Karen Middleton While the ALP pushes for reform of its troubled NSW branch, the opposition leader faces dissent from federal allies aligned to the party’s Right faction.

Rick Morton While aiming to reduce sedative use in aged-care facilities, new government regulations may have the opposite effect, putting elderly residents at risk of dangerous – and potentially fatal – side effects.

Jane Caro Survivors of domestic violence are being routinely let down by a system that misdiagnoses their trauma, leaving many women and children unsupported and stigmatised.

Wendy Syfret Jia Tolentino has been dubbed the ‘voice of a generation’, a blogger turned New Yorker writer whose journalistic musings traverse everything from vaping to religion. She talks about the art of literary exploration and her much-anticipated debut book, Trick Mirror. “One of the reasons I write so much is that I’m not so good at thinking about things as they’re happening. Unless I’m writing about something, it’s not often that I’m analytically clear about my own present reality. I tend to just wander through it and hope that I will make sense of it later.”

Nina Funnell In the flood of disclosures that followed revelations about Harvey Weinstein’s decades-long abuse of women, there was hope for change and reform. Hope that individuals and institutions would finally be held accountable for their role in perpetuating sexual violence, and that attitudes and behaviours could genuinely be reformed. This week marks two years since the Me Too hashtag went viral on Twitter.

Paul Bongiorno For Scott Morrison, God obviously votes Liberal – that’s how he explains his ‘miraculous’ win in May. His mother-in-law confirmed on election night the family had all been praying for the result they got. On Tuesday, at the National Prayer Breakfast in Parliament House, the prime minister told the gathered faithful, which included Anthony Albanese, ‘The only prayers that you can be assured are never answered are the ones that are never prayed.’

Richard Ackland The talking points from the PM’s office that this week plopped accidentally into the inboxes of “undisclosed recipients” are designed so that a chorus of government parrots can squawk in the same tune. Bubble people in Canberra shrug off these revelations as uninteresting fare – yet for non-bubble citizens they provide a depressing insight into the contrived nature of our politics, the thin veneer of what passes for policies and the mind-numbing banalities deployed to prop them up.

No one saw it coming, though the signs were there. They stacked up quietly, covered only on the business pages and the financial cable news shows with their meagre viewerships. Mortgage lenders filing for bankruptcy; house prices beginning to slip. Then, everything went quickly. And when Lehman Brothers collapsed on September 15, 2008 – bloated with debt – the firm dragged the sharemarket down with it.

Mike Seccombe As crossbencher Rebekha Sharkie pushes to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, experts point to the long-term detrimental effects of early incarceration and a disproportionate racial factor in detention rates.

Jonathan Pearlman US withdrawal from Syria sees Russia and Assad supporting Kurds against Turkey. Peter O’Neill facing arrest in PNG. Setbacks for nationalists in Eastern European elections. China’s power play with NBA.

Andy Butler In The Construction of an Act, British installation artist Haroon Mirza explores how extraordinary feelings can arise from everyday phenomena.

Alison Croggon Acerbic and powerful, The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes exposes the exploitation of people with disability, and continues Back to Back Theatre’s tradition of making groundbreaking work.

Elizabeth Flux A chat in a cafe with Geraldine Barlow, head of international art for the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art.

Annie Smithers

Julia Leigh Alva Lim moved from Australia to Timor-Leste, where she co-founded the Agora Food Studio, a social enterprise that celebrates the unique Timorese cuisine.

Linda Pearce For the early part of her professional netball career, Sarah Klau was lacking in confidence and accustomed to warming the bench. Now, despite managing a chronic illness, the 25-year-old has secured her spot in the Diamonds line-up.

Cindy MacDonald Test your general knowledge with our weekly quiz.