How can the major parties address the rise of populism in Australia?

Andrew Fuhrmann is an editor and literary critic. He is a researcher in the Digital Studio at the University of Melbourne and has taught at the Victorian College of the Arts.

I take Robert Manne’s word for the proposition that the predominant mood among Australian people in our times is against “boat people” (‘Comment: Asylum Seekers’, September 2010); but I question the ...

Lisa Pryor is a journalist and writer. She has worked for the Sydney Morning Herald as a columnist, opinion editor and investigative reporter.

If Nicolas Rothwell is to be believed (‘The Blast Zone’, September 2010), the Aboriginal people of the Western Desert may as well pack their bags and move to the suburbs of Perth (or at least ...

Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis’ ‘Machete’ and Sean Byrne’s ‘The Loved Ones’ “Every time an illegal dances across our border,” says Senator John McLaughlin (Robert de Niro) at a rally, “it is an ...

How a novel’s opening line reflected the author’s dissonance as a teenage reader, and remains an apt tribute to the enduring power of fiction Recently I was chatting with a niece, and we got into a ...

Dr Karen Hitchcock’s article on obesity was a huge breath of fresh air (‘Fat City’, March). This subject has been examined intensively in the lay and scientific press in the past decade but the ...

What to me seems the most challenging question in Australian history receives commonly a very confident answer. What effect did the convicts have on our national character? Answer: they made us an ...

No sane politician, let alone prime minister, is going to invite an encore. For this reason, various Labor strategists are starting to worry about the simmering feud between Kevin Rudd and the Murdoch ...

In 1967, when La Trobe University was brand new and underpopulated, John O’Brien, an Irish historian with a wild and feverish laugh, told us about the enemy within. It was not for anything the ...

For Paddy Bedford, the day usually began soon after dawn. Tony Oliver, a former Melbourne gallerist who had worked alongside Bedford for close to a decade since arriving in the East Kimberley in 1998, ...