“Scarborough Fair” is what Ellen Stekert calls a “go around song,” one that is passed from singer to singer, down centuries, ...

If citizens don’t have confidence in their public services, at least on balance, they will be more reluctant to pay taxes and the extent and quality of services will spiral downwards. It’s worth ...

Does anyone remember “American carnage”? In his 2017 inaugural address Donald Trump portrayed a collapsing society, emphasising in particular the “crime and gangs and drugs” destroying America’s ...

Right now, according to British political theorist Jonathan White, the future seems very close. Our time horizon is closing in. Crises press in on us, shadowing contemporary politics with an “air of ...

At the annual Shangri La security dialogue in Singapore two weeks ago, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth didn’t just ask Australia to spend more on defence. He also unveiled plans for a new US ...

A few ordinary games as a defender with the Tasmanian Football League’s Glenorchy club ended any prospect I had of a footballing career. In those days, football was still a celebrated part of ...

Judith Hermann has been writing critically acclaimed short stories and novels for almost three decades. Having burst onto the literary scene with the 1998 collection The Summerhouse, Later, she is ...

Applying the term to everything from dishwashers to medical breakthroughs masks both its benefits and its harms ...

An enduring theme in Australian elections is the interplay between federal and state politics. In the case of the recent election, it was widely suggested that Victoria’s long-term Labor government ...