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Editor's note
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There’s a growing chorus in the federal government singing the praises of cashless welfare cards. On the weekend the National Party’s federal council voted for a national roll-out of such cards to anyone aged under 35 on the dole or receiving parenting payments. The cards would quarantine 80% of welfare payments from being spent on alcohol, tobacco, gambling or anything that requires cash.
Social Services minister Anne Ruston reckons trials show users love them. But it’s more complicated than that, says Macquarie University anthropologist Eve Vincent, who spent months getting to know participants in the first trial of the cards, in Ceduna, South Australia.
While some didn’t mind the debit card, others told Vincent about feeling insulted and humiliated – emotions compounded by the fact the cards have been tested mostly on Indigenous people. Vincent suggests the claims of Ruston and other senior ministers are out of tune with the evidence.
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Tim Wallace
Deputy Editor: Business + Economy
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Top story
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The grey cashless debit card cannot be used at any alcohol or gambling outlet, nor used to withdraw cash.
www.shutterstock.com
Eve Vincent, Macquarie University
The lived experience of the lead-grey cashless debit card is a world away from the black-and-white impressions of federal politicians.
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Former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has offered to help free three detained Australians in Iran, but the attacks on Saudi oil facilities have made the situation vastly more complicated.
Stringer/EPA
Tony Walker, La Trobe University
Iran is being accused of 'hostage diplomacy' by resorting to incarcerating foreign nationals at a time when sanctions are crippling its economy.
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A child jumps from a rock outcrop into a lagoon in the low-lying Pacific island of Tuvalu.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Tim Flannery, University of Melbourne
Climate deniers have joyously laboured to create a world potentially uninhabitable for our children. Our activism has failed, and rebellion may be the only answer.
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Cyril Porchet, Swiss born 1984, Untitled 2014 from the series Crowd, inkjet print.
139.0 x 169.0 x 3.5 cm.
© Cyril Porchet
Sasha Grishin, Australian National University
Many of the world's greatest photographers focus on our shared human experience in a milestone exhibition.
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Politics + Society
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Michael Belgrave, Massey University
Teaching history is as much about facts and people as it is about contested narratives and disputed interpretations, which is why it's time to make New Zealand history a compulsory subject at school.
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Environment + Energy
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Marc Hudson, University of Manchester
Paddy Manning's new book charts the challenges faced by the Greens (and greenies in general) with admirable clarity and detail.
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Sally Sherwen, University of Melbourne; Therésa Jones, University of Melbourne
Billions of bogong moths are setting out from Queensland, but not reaching Victoria. We need citizen scientists to help figure out where they're ending up.
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Arts + Culture
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Emma Maguire, James Cook University
Lucy is a millennial having a quarter-life crisis. In Content, a new kind of TV using the selfie as a camera technique, we view her life as it is reflected back at her through her phone screen.
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Cities
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Abby Mellick Lopes, Western Sydney University; Cameron Tonkinwise, University of Technology Sydney
Trees and the shade they provide are one of the best ways of cooling cities. But they also present challenges that are best resolved by managing this shared resource as part of an urban commons.
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Health + Medicine
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Alison McEwen, University of Technology Sydney; Chris Jacobs, University of Technology Sydney
Interestingly, there are more non-identical twins in Australia now than there have been before. The number of twin pregnancies has grown over the past 30 years.
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Kassia Beetham, Australian Catholic University
It's normal for expectant mums to worry about how their activities might affect their baby's health. But when it comes to vigorous exercise, the evidence shows there's nothing to worry about.
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Business + Economy
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Pat Ranald, University of Sydney
The biggest barrier to Australia and much of the rest of the world signing up to the world's biggest trading bloc appears to have been removed.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
In this podcast, Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers argues the government can have both a more stimulatory policy and a surplus going forward.
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Columnists
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Featured jobs
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University of Western Australia — Perth, Western Australia
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Charles Sturt University — West Bathurst, New South Wales
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La Trobe University — Bundoora, Victoria
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Swinburne University of Technology — Hawthorn, Victoria
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Featured events
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Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — University of Sydney
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Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia — University of Melbourne
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Monash University Prato Centre. Via Pugliesi, Prato, Prato, 59100, Italy — Swinburne University of Technology
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Leighton Hall, John Niland Scientia Building, UNSW, Kensington, Sydney , New South Wales, 2052, Australia — UNSW
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