What was Australia’s first novel?
A riches to rags tale written by a convict was published in Hobart in 1830. On mainland Australia, an Irish widow published a gothic melodrama in 1838.
The Conversation – Articles (AU)
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Australian scavengers don’t just eat everything and slink away. They approach a carcass like a buffet
First come the eagles, then the dingoes. And then the foxes, to fight over the scraps.
Hordes of yabbies are trashing rivers in Africa. How did this happen?
In the 1980s and 1990s, the hardy redclaw crayfish was exported from Australia around the world. But escapee yabbies have become a nightmare.
NAZA: harrowing documentary shows how killing in Gaza became just another day’s work
Directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor offer us a look inside the systems used by the Israeli military to target Palestinians.
School teachers are burning out at alarming rates. How can we help keep them happy in their jobs?
Supporting teacher wellbeing means more than stepping in once they are already overwhelmed and ready to leave the profession.
Australia urgently needs a national bushfire database. Here’s what it could look like
Bushfires will only become fiercer and more frequent in the face of climate change.
It’s no secret drug firms donate to political parties. But it’s still a secret exactly how much, and why
Donations of A$7.7 million over a decade have been disclosed. But that’s not the full amount, a new study shows.
Australia has 3 competing migration policies. The problem? None are based in evidence
One Nation, the Coalition and Labor have all released migration plans in the last month. How do they compare to one another?
Why are there so many plants? New research reveals two key phases in Earth’s past
Extreme greenhouse events in the past killed many plants – but also gave rise to new ones.
Senate throws out budget plan to remove health insurance top up for older people
The Senate has rejected the government’s controversial budget measure to cut the private health insurance rebate for people 65 and older.
View from The Hill: everyone is on the lookout for Albanese-Chalmers tension
The ins and outs of the Albanese-Chalmers relationship is in the wider context of the positioning for the succession.
DemosAU MRP poll has Labor winning clear majority of House seats on just 27% of primary vote
A new batch of polls bring better news for the Albanese Labor government, with support for One Nation seeming to have eased off.
How the ‘digital duty of care’ bill could undermine vital sex and drug education online
Safety messages about drugs and sex are already routinely misidentified and removed from social media platforms. The proposed bill would take this further.
Domestic violence is a national crisis in PNG. The Chiefs NRL team must do more to support women
PNG is grappling with despicable rates of gender-based violence. Why isn’t a women’s team part of the Australian government’s $600m NRL deal?
Loops, flashbacks and fractured narratives: why filmmakers love to play with time
Cinema, almost from its infancy, has been drawn to telling stories out of sequence – and forcing audiences to reassemble what they have just seen.
By making protests conditional on state approval, governments are eroding our democracy
A new report maps how protest permit systems work in every state and territory. The result is a tangle of laws, council by-laws and complicated rules.
Renters and home buyers are seeing AI-‘enhanced’ property photos. Now NSW is changing the rules
Renters and homebuyers have been turning up to properties to find a very different reality from the ads. There’s even a name for it: ‘housefishing’.
The Conversation – Articles (AU)
Paul Harrison, Director, Master of Business Administration Program (MBA) Real Estate EN 
Manifesto of Silences reimagines opera from a Deaf perspective, as a space to process trauma communally
The Deaf-led theatrical work explores the tragic consequences of the Milan Conference of 1880, which resulted in the suppression of sign language around the world.
The Conversation – Articles (AU)
Samuel Martin, Researcher, Sign on Screen Project, Australian National University Science EN 
Our detection dogs are helping protect one of Australia’s most imperiled lizards
Highly trained canines, Sugar and Moss, are helping protect the critically endangered Victorian grassland earless dragon.
Voters want stronger action on AI. Can NZ afford to keep taking a soft approach?
As AI and its impacts become harder to avoid, other countries are setting rules for its use. New Zealand has some catching up to do.
Spawning coral release quintillions of eggs each year: new research
The first estimate of coral egg numbers across the Indo-Pacific shows which species can help rebuild devastated reefs.
What is the Socratic method? Could it be used to test students in an age of AI?
Plato’s dialogues show that learning takes place through the to-and-fro of reflective thought – much of learning is finding out what we don’t know.
How young people do democracy: pausing, questioning, creating and bringing others along with them
The second annual Shopfront Youth-Led Conference was designed by young people for young people. They wanted to talk about ‘redesigning success’.
When parents don’t see eye to eye: are differences in parenting styles a bad thing?
When parents have different approaches to raising children, who’s right? Research suggests the answer matters less than how they handle their disagreements.
Introduced species aren’t good or bad. But when they slip from our control, we are quick to condemn them
Pigs, camels, rabbits and many others were brought to Australia deliberately as valuable species. But we see them very differently once they become free-roaming.
Mental disorders are twice as common among victim-survivors of intimate partner violence
Yet victim-survivors often don’t or can’t access mental health care.
Who’s paying whom? The circular money machine behind the AI boom (or bubble)
What’s not clear is how much of this AI boom is being driven by real, end-user demand — and how much might be a bubble.
NZ’s health system suffers from chronic ailments only cross-party consensus can treat
Voters should look for long-term health policies that address workforce shortages, improve access to primary and specialist care, and include early intervention.
Extreme El Niños are coming. Reaching net zero sooner means facing fewer of them
The El Niño climate pattern has long influenced weather across the globe.
Strange Health returns for season two, an award-winning podcast from The Conversation Short
What do cottage cheese, sunscreen and pimple popping have in common? They are all heading our way in the new series of Strange Health, the podcast from The Conversation that investigates the…
Jim Chalmers warns progressives not to ‘mock’ One Nation voters
By directly acknowledging the seriousness of One Nation’s support, Chalmers is underscoring that the party is a threat to Labor, not just to the Coalition.
The Pacific Islands are changing. What happens to cultural heritage when the people have to leave?
As sea levels rise, Tuvalu is creating opportunities for its people to migrate to Australia. But the places left behind are still full of cultural history.
Josh Frydenberg's plan to keep speaking out Video
The former treasurer and deputy Liberal leader said he's still deciding whether to make a political comeback, which he'll announce in the new year.
Just politics or the ‘opposite of clever’? The risks and rewards of strategic voting
Vote splitting and parliamentary overhangs are not unheard of in New Zealand elections. But making them a deliberate campaign tactic is different.
From Melbourne to Madrid, housing is shaping modern politics. But who benefits?
Housing crises across advanced economies are reshaping political loyalties, but which parties reap the rewards is hard to predict.
Doing end-of-year exams? 5 foods that are good for brain health – and what to avoid
Your muscles need fuel during exercise, and during sustained mental effort your brain needs energy, too. What you eat, and when, can affect how you feel and perform.
Should you watch a tiger mauling a man – or a live-streamed execution? We asked an ethicist
We should pause and think about what we would want if our death was being filmed and our dignity or privacy were at stake.
The Conversation – Articles (AU)
Jacqueline Boaks, Philosopher, Curtin Centre for Applied Ethics, Curtin University EN 
We can’t block a livestream, but Australia could ban execution footage from the US – to an extent
No country is an island when it comes to potentially harmful content online.
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Josh Frydenberg plans to keep speaking out
The former treasurer and deputy Liberal leader said he’s still deciding whether to make a political comeback, which he’ll announce in the new year.
Only structural change will fix NZ’s glaring health equity gap – what voters should know
Māori and Pacific people carry a disproportionate burden of preventable disease. Concerned voters should look beyond parties’ headline pledges on health.
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