Vantage Point

Lucy Hart came to Bridgeport for a clean slate. A new city, a quiet job behind the camera, and a chance to breathe again. But in a world where appearances deceive and charm is often weaponized, rebuilding a life isn't so simple. When a chance encounter leads her into the orbit of a guarded stranger, Lucy finds herself pulled deeper into a world of secrets, surveillance, and strategic lies-one that forces her to confront the truth about who's been pulling the strings all along. As the lines blur between protection and control, obsession and love, Lucy must decide what kind of story she wants to tell-and what she's willing to risk to expose it.

The sensible centre. Evidence-based policy. These are not the same. In fact, they are at odds with each other. The scientific evidence tells us that building new gas, oil and coal mines will cause catastrophic climate damage this century. Yet politicians describe a call for the end of new mines as extreme. Likewise with online gambling, junk food advertising or incarcerating children: the evidence of harm is clear, but the sensible centre is defined not by evidence but by politics. Media reports on such issues presuppose that there are two sides and a centre to every debate, but evidence shows there is not. The political right thrives in such fear-fuelled, fact-free arenas, where traditional media and subject matter experts struggle to fight fear with facts. In this essay, economist and Executive Director of The Australia Institute Richard Denniss, explores the contradiction between centrism and evidence that sits at the heart of democratic debate in Australia. He shows that when both major parties oppose reform then the position of the sensible centre becomes indistinguishable from blind support for keeping things as they are.

The time has come for a reckoning in the Australian higher education. Decades of policy decisions have made access to higher education harder for those who need it most. Public trust and community confidence in universities in Australia and overseas are at all-time lows. Political sentiment has shifted. Our centres of higher learning have leapfrogged big business to become easy political targets. And it's no surprise; the sector has scored its fair share of own goals over the handling of staff underpayment, Vice-Chancellor salaries, antisemitism, free speech and safety on campus. Ad hoc and insufficient government funding has forced universities down the path of corporatisation, drifting away from their role as public institutions with the mission to serve the public good. Professor George Williams, drawing on his expertise in Australian constitutional law and democracy, outlines necessary changes to Australian higher education. Universities need to claim agency, tackle the issues within their control, and replace self-interest with a genuine commitment to putting their students and communities first. Without a reset the future looks grim. Our universities need to guard against misinformation and foster the next generation; the nation requires critical thinkers, researchers and innovators more than ever.

Big Ideas in Small Packages Australian political leaders have bent the knee at the altar of American global leadership for decades, placing the ANZUS treaty at the centre of the nation's security. AUKUS has become the latest symbol of strategic solidarity. For Australia's governments, of whatever political persuasion, America continues to define the global rules-based order. Now that the American people have elected Donald Trump as the forty-seventh president, how will his presidency affect Australia's foreign policy, trade, climate action and approach to human rights? More importantly, will Australia be able to act in its own interests, or will it simply defer to Trump's idea of America? Dr Emma Shortis draws on her long-standing research on America's place in the world, her discussions with some of Australia's most prominent policy-makers and commentators and her experience in America in the final days of the election campaign, to develop a picture of how the world is changing with a second Trump presidency and what choices Australia has in determining its own future.