“Scarborough Fair” is what Ellen Stekert calls a “go around song,” one that is passed from singer to singer, down centuries, across oceans, shape-shifting all the while. “Go around songs” shed and ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The 1980s should have been David Combe’s time. During an arduous career as a political operative — most recently as Labor Party federal secretary — this stocky, woolly-haired figure had shown ...

Across the southeast of the continent now known as Australia, the recent bushfire season provoked a surge in interest in Aboriginal peoples’ fire practices and knowledge. These practices are often ...

One Sunday morning nearly four years ago Kevin McCann was surprised to learn that an organisation he chaired was being hounded in the News Corp tabloids for being in “China’s grip” and “lobbying ...

Visitors to the Hotel Robert in Saint Pierre et Miquelon, just off the coast of Newfoundland, can view a straw hat that purportedly belonged to Al Capone. The notorious American gangster used the tiny ...

I could work my way through the highlights of Stuart Macintyre’s career, conscientiously reciting book titles, prizes and other accolades, his role in learned academies and professional organisations, ...