Friendship is having a moment. Connoisseurs of illustrious children’s television shows like K-Pop Demon Hunters or Frozen will have noticed that Prince Charming has been usurped by Girl Gangs.

Books & arts Boris levels up Frank Bongiorno & Joshua Black 5 December 2024 The former British PM’s highly readable memoir is just a little too tidy Books & arts Donald Horne, citizen intellectual ...

Books & arts (Not) talking politics Caitlin Mahar 18 December 2025 Social theorist Sarah Stein Lubrano says the “marketplace of ideas” doesn’t work. But is the alternative any more promising?

National affairs Growing bananas at the South Pole Stephen Wilks 2 October 2025 The great tariff clash shows how the Coalition manages to survive deep differences of ...

If writing always made sense to the writer, it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting,” says journalist Susan Orlean ...

When Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus outlined the peak union body’s Change the Rules campaign at the National Press Club in March, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and ...

In the wake of Trump’s first month in office, when his administration launched concerted attacks on education and research in every guise, it has been provoking to read the new edition of Martha ...

Nations are built with pens and brushes not just hammers and nails. They exhibit their character in what they say about themselves as much as what is said about them. — Bruce Pascoe, Convincing Ground ...

Buried in the communiqué of last month’s Pacific Islands Forum, at item 30, is a single sentence: “Leaders accepted French Polynesia and New Caledonia as full members of the Pacific Islands Forum.” ...

There’s no mystery about the strong sales of Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu and its sequel for younger readers, Young Dark Emu: A Truer History. They have helped articulate a desire among non-Indigenous ...

“I cannot live with You —” goes Emily Dickinson’s poem. “It would be Life —/ And Life is over there —/ Behind the Shelf.” Once upon a time many Australian homes had the books of Patrick White out ...

For almost a decade the Coalition government insisted the states and territories had sole responsibility for ensuring that Australians on the lowest incomes had a place to call home. Even at the ...