Academics are howling and hissing about a ministerial decision to veto a handful of Australian Research Council grants. Six years ago in Quadrant, Philippa Martyr explained who gets how much for what. Just now seems a very good moment to republish her investigation

The ALP deserves to win the next election. Not because they’re any better, but because the Liberal Party ate itself alive years ago with  branch-stacking, back-stabbing and a contemptuous indifference to the grass-roots. Bill Shorten and Labor's wretched crew are no more than we deserve

The same-sex debate bared a de facto schism in a church whose membership has been decimated, and which should be preparing for old-fashioned persecution by an increasingly hostile state. The coming years will highlight the consequences of failing to preach the Gospel in and out of season

A body of opinion, admittedly small and premature in its pessimism, sees the SSM contretemps as having driven a wedge into the body of the church. While that appraisal goes too far, there is a definite rustle of disquiet in the pews as some seek to muffle dogma with social justice soft-headedness

The greatest lesson to be drawn from so many revelations of abuse is that a culture which privileges clerical privacy over lay distress has to change, and quickly. Should that not happen, protecting non-negotiables like the seal of the confessional from the state will be near impossible

There was a time when wowsers brought hatchets and a sense of mission to their attacks on Demon Rum. These days, while the zeal of the righteous crusader remains undiminished, a study peppered with dubious statistics and curious omissions is the weapon of choice

When there’s a conflict of interest between you and the thing you’re trying to get money for – in this case, from grants bodies set up to benefit disadvantaged Aboriginal people – then you declare it to your employer and step aside. A concept that basic is beyond dispute

Until the Islamic community is seen to be policing its own homegrown problems – and not policing the rest of us for the so-called backlash -- Australians will have good reason to harbour suspicions about leaders and spokespersons who just don't seem to get it

Even as the government talks up plans for its $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund, history and logic suggest that vast sum won't do much to advance the healing sciences. But as an exercise in duplicitous accounting it is world-class -- the NBN in a white coat with stethoscope