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Editor's note
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Federal parliament has risen for 2019, and the dominant story on the final day was a bizarre one: a spat between Energy Minister Angus Taylor – never far from a scandal in recent months – and US feminist writer Naomi Wolf. Wolf was demanding an apology from Taylor over his inaccurate claim that they’d been neighbours at Oxford in 1991, and implying she had campaigned against Christmas.
As MIchelle Grattan writes, the whole affair sounds like Taylor again being sloppy with facts and refusing to clean up his mess quickly. He is also a poor performer in his ministerial role, but Scott Morrison shows no inclination to move him – a missed opportunity.
And so, as the politicians head home to electorates increasingly hostile to them, Morrison ends the year with much unfinished, but inside a bubble of personal confidence that does not admit error or allow for self-doubt. That may fireproof him, or come back to burn him.
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Amanda Dunn
Section Editor: Politics + Society
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Top story
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Morrison would rather live with a problem minister in a key post than give a scalp to Labor.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The situation with Naomi Wolf is another case of Angus Taylor being sloppy with facts and refusing to clean up his mess quickly.
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The smouldering ruins of a child’s bike lies amongst a property lost to bushfires in the Mid North Coast region of NSW last month.
Darren Pateman/AAP
Danielle Clode, Flinders University
Living in a bushfire-prone area means every decision - from plants to parking spots to holidays - is shaped by fire risk. We live and die by the advice we are given, and the advice we ignore.
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Latest figures reveal homocides in Australia are at historic lows.
AAP/James Ross
Terry Goldsworthy, Bond University
The reasons the homicide rate is declining are complex, but a reduction in alcohol consumption and access to weapons are contributors.
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Sunshine Coast University Hospital uses evidence-based design to provide outside spaces with views that Indigenous people tell us they value.
Architectus
Timothy O'Rourke, The University of Queensland; Daphne Nash, The University of Queensland
Many Indigenous people tell us they find hospitals stressful, uncomfortable and alienating. Here's how good design can help.
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Science + Technology
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Gottfried Lechner, University of South Australia
Free space optical communication will allow the same connectivity in space we already have on Earth. And this will provide benefits across a number of sectors.
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Szymek Drobniak, UNSW
Emerging evidence suggests that prolonged stress exposure can accelerate the ticking rate of an internal cellular clock. By doing so, stress can contribute to faster ageing and body deterioration.
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Politics + Society
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Morrison said the shrinking of the number of departments was “to ensure the services that Australians rely on are delivered more efficiently and effectively”.
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Marina Khan, Western Sydney University; Shanthi Robertson, Western Sydney University
When visa services are run in the interests of profit rather than border governance, corrupt tactics can be used to benefit the providers’ bottom line.
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Health + Medicine
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Jane Tomnay, University of Melbourne
Access to early medical abortion is an important part of women’s sexual and reproductive health care. Yet often country GPs don't offer this service.
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Arts + Culture
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Roslyn Petelin, The University of Queensland
The survival of the apostrophe is vital to the comprehensibility of our language. If those who have protected it are hanging up their red pens, it's time we all do our bit.
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Environment + Energy
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Rebecca Pearse, University of Sydney
Labor continues to be hung up on a decade-old Greens' decision to oppose an emissions trading scheme in 2009. But responsibility for Australia's climate policy void lies elsewhere.
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