The Loaded Dog

Should we all pay to alleviate congestion?

Should users of major road networks alone bear the infrastructure costs - like public transport - or ought we all pay for the alleviated congestion?

Paul McGeough

Plus ça change for a Europe in crisis

Paul McGeough They talk and talk and talk, but can they ever achieve anything? I'm talking about the Europeans.

Bruce Guthrie

The news - limited

Bruce Guthrie Fewer journalists means less light cast in dark places, and that diminishes democracy.

Misha Schubert

If the political hyperbole doesn't get them, the reality check will

Misha Schubert Politicians who exaggerate might find the joke's on them, writes Misha Schubert.

James Whelan

What did 15,000 public servants ever do for us, right? Wrong

James Whelan The NSW Treasurer, Mike Baird, declared ''we stand for smaller government'' this week, with a budget that will see 15,000 public servants retrenched.

The ghost of issues past still haunts Gillard, two years on

Phillip Coorey When Julia Gillard knocked off Kevin Rudd two years ago yesterday, Labor was floundering principally because of three intractable policy issues - the mining tax, carbon pricing and asylum seekers.

Comments 226

Kenneth Davidson

Dammed if we do or don't - but the desal will cost us plenty

Kenneth Davidson The big water bills will keep coming, whether we use the water or not.

Comments 124

Tony Wright

MPs' day of grieving: for asylum seekers lost and a Labor marriage gone cold

Tony Wright It was as awkward as an anniversary dinner for a marriage gone cold; everyone attempting desperate pleasantries until Uncle Ernie swerves two swigs over his limit and decides it's time to be frank.

Tim Colebatch

Two new taxes are on the way, but we shouldn't complain

Tim Colebatch Australia will remain one of the lowest-taxed countries in the Western world.

Comments 566

Hayden Stephens

Long wait for healing can end if perpetrator protections are removed

Hayden Stephens People who were sexually abused as children have waited a long time for a royal commission.

Hayden Stephens

Childhood betrayed can never be compensated

Hayden Stephens The abused and belittled want the terrible truth to be acknowledged at last.

Comments 42

Gerard Henderson

Power of the press a lot less muscular than some imagine

Gerard Henderson There is delusion. And then there is self-delusion. When both forces come together, what follows is an absence of reality. This is evident in much of the debate about the future of the print media.

Comments 117

Jacqueline Maley

A tale of rats, spats and chooks for Coalition's top dog

Jacqueline Maley IN HIS campaign against the carbon tax, the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has named butchers, fishmongers, cabinet makers and smelters as its victims.

Lenore Taylor

Take a reality check with a walk on the other side

Lenore Taylor In a world where reality television has a powerful impact on reality, maybe a TV show would focus attention on the real situation of Australia's unemployed.

Home of the enslaved

Wayne Swan Every four years as the debates heat up in the US presidential race, it coincides with a busy time in Australia's economic calendar.

Peter Hartcher

We heart Howard: both sides want to be like the Little Master

Peter Hartcher It fell to a woman named Susan Katz to lob the proverbial dead cat into the middle of the American presidential debate this week. It was a stinker.

Jacqueline Maley

Carbon question comes as Swede relief from a tiring debate

Jacqueline Maley YOU know the world has gone nuts when a parliamentary question about Swedish carbon pricing comes as a relief.

Generation Rent is growing in numbers

Jessica Irvine I'm sure I don't need to tell you how exciting I find the five-yearly release of census data. I presume - but cannot be sure - it stirs in me the same emotion most people feel about the Olympics.

Lenore Taylor

Labor in need of shelter as bad weather closes in

Lenore Taylor Julia Gillard was playing the audience perfectly at the press gallery's midwinter ball on Wednesday night, commiserating with journalists at both News Ltd and Fairfax as the media industry goes...