Karen Middleton As attempts to restore water to the river basin fail to meet their targets, scientists warn irrigator subsidies may cost 10 times initial estimates.

Debra Jopson Sydney and Melbourne’s real estate boom, falling standards in oversight and a reticence to report flaws have combined to create a defects crisis in the cities’ residential apartments.

Dennis Atkins After the death of six workers in the past 12 months, Queensland’s mining industry is desperately searching for solutions to improve the safety of its worksites.

Neha Kale With his bold, sumptuous paintings, Michael Armitage is intent on challenging colonial assumptions about East Africa and revealing the region’s complexities. “Sex, poverty and dictators: if you are talking about this part of the world, you always come up against those stereotypes and that’s been very difficult … For me, it’s been important to use an exotic language but show that it is also a form of dumbing down.”

Tanya Levin Despite claiming that his ‘faith is not a political agenda’, the prime minister’s religious values are evident in his speeches and policies. Scott Morrison talks about his Christianity all the time. Listeners might not be faulted for absorbing his analogies and colloquialisms as metaphors. For Morrison, however, they are facts. The Pentecostal faith does not describe itself in the abstract: a miracle is literally a miracle. His language is full of references to evangelical fundamentalism and the supernatural.

Paul Bongiorno Rapturous applause welcomed Scott Morrison to the annual Hillsong conference. Twenty-one thousand delegates bowed their heads as the prime minister led them in prayer for our nation – for veterans doing it tough, young people considering suicide, those facing the challenges of middle age, remote Indigenous communities, people with disability, and drought-breaking rain.

Richard Ackland Fantastic Angus has been so busy with explanations about the poisoning of endangered grasslands on a family spread that he’s taken his eye off the ball. Both carbon emissions and power prices have gone in the opposite direction to that promised by Schmo Morrison’s junta. Emissions are up, up, up, and so too are power prices. Fantastic. Great move. Well done, Angus.

The photo is red earth and a line of bodies, snaking the length of the frame. Climbers locked shoulder-to-shoulder in a desperate push to summit. They fill the surrounding campgrounds, and every motel for a hundred kilometres. Their rubbish on the roadside, their black waste dumped in the backyards of unsuspecting properties. For so long, the Anangu people have asked visitors not to climb Uluru. They never banned the practice, asking only for respect, “that, as a guest on Anangu land, you will choose to respect our law and culture by not climbing”. Wanyu Ulurunya tatintja wiyangku wantima.

Richard Cooke The latest arrest of Jeffrey Epstein on charges of sex trafficking minors has again focused world attention on the multimillionaire’s relationships with the rich and powerful.

Jonathan Pearlman Australia’s joint war games. Vanuatu deports Chinese citizens. Greek election results. Ebola rages in Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Patrick Hartigan As mining interests continue to dominate Australia’s landscape, two exhibitions at UNSW Galleries consider humanity’s exploitation of the planet’s resources.

Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen A refreshing and often groundbreaking portrayal of female adolescence, Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart deserves to be a classic, despite its slow start at the box office.

Magan Magan A chat with Lamisse Hamouda about how she freed her father from an Egyptian prison.

David Moyle

Sophia Auld As we age, so does our brain. But new research shows healthy lifestyle choices can dramatically slow the process and reduce the risk of diseases such as dementia.

Cindy MacDonald In this year’s Netball World Cup, Australia aims to bounce back after losing the gold medal to England at the Commonwealth Games. It’s a challenge that Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander is relishing.

Cindy MacDonald Test your general knowledge with our weekly quiz.