Police
The Loaded Dog
Should the federal government negotiate prisoner exchanges?
Should the federal government negotiate prisoner exchanges to secure the return of Australians jailed overseas, such as trading Schapelle Corby for Indonesian teenagers accused of people smuggling?
Katharine Murphy
A duty to scrutinise
Katharine Murphy Thomson misunderstands the media if he thinks his denials are the end of the story.
Amanda Vanstone
Sadly, this lady is for turning
Amanda Vanstone Julia Gillard bungled her moment to stand as steely as Margaret Thatcher.
Peter Dutton
Soft stance on drugs a dangerous catalyst
Peter Dutton As the opposition health spokesman, I am acutely aware of the harm caused by illicit drugs. As a former police officer, I contributed to this difficult fight in the real world.
Richard Di Natale
It's high time for leadership at frontline in war on drugs
Richard Di Natale The arguments for changing our approach to illicit drugs are well worn. Over successive decades, drug production and consumption have soared and drugs are now purer and cheaper than ever before.
Michael Koziol
State intrusion into a family's drinking decisions calls for a cold shower
Michael Koziol In all likelihood, it's as simple as this: someone in the state government had a rough night's sleep a few weeks ago and now teenage house parties are on the hit list.
Nicola Roxon
Protecting our children will always be at the heart of family law
Nicola Roxon Shared parenting comes second to the welfare of the child.
Farrah Tomazin
Shadow of a doubt
Farrah Tomazin Baillieu was unwise to involve his Speaker in the Shaw inquiry.
Nicole Brady
The law on sexting leaves our teens dangerously exposed
Nicole Brady Child porn legislation is ill-suited to such adolescent indiscretion.
Mick Palmer
After 33 years, I can no longer ignore the evidence on drugs
Mick Palmer As a 33-year police practitioner who was commissioner of the Australian Federal Police during the ''tough on drugs'' period, I fully understand the concerns of those who argue there is no reason to...
Haneef lessons must be heeded
Michelle Grattan Are people saying that the usual rules should not apply, just because this man is an alleged people smuggler? It is ultimately to the protection of all of us, in other contexts, that the police have...
Hamish McDonald
Boom putting Burma on road to reality
Hamish McDonald As his motorcade swept along the wide boulevards of Burma's new capital, Naypyidaw, on Thursday to buildings of stunning pretence, Australia's history-minded Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, might...
Paul Sheehan
Boats keep coming and the real cost keeps rising
Paul Sheehan The numbers are extraordinary. The failure is breathtaking - a failure in every possible way, of policy, morality, practicality, security, sovereignty, fairness and budgeting.
Sean Nicholls
Winds of wonder precede blows to public services
Sean Nicholls MIKE BAIRD acknowledges the pain he is inflicting in his second budget and insists it is for our own long-term good.
Failure of the GST to pull its weight forecast to create $5.2b hole
Matt Wade WHATEVER happened to the GST? It provides about a quarter of the funding for state services including schools, hospitals and police stations, but the consumption tax is not delivering as it used to.
Josh Gordon
Cuts, deals and 'verbal' tape straining rocky Coalition romance
Josh Gordon The Premier must act now to defend his deputy's integrity.
Martin McKenzie-Murray
Democracy running low on ink
Martin McKenzie-Murray Would Nixon get away with it in the Google age? A web of 'citizen journalists' cannot replace newspapers.
Richard Ackland
Hanged, drawn and quartered - and that's just the Bail Act
Richard Ackland Who would have picked the hard-line Christian warrior Attorney-General, Greg Smith, as a ''leftie masquerading as a conservative''.
Beware the rise of worthless training
Adele Horin People who went to university and whose children go, or are destined to go, to university usually have little interest in the plebeian matters of skills training or the fate of TAFE, an institution...
Michelle Grattan
Vindicated after the agony of a lifetime
Michelle Grattan Tim Flannery did a gutsy and honourable thing when he wrote his mea culpa over the Azaria Chamberlain case, which appeared in Friday's Sydney Morning Herald.
