It’s near-universally agreed that opposition policy development under Peter Dutton was too thin and too late. Now the Sussan Ley opposition is under pressure to produce policy that could arguably be premature. Before Christmas, Ley will unveil her immigration policy. She’s already flagged it will be heavy on “principles”.
The Australian government is poised to introduce a new domestic gas reservation policy on the east coast. The plan is meant to tackle growing concerns around spiking gas prices and domestic supply. Large gas producers in Queensland export the vast majority of their gas to overseas buyers and long-reliable wells
Unsplash, CC BYFor a supposedly obsolete music format, audio cassette sales seem to be set on fast forward at the moment. Cassettes are fragile, inconvenient and relatively low-quality in the sound they produce – yet we’re increasingly seeing them issued by major artists. Is it simply a case of
Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty ImagesIf you’ve ever been on the sidelines at an under-12’s team sport, you will know that some children are fiercely competitive, while others are there simply to socialise. In the workplace, two colleagues might respond differently to the same piece of feedback, where one will go into
CC BYIn September this year, the Nobel prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa gave a powerful speech to the National Press Club about the ways in which authoritarians manipulate social media. She called for the Australian government to bolster the regulation of technology platforms and issued a stark warning. “The greatest threat
It is now (almost) official: Tasmania will finally take its place in the Australian Football League (AFL). Tasmania, a foundation state of the nation’s homegrown game of Australian rules football, has trod a tortuous route, with great drama, over its plan for a 23,000-seat indoor stadium precinct at Macquarie
Andrii Zastrozhnov/GettyImagine a 57-year-old woman, let’s call her Maria, who’s just opened a letter about her mammography results. She’s had several mammograms before, but this time reads new information: “Your breasts are dense”. While the letter assures her that dense breasts are common, it also indicates it could make
Duncan McNab/UnSpash, CC BY-NDThe lakes on the world’s biggest sand island, K'gari, are famous. Pivotal to the World Heritage listing of the Queensland island formerly known as Fraser Island, their turquoise waters feature in international tourism campaigns and social media posts. K'gari has more than 40 unique lakes, some
Nick Laham/Getty ImagesIn Andrew Pippos’ successful epic migrant family saga, Lucky’s (2020), the characters were often larger than life and violence never far from the picture. His new novel, The Transformations, takes a psychologically darker, slower and more internal trajectory across a narrative that encompasses the online transformation of newspapers
Getty ImagesSpotify has just released Spotify Wrapped, its annual end-of-year viral promotional exercise. For New Zealand musicians, however, there was little to get excited about. Spotify Wrapped aims to reflect users’ listening habits back to them, revealing their most listened to songs, artists, podcasts and more. It’s meant to be
Psycho (1960) I was recently watching a scene from the 2025 film Weapons for a monograph I’m writing and noticed a familiar sound: a low, unsettling drone as a character walks down a hallway. It’s the same kind of sound used in recent horror films such as Together (2025).
A microelectrode array covered with neurons. Bram ServaisAs prominent artificial intelligence (AI) researchers eye limits to the current phase of the technology, a different approach is gaining attention: using living human brain cells as computational hardware. These “biocomputers” are still in their early days. They can play simple games
It’s near-universally agreed that opposition policy development under Peter Dutton was too thin and too late. Now the Sussan Ley opposition is under pressure to produce policy that could arguably be premature. Before Christmas, Ley will unveil her immigration policy. She’s already flagged it will be heavy on “principles”.
The Australian government is poised to introduce a new domestic gas reservation policy on the east coast. The plan is meant to tackle growing concerns around spiking gas prices and domestic supply. Large gas producers in Queensland export the vast majority of their gas to overseas buyers and long-reliable wells
Unsplash, CC BYFor a supposedly obsolete music format, audio cassette sales seem to be set on fast forward at the moment. Cassettes are fragile, inconvenient and relatively low-quality in the sound they produce – yet we’re increasingly seeing them issued by major artists. Is it simply a case of
Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty ImagesIf you’ve ever been on the sidelines at an under-12’s team sport, you will know that some children are fiercely competitive, while others are there simply to socialise. In the workplace, two colleagues might respond differently to the same piece of feedback, where one will go into
CC BYIn September this year, the Nobel prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa gave a powerful speech to the National Press Club about the ways in which authoritarians manipulate social media. She called for the Australian government to bolster the regulation of technology platforms and issued a stark warning. “The greatest threat
It is now (almost) official: Tasmania will finally take its place in the Australian Football League (AFL). Tasmania, a foundation state of the nation’s homegrown game of Australian rules football, has trod a tortuous route, with great drama, over its plan for a 23,000-seat indoor stadium precinct at Macquarie
Andrii Zastrozhnov/GettyImagine a 57-year-old woman, let’s call her Maria, who’s just opened a letter about her mammography results. She’s had several mammograms before, but this time reads new information: “Your breasts are dense”. While the letter assures her that dense breasts are common, it also indicates it could make
Duncan McNab/UnSpash, CC BY-NDThe lakes on the world’s biggest sand island, K'gari, are famous. Pivotal to the World Heritage listing of the Queensland island formerly known as Fraser Island, their turquoise waters feature in international tourism campaigns and social media posts. K'gari has more than 40 unique lakes, some
Nick Laham/Getty ImagesIn Andrew Pippos’ successful epic migrant family saga, Lucky’s (2020), the characters were often larger than life and violence never far from the picture. His new novel, The Transformations, takes a psychologically darker, slower and more internal trajectory across a narrative that encompasses the online transformation of newspapers
Getty ImagesSpotify has just released Spotify Wrapped, its annual end-of-year viral promotional exercise. For New Zealand musicians, however, there was little to get excited about. Spotify Wrapped aims to reflect users’ listening habits back to them, revealing their most listened to songs, artists, podcasts and more. It’s meant to be
Psycho (1960) I was recently watching a scene from the 2025 film Weapons for a monograph I’m writing and noticed a familiar sound: a low, unsettling drone as a character walks down a hallway. It’s the same kind of sound used in recent horror films such as Together (2025).
A microelectrode array covered with neurons. Bram ServaisAs prominent artificial intelligence (AI) researchers eye limits to the current phase of the technology, a different approach is gaining attention: using living human brain cells as computational hardware. These “biocomputers” are still in their early days. They can play simple games
