National affairs
      
        
      The trouble with Coalition’s young-voter problem
    
    
      Peter Brent 
    
    
      14 August 2025    
    
      How the pundits are getting it wrong about generational voting
    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Australia’s widening wealth gap, and what to do about it
    
    
      Saul Eslake 
    
    
      3 June 2025    
    
      Growing wealth inequality is setting Australia up for conflict, but solutions aren’t out of reach
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      How little one knows, really, of one’s parents
    
    
      Caitlin Mahar 
    
    
      26 May 2025    
    
      French sociologist Didier Eribon goes in search of his working-class mother
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Can generational analysis be saved?
    
    
      John Quiggin 
    
    
      30 October 2023    
    
      A sociologist offers a more sophisticated take on generational differences, but problems remain
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      The ageing alarmists won’t let go
    
    
      John Quiggin 
    
    
      4 September 2023    
    
      Fears about the impact of increasing longevity haven’t aged well
    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      “You need to run it as a public service because that is what it is”
    
    
      Mike Steketee 
    
    
      16 August 2023    
    
      A string of scandals and cost-blowouts in social services look a lot like symptoms of a deeper problem
    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      Choice versus voice
    
    
      Mark Considine 
    
    
      22 June 2023    
    
      Why money won’t fix Australia’s broken social services model
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Time to talk about tax
    
    
      Tim Colebatch 
    
    
      14 October 2022    
    
      A grown-up conversation about how we fund better services is long overdue
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        From the archive
      
        
      Coffee first, then care
    
    
      Diana Bagnall 
    
    
      8 October 2021    
    
      Buurtzorg provides more humane care for elderly people at a lower cost. So what’s stopping it from being adopted in Australia?
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Holding on
    
    
      Brian McFarlane 
    
    
      3 June 2021    
    
      Three films tackle dementia is very different ways
    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      The end of the population pyramid
    
    
      John Quiggin 
    
    
      1 June 2021    
    
      Fears about a declining birthrate reflect a twentieth-century view of how the economy works
    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      If the future is more super, then the future is greater inequality
    
    
      Mike Steketee 
    
    
      5 February 2021    
    
      The superannuation guarantee shouldn’t rise until the system is made fairer
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      What happens when we treat aged care residents as “consumers”
    
    
      Sarah Holland-Batt 
    
    
      14 September 2020    
    
      Decades of misguided policy sowed the seeds of a human rights disaster
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Why I changed my mind about super
    
    
      Saul Eslake 
    
    
      11 September 2020    
    
      How one economist came to have doubts about the plan to lift the compulsory superannuation contribution rate
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      The weakest Covid-19 link
    
    
      Kathy Eagar 
    
    
      7 August 2020    
    
      Australia’s aged care homes were a disaster waiting to happen
    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      Magical thinking and the aged care crisis
    
    
      Sarah Holland-Batt 
    
    
      5 May 2020    
    
      Why do we keeping rediscovering, then forgetting, the diabolical state of aged care?
    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Millennial madness
    
    
      John Quiggin 
    
    
      10 February 2020    
    
      Which generation has the biggest stake in the absurdities of the generation game?
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Tides of opinion
    
    
      John Quiggin 
    
    
      16 December 2019    
    
      Generational divides don’t explain much, though attitudes to climate and culture seem to be exceptions
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Johnny Cash’s comma
    
    
      Andrew Ford 
    
    
      4 December 2019    
    
      Music | Late-career singers can do what young singers can’t
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      Is Goodstart just the beginning?
    
    
      Mike Steketee 
    
    
      22 October 2019    
    
      Can a successful social investment model be used in aged care and elsewhere?
    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Late-onset ageing
    
    
      Brett Evans 
    
    
      24 September 2019    
    
      Books | Ageing can be a better experience, but we might need to face a few unpleasant facts
    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Is demography still working against the Coalition?
    
    
      Ian Watson 
    
    
      14 September 2018    
    
      The short answer is yes, but the long answer is more complicated
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The war inside our bodies
    
    
      Sara Dowse 
    
    
      22 May 2018    
    
      Books | Does the wellness movement ignore important truths (and take up too much of our time)?
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Not so super
    
    
      Brendan Coates, John Daley & Trent Wiltshire 
    
    
      29 April 2018    
    
      Increasing the Superannuation Guarantee will help the rich at the expense of the poor
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Aged care’s demographic challenge
    
    
      Lesley Russell 
    
    
      27 November 2017    
    
      The growing dominance of private providers has led to lower standards of care. But will baby boomers put up with it?
    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      A shrewd appraisal of sameness and difference
    
    
      Frank Bongiorno 
    
    
      25 November 2017    
    
      A new book takes a nuanced look at ageing gay men and the world they live in
    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Hundred-year lives
    
    
      Brett Evans 
    
    
      23 March 2017    
    
      Books | Middle age is expanding, which is mostly good news    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Ageing parents: the next wave of temporary migrants?
    
    
      Peter Mares 
    
    
      25 October 2016    
    
      Changes to migration rules over the past two decades have made it progressively harder to bring ageing parents to Australia. But does a new policy – promised in the heat of…    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        National affairs
      
        
      Time’s up for ageing alarmists
    
    
      John Quiggin 
    
    
      4 October 2016    
    
      Mistaken fears about an “ageing population” have stopped us from considering how best to respond to the prospect of longer, healthier lives    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      The right to be old
    
    
      Melanie Joosten 
    
    
      17 June 2016    
    
      Ageing needs to be treated as a state of living rather than failing, argues Melanie Joosten in this extract from her new book
    
  
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