Ebola has come to the United States, and Crikey's writer-at-large finds that the American healthcare system and bureaucracy are staggeringly unprepared for an epidemic.

From “down-payments on future efficiencies” to talk of the ABC pulling its weight, the government has failed to strike a chord with voters, spinners told Crikey.

Former Pakistani MP Raheel Qazi believes a woman's first priority should be her family and that Malala Yousafzai's goal of a secular Pakistan should never be realised.

The Newsroom returns for its third season next month looking to arrest a ratings slump that set in over the course of the last season and ended with the season two finale pulling almost one million fewer US viewers than the finale of 2012’s opening season (1.9 million vs. 2.8 million). The reason fo…

Contrary to the Abbott government's claims, flagged changes to the foreign worker 457 visa program won't be good for the Australian economy.

Occasionally, a report will encapsulate everything that’s wrong with government. Almost never does that report come from government itself.

Can Fairfax's papers survive without subeditors? The company's giving it a red-hot go, as it entirely removes the function at three rural newspapers in New South Wales.

The Australian National University’s decision to sell $16 million worth of fossil fuel investments puts it in good company. The City Of Moreland in Melbourne took a similar decision last Friday, joining Seattle in the United States, Oxford in the UK and Dunedin in New Zealand in divesting fossil fue…

The Australian Government has been urged to step up its response to the global Ebola crisis and take a leadership role – in boosting Australia’s role in relief efforts, as well as in contributing more usefully to public debate. The call comes from Christopher Cliffe, CEO of CRANAplus, an organisatio…

There is a scene close to the beginning of director Ivan Reitman's 1984 hit Ghostbusters that takes place between sleazy faux scientist Dr Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) and two young subjects, a man and a woman connected to an electric shock machine. The experiment is supposedly about ascertaining lev…

Next August the government will choose a new ambassador to China. But with numerous forces competing for what could be the first political appointment, Abbott might not be the prime minister to send the newbie to Beijing.

SBS says no workers will lose their jobs as a result of outsourcing its play-out facilities. But the CPSU says it can't guarantee that.

Public servant Philip Moss has been charged with investigating claims of child abuse on Nauru. Australian Association of Social Workers president Karen Healy wonders if the government really wants to hear the answers.

The Australian is trying to whip up a moral panic against

Last week was another huge one for our political leaders to wax lyrical on all things Islamic, Islamist, Islamicist, terrorist and terroristicist. It started with the Prime Minister apologising to Alan Jones for not banning hate preachers who promote violence and hatred (outside Cronulla, of course)…

Last Friday on Brisbane local radio, ABC managing director Mark Scott spoke with host Spencer Howson about the week’s two major organisational concerns. The first was the “Mental As” suite of programming, which aimed to support national discussion during Mental Health Week. The second was likely fu…

Western politicians talk about Islamic State as a devastating, almost mythical terrorist organisation that only wants evil and destruction. Freelance journalist Andrei Ghoukassian finds the group is more of a mid-sized militia.

After the first season of Please Like Me aired in 2013, critics were in near unanimous agreement that the quirky, incisive comedy about family and that difficult stage in your early 20s was TV's greatest kept secret. The second season wraps up this Tuesday night on ABC2 and that characterisation can…

Industry groups say penalty rates should be wound back to

Once upon a time News Corp was not an unquestioning cheerleader for the government. And its overreach led to the current overly restrictive national security legislation, explains lawyer and former government adviser Marcus Priest.