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HSC disability scheme favours the rich

When one in five students from private schools applies for HSC disability provisions,the integrity of the exam at the end of high school has to come into question.

Latest

When it comes to your inheritance,the ATO will generally leave you alone.

I’m about to receive my inheritance,will I have to pay tax on it?

Inheritances are given a generous tax treatment in Australia,but once you spend it,that’s a different story.

  • byPaul Benson
Paul Vautin with long-time colleague and mate Peter Sterling
Opinion
Australia

‘Fatty’ Vautin was a TV trailblazer. The silence from some after his retirement says a lot

After more than three decades of entertaining viewers - the Manly and Queensland favourite has called it a day.

  • byDanny Weidler
Opinion
Feminism

Wicked unveils the tyranny of feminine niceness – and that’s why your daughters must see it

The new blockbuster movie of the stage show Wicked calculates the cost of female niceness and has radical things to say about the way women are cast into rigid roles.

  • byJacqueline Maley
Kim Williams,right,might do well to find journalists who are curious enough to tune into Joe Rogan.
Opinion
ABC

The ABC has lost its curiosity. Joe Rogan can help Kim Williams recover it

The ABC chair says he won’t tune into Rogan. Well,he should hope his journalists are doing it for him.

  • byParnell Palme McGuinness
David Stratton:“I had a friend in Sydney,and he was saying,‘You should come as a ten pound Pom,and I can sponsor you’. And so I did.”

David Stratton’s top 10 lost movie gems,and the Aussie classics you haven’t seen

Two weeks ago,Margaret Pomeranz gave us 10 lesser-known great movies to watch. Now it’s the turn of her long-time collaborator and friend,David Stratton.

  • byPeter FitzSimons
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Retirees who have built up a valuable pool of financial assets and invested them in things other than their family home may be comfortable renting in retirement.
Opinion
Hip pocket

Ready to sip on your super? First,tick off this pre-retirement checklist

Before you hang up your work boots,make sure you’re financially well-prepared for the second half (ish) of your life.

  • byDominic Powell
Naming a baby is a big responsibility.
Opinion
Religion

Naming a Jewish baby is an act of faith – especially now

As I prepare to welcome a new soul into our family,I pray they will grow up in an Australia where they can wear their identity with pride and without fear.

  • byNomi Kaltmann
Apple’s App Store is the only way to download new apps in Australia,and a percentage of anything you pay to developers and service-providers goes to Apple.
Analysis
Competition

Will new competition laws make your digital life cheaper?

The EU-style regime aims to stop big tech locking down their platforms. But we are still a long way from making smartphones a truly open ecosystem,like home computers.

  • byTim Biggs
People who start planning for retirement earlier end up in a better financial position.

This new law could transform your retirement,but the clock is ticking

How financial advice is delivered in Australia is likely to change for the better and there’s plenty to unpack here for the average person.

  • byBec Wilson
Australian star Travis Head.

Head-strong:Hometown hero’s appetite for destruction floors India

For more than 50,000 spectators at Adelaide Oval on a balmy Saturday night,nothing could possibly have been more fun than watching Head take his cutlass to the Indian attack.

  • byDaniel Brettig
Merry Christmas to everyone except the mosquito terrorising me every night.
Opinion
Insects

The single most annoying sound of summer

The arrival of pleasant weather brings with it a far more sinister reality:the annual war against mosquitoes.

  • byThomas Mitchell
Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the Albanese government for the Melbourne synagogue attack

The friendship between Australia and Israel is on life support. There is a lot of blame to go around

Some self-reflection would not go astray from Israel’s leaders and advocates about why the nation has become so isolated on the international stage.

  • byMatthew Knott
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Plibersek made a vow on environmental reforms. Albanese has put that at risk

It appears the prime minister has put Labor’s political survival ahead of the survival of Australia’s endangered species

  • byNick O'Malley andBianca Hall
Gianni Infantino

FIFA,spare us the garbage and admit Saudi World Cup is a simple cash grab

Next week,world football’s governing body will sign off on the Saudi bid to host the 2034 World Cup. They’re selling it as a catalyst for human rights reform in the Kingdom. Rubbish.

  • byPeter FitzSimons
I’m thinking about setting up a scammer school.
Opinion
Real life

Scammers kindly take note,I could teach you a thing or two

Poor grammar,bad spelling,random punctuation and unrealistic,un-Australian terminology:all of this can be fixed,for a price.

  • byRichard Glover
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TikToker Jools Lebron is among the influencers changing our language.
Opinion
WordPlay

The most unexpected way influencers are influencing us

It’s all very demure,very mindful.

  • byDavid Astle

Forget ping-pong. When competing with China,it’s rugby league diplomacy that matters

It’s the ultimate display of soft diplomacy,but when it comes to the brand new NRL team for Papua New Guinea,Australia’s playing hardball with China.

  • byMatthew Knott
Nathan McSweeney.
Analysis
Test cricket

The lights went out at Adelaide. The top order kept them on for Australia

In difficult conditions,after a nightmare start,under-pressure batters Marnus Labuschagne and Nathan McSweeney held their nerve to build a promising platform for Australia in the second Test.

  • byDaniel Brettig
Outspoken:Nick Kyrgios.

Is tennis cooked? No,but the temperature is being turned up

Nick Kyrgios says his sport is “cooked” after two top players tested positive to banned substances and were let off with a slap on the wrist. It’s a little more nuanced than that.

  • byDarren Kane
Many studies have demonstrated women are more sensitive to pain.

‘We offer anaesthetic but only men need it’:The persistent myth about pain

Do women or men have a higher threshold for pain? It’s a question that raises a number of problems with Australia’s medical system.

  • byWendy Tuohy
A fire ripped through Adass Israel synagogue in the early hours of Friday.

We feared rising antisemitism would lead to violence. Those fears came true

Burning a synagogue is a violent attack on a community,its history and its future.

  • byGabi Kaltmann
Peter Dutton and the price of nuclear power.

Before you swallow Dutton’s nukes,look at the evidence

So,Peter Dutton tells us that his nuclear policy will be cheaper than Labor’s renewables policy. I would recommend to readers the Climate Council’s myth-busting article “The seven ways the federal Coalition could cook the books on nuclear costings”.

Illustration:Simon Letch
Opinion
ABC wars

What the ABC should learn from Joe Rogan … and Popeye

For a decade,the ABC has been on a forlorn quest for digital relevance. It’s time it dared to be itself again – and took the risks required to be interesting.

  • byMalcolm Knox

Why I no longer feel bad about my screen time

My Weekly Report used to send me reaching for the spreadsheet. Not any more.

  • byBrodie Lancaster
Prices will climb over the next decade,experts warn.

The Australian economy is behaving strangely

Something weird is happening in the Australian economy,but it won’t faze the RBA yet.

  • byMillie Muroi
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French President Emmanuel Macron (right) and ousted prime minister Michel Barnier last month.

Detested Macron blames ‘anti-Republican front’ for government collapse

Amid France’s biggest political crisis in a generation,President Emmanuel Macron has rejected calls for him to step aside,even after a vote of no confidence in his prime minister.

  • byRob Harris
The pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Sydney.

Sydney Uni’s ‘enforced civility’ is an assault on free speech – and likely unlawful

It could become one of the most restrictive campuses in the country for peaceful protest,intellectual freedom and critical debate.

  • bySarah Schwartz
Pamela Anderson sans makeup at The Gothams Film Awards in New York on Monday.
Opinion
Trends

Pamela Anderson’s a hero for not wearing make-up? Then call me a bad feminist

Women are being told we’re more “authentic” if we ditch makeup. Who benefits from that? Not the busy everyday woman who needs a bit of armour in a jar to boost her confidence.

  • byKate Halfpenny
I don’t want to do Secret Santa at my office at Christmas.

What can I do about my colleague’s awful Kris Kringle gift?

The gift was so bad,in fact,that I suspect your initial suspicion is dead right and someone in your team has misunderstood the nature of the game.

  • byJonathan Rivett

Best of frenemies:Tracing the Plibersek-Albanese rivalry

Tanya Plibersek and Anthony Albanese are from the same state and faction. They share a world view. So why don’t they get along?

  • byJames Massola
India’s Virat Kohli celebrates his century in Perth.

India love these grumbling Aussies. And they’re about to get stronger

Drop him,pick that one. Why were runs given easily to Virat Kohli? The Indians are watching with amusement as questions swirl around the Australian team.

  • bySunil Gavaskar
In rare air on Australian soil:Jasprit Bumrah,Sir Richard Hadlee,Wasim Akram and Curtly Ambrose.
Analysis
Test cricket

Hadlee. Akram. Ambrose. Bumrah:India’s pace hero can trump best fast bowlers to tour Australia

The story of how “Hadlee’s a w---er” become a 1980s anthem says it all about touring quicks. Forty years later,India’s strike weapon ranks among the very best of them.

  • byDan Walsh
King Kohli at training in Adelaide.

भारत को ये बड़बड़ाते ऑस्ट्रेलियाई पसंद आ रहे हैं. और वे अब और भी मजबूत होने वाले हैं

किस खिलाडी का फॉर्म बिगड़ गया हे,किसको ड्राप करना चाहिए,और विराट कोहली को इतने रन क्यों बनाने दिये गए? ऑस्ट्रेलिया की इस मुश्किल घडी को देख टीम इंडिया को शायद मज़्ज़ा तो आ रहा होगा.

  • bySunil Gavaskar
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Opinion
Column 8

Stuck in a chat circuit

AI or a chip off the old block?

Rashell Habib’s father and the gardenias. They remind her of her childhood and her late father.
Opinion
Grief

My father’s quirky idea of a family tree is the reason I miss him most

A year to the day after my dad died,the first gardenia of the season bloomed. Those flowers are my childhood - and the blooms of his enduring love.

  • byRashell Habib
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Illustration by Joe Benke

The pros and cons of a ‘good bloke’ prime minister

I find it alarming that the astute Niki Savva sees Peter Dutton as electable despite his failure to produce a single,costed economic policy. Albanese,for all his faults,does stand for something other than himself.

Portland mayor Ted Wheeler addresses the first day of the NSW drug summit.
Editorial
Drug reform

NSW drug summit hampered by Minns government’s lack of enthusiasm

The outcomes of the NSW drug summit will most probably will reflect the Minns government’s lack of enthusiasm for reform.

  • The Herald's View
Financial abuse by a partner or ex-partner can have prolonged impact.

It’s the domestic abuser’s hidden weapon. But if you wield it,your time’s up

Financial abuse is a form of intimate-partner violence,but now perpetrators and their facilitators are on notice:with unanimous support from a parliamentary committee,reform is coming.

  • byDeborah O'Neill
Ahn Gwi-ryeong,35,a spokesperson for South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party,grabs the weapon of a soldier in a confrontation after martial law was declared in South Korea this week.

‘Have you no shame?’:Viral video of fearless South Korean woman has defined an uprising

Ordinary Koreans’ response to the threat of martial law is a reminder that democracy was not achieved top-down in South Korea – it had to be won.

  • byAndy Jackson
Readers back moves to factor work from office compliance into performance reviews.

The year is almost over. Here’s how to properly switch off

Burnout manifests itself in three ways:occupational exhaustion,depersonalisation,and a decrease in feelings of personal accomplishment. Sound familiar?

  • byTim Duggan
Justin Langer,Adam Gilchrist,Pat Cummins and Andrew McDonald.

Drawing the battlelines:The culture wars in Australian cricket

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is on the line and careers hang in the balance – but the contest against India in Adelaide is not the only battle the national team finds itself in.

  • byAndrew Wu
Eduard Macron (left) and Olaf Scholz:Their countries’ political crises couldn’t come at a worse time.
Opinion
Trade wars

Even before Trump and his tariffs,Europe is in trouble

The timing couldn’t be worse. The fall of the French government and the collapse of Germany’s coalition government have left Europe even more vulnerable to a new trade war with America.

  • byStephen Bartholomeusz
Opinion
Mardi Gras

The secret reason behind Mardi Gras move to ban NSW police

A motivated,radical group wants Mardi Gras to be more exclusionary. Less radical queers are now the enemy.

  • byPeter Stahel
Salt Typhoon - given its name by Microsoft - is a Chinese state-linked hacking group that has been active since 2020.

The Chinese hack that has Australia on high alert

A notorious Chinese hacking group has stolen a vast amount of Americans’ metadata,and Australian officials are worried.

  • byDavid Swan
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

If Albanese wins the next election he should celebrate,then step aside

If Anthony Albanese loses next year,which once seemed improbable and now looks possible,he will shoulder much of the blame and his legacy will be trashed.

  • byNiki Savva
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West Coast star Harley Reid.

The Harley hype machine:Why West Coast’s one obligation to Reid is keeping him on the right path

West Coast can define the era of their rebuild if they manage Harley Reid well,regardless of whether or not they end up keeping him.

  • byPeter Ryan
Home and hosed? Not quite. Premier Chris Minns and Transport Minister Jo Haylen announce the proposed development at Rosehill racecourse almost a year ago to the day.

A year ago it was Minns’ mini-city,but was he backing the wrong horse?

For all the ribbon-cutting on rail lines,Rosehill may never get its station – or its 25,000 new homes. And that’s a big hole in the premier’s plan to address the housing crisis.

  • byAlexandra Smith

I can be the life of the party,but it comes with a big caveat

As I age,I am finding this harder to achieve,as work and home pressures drain me of any excess of vitality for others.

  • byWendy Squires
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Opinion
Column 8

A need-to-know basis,by George!

And a return to the lawyerly pile-on.