Opinion Archive

  Horror, disdain, anger, sadness. Those are all the words that came to mind after the last week of stressful and horrible news of what was happening in my home country, France. How could 2015 start in such a shattering way? Wednesday 7 January 2015, 10:47pm: …

  Move over craft beer fans! The word from London is that there’s a new kind of niche boutique café where the young and hip can be seen. This week saw the birth of the world’s first ever cereal café, where morning, …

We should have seen it coming. Thirty years on from Band Aid’s original version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Bob Geldof has once again made a few phone calls, tweaked a few lyrics and quickly assembled the fourth version of the song …

Thousands of students are on the streets yelling and holding banners that scream “Censura es dictadura” (censorship is dictatorship), “Prefiero morir de pie que morir de rodillas” (I’d rather die standing on my feet than live on my knees) “Si los medios …

Religion is not responsible for people committing acts of terror in its name. This has become a crucial issue in the current debate about terrorism legislation in Australia. On the eve of the introduction of new anti-terrorist laws in Australia, it has …

Sweden has a bit of a reputation. Among progressive Australians it and its fellow Nordic nations are lauded for their social services, and that for the cost of a very high tax bill you are rewarded by living in one of the …

Italy’s unemployment rate hit a new record in May with almost half the country’s young now looking for work. Youth unemployment is approaching stratospheric levels of more than 42 per cent, the highest data ever, with a proportion of four jobless out …

The federal Budget announced today is tearing up the social contract.  Jack Rozycki has some ideas on how it has all come to pass. This is how it works: developers and major business consortia give mega money to the Liberal Party through phoney companies …

In making room for the bolts of this world, we also make room for the nutters There has been so much press about the so-called ‘freedom of speech’ Bill (the one that amends the federal Racial Discrimination Act) that I decided to …

Convicted murderer of Cabramatta MP John Newman celebrated his 55th birthday in custody this week. The Vietnamese-born former Fairfield councillor Phuong Canh Ngo is serving a life sentence for the shooting murder of Austrian-born Cabramatta MP John Newman. Ngo has spent 15 …