News

Tim Rushby-Smith Among the thousands of demountable classrooms used in NSW schools, many are inaccessible to parents with disabilities. So why is the Education Department ignoring building codes that require higher standards?

Karen Middleton A new Office of National Intelligence will have increased powers to access personal information and scrutinise online activities. But who will monitor the monitor?

Mike Seccombe The range of candidates running in the Wentworth byelection reflects an electorate that has less and less in common with the Liberal Party, which has held the seat since the party’s foundation.

Karen Middleton In five years, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has only once absented himself from cabinet discussions relating to child care.

Mike Seccombe With the ascendancy of a Pentecostal Christian leader, the Liberal Party slides further to the religious right. But can it find salvation without the coffers of Malcolm Turnbull?

Hamish McDonald In Sydney’s west, the Uygur community has joined calls for Australia to sanction China over its internment of more than one million members of the Muslim minority.

Martin McKenzie-Murray Reflecting on the limits of language around suicide, the author writes of his own experience of depression and the call for a more open discussion of mental health.

Michele Tydd As an infectious syphilis epidemic continues to ravage northern Australia – now threatening the lives of newborn babies – Indigenous sexual health specialist James Ward is leading a campaign to help remote communities.

Martin McKenzie-Murray As host of this week’s Pacific Islands Forum, Nauru faced uncomfortable questions about its compromised relationship with Australia and censure of its stance towards China.