Police
Bruce Guthrie
Police must make punishment fit the crime for lead-footed drivers
Bruce Guthrie Our road laws are too lenient when it comes to speeding.
Neil Mercer
Judicial inquiry the only way to end questions over police chief
The NSW police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn this week becomes responsible for specialist operations, putting her in charge of squads such as homicide, counterterrorism and professional...
Mic Looby
Pretend police pose dangers
Mic Looby This week the state government deployed the first of its 940 protective services officers, or PSOs. To be clear, these are pretend police, armed with semi-automatic weapons, who will roam railway...
Richard Ackland
If police are ahead in finding criminals, do they need this power?
Richard Ackland At last, a good helping of red meat for Ray Hadley and other self-appointed guardians of right-thinking people.
Paul Austin
Police in a pickle as deals turn sour
Paul Austin The secret files affair is damaging the state's top cop, and a government on its way to the polls.
Gay marriage: the political knot it's impossible to untie
Jacqueline Maley Last week, I spied a peculiar photograph accompanying a newspaper story about the legalisation of gay marriage and adoption in France.
Action on inept anti-terror laws must get priority
George Williams Last week on budget day the federal government released two independent reports on Australia's anti-terrorism laws.
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...
Gallagher backs paid parking - but wants funds to stay local
Emma Macdonald and Tom McIlroy Canberra workers and visitors to national institutions will be forced to cough up almost $74 million in new parking fees in the Parliamentary Triangle and at Acton over the next three years.
Paul Howes v the wilderness
Andrew Darby Old timers have seen it before. A rising union star climbs a step up Labor's ladder onto the national stage from an unlikely platform in Tasmania.
The sad truth is that there's no perfect security
Daniel Flitton Determined terrorists plot and scheme, and measure success after just one attack goes off.
Daniel Flitton
Escape to a fair deal? Not in this country!
Daniel Flitton Keeping people in detention with no explanation, no trial, no appeal, should be a crime.
Napthine's crew in the sights of a loose cannon
Farrah Tomazin You get the feeling that Frankston MP Geoff Shaw enjoys his notoriety.
To the victor go the spoils, and a trip on troubled waters
Daniel Flitton Barely three weeks after election day, the prime minister will be face with an awkward or disastrous event.
Western Sydney, where pollies would have you think crime control is at sea
Tony Wright Crime in western Sydney is, apparently, out of control. Worse, the inhabitants' borders aren't being protected.
Taking stock on a conflicted whaling season
Andrew Darby As Japan's most tumultuous Antarctic whaling season yet draws to a close, it seems everybody dodged, if not a harpoon, then a bullet.
Historic day as victims file in with power on their side
Barney Zwartz Twenty years ago Bill Nelson left court a crushed man, his solicitors telling him to give up his quest for redress as a child sex abuse victim because the Catholic Church had all the power.
Victim upbeat as commission makes an impressive start
Barney Zwartz Twenty years ago Bill Nelson left court a crushed man, his solicitors telling him to give up.
Bali process grinds on with no sign of results
Michael Bachelard For the fifth time, dozens of the world's ministers flew this week to an over-air-conditioned hotel meeting room in Bali, sat gravely around a very large table and achieved next to nothing.
