For Timor, Australia's Seasonal Worker Program is about far more than picking fruit. It's about changing lives.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Analysis and Comment
The Tariff Board was told that if women could buy music that was cheap they would buy music that was dirty.
A Protestant tradition with pagan roots, the Christmas tree is now a global phenomenon. It also reveals much about market economics, so let's climb on the sleigh and take a ride around this holiday item…
The idea there is no government fate worse than debt is misleading at best.
Blind bag toys work through the potent combination of price, the appeal of collecting and the psychological lure of surprise.
For crop farmers, the risk of low profit years has doubled.
The treasurer has pulled out all stops to continue to forecast budget surpluses, but they are low, and don't take account of several likely costs.
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Mathias Cormann and Jim Chalmers on the mid-year budget update.
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The figures indicate a worsening economy, but the government has sought to put a positive spin on the situation, saying the Australian economy is showing resilience.
MYEFO contains a long-overdue admission: that low wage growth is the new normal. It'll take extraordinary spending restraint to make the surplus forecasts stick.
Technology has taken the old sales tactic of time-limited offer to a whole new level. But for the tactic to work requires a Goldilocks zone between being too pushy and not all.
Charter of Budget Honesty aside, we can expect assumptions that stretch credulity so the Australian government can maintain its surplus forecast.
We want to to believe in the power of shareholder activism, but reality is another thing.
New Zealand introduced KiwiSaver 12 years ago to address a lack of retirement savings. But fees are up to 50% more than UK funds and New Zealanders are missing out on hundreds of thousands in savings.
Our study predicts a further 0.5℃ increase in temperature by 2041 will halve the current number of farmers in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin
Market forces don't work well in education. For-profit businesses are more tempted to exploit loopholes than provide quality service.
The World Trade Organization will lose its teeth from midnight. We are entering a world with unenforceable rules.
Westpac's 154 page financial statement will be a challenge for shareholders attending Thursday's annual general meeting. In the early 2000s, it was only 35 pages.
The skills children learn at school have dramatic implications for their own future and the nation's productivity, living standards and income inequality.
Ordinary activities would become criminalised without a compelling reason.
Anti-money laundering rules give the comfort of doing something, but prevent surprisingly little crime.
Introduced properly, 5G could have an enormous impact. We are placing it at risk.
Economy
Spending growth has fallen to financial crisis lows. Per person, economic growth and spending has gone backwards. Josh Frydenberg isn't ruling out action in the pre-Christmas budget update.
Tax
The Stage 3 cuts would make Australia's income tax system the least progressive in 60 years.
Superannuation
Inquiry
One of the questions is how much we need in retirement. Another is whether we need 12% compulsory super to get there.
Banking Royal Commission
People expect financial institutions to serve them better in the wake of the royal commission. There's reason to believe they won't, for long.
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Eminent economist Ross Garnaut says if climate action fails, he fears the consequences 'would be beyond contemporary Australia'. But zero-emissions iron and aluminium could be the way forward.
Every one of the 13 economists surveyed by The Conversation thinks more stimulus is needed. None think it should all come from the Reserve Bank. Most think the budget surplus can wait.
This year's Nobel Prize is important both for what it recognises and who it recognises.
ParentsNext
ParentsNext has punitive dimensions that threaten people's human rights. Now a Senate Committee will determine whether it's helping or harming vulnerable parents and their children.
The Conversation's distinguished panel predicts unusually weak growth, dismal spending, no improvement in either unemployment or wage growth, and an increased chance of recession.
Stress, troubled sleep and interrupted family time are some of the little-known downsides from working from home.
Super
A full throated inquiry into superannuation and whether we need more could be the last best thing the Coalition does.
Private health
Subsidies for private health insurance premiums cost the government over A$6 billion a year. Is it time to scrap the rebate and redirect these funds elsewhere in the health system?
Preparedness
Last time Australia got lucky. We are unlikley to get lucky again.
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