speech in full
Julia Gillard Julia Gillard outlines the problems that have cut a $12 billion hole in the federal budget.
Healthcare is 'universal' for those who can pay
Carol Bennett Hip pocket pain is replacing the once soothing notion of universal, free access to health services. For over a decade "out of pocket" health costs have been rising in Australia, making a joke of...
PM goes for broke on disability scheme
Stephanie Peatling The Prime Minister is seeking to make the introduction of a national disability insurance scheme one of the hallmarks of her leadership.
