Big Ideas

Jenny Macklin held many social policy portfolios over her long political career. As Minister for Disability Reform in the Gillard government she ushered in the NDIS. Jenny talks about the process of winning support for big social policy changes.

Former Minister for Disability Reform Jenny Macklin describes the creation of the NDIS and designing technology with disability in mind.

We talk about mental illness more than we ever have. But the funding and services just aren’t there compared to the system which looks after our physical health. So why is there this huge disparity when the need is so great? Political spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, talks about the politics of mental health and his own battle with depression.

In an age when you can be sacked for an inflammatory tweet, people are asked to sign ‘morality clauses’ and media ownership remains in the hands of a select few, it seems that the powerful are increasingly able to redraw the boundaries of free speech.

Dava Sobel discusses the unheralded women scientists of the Harvard College observatory who changed our understanding of the universe

The stay-at-home mum and the breadwinner dad is a distant memory for most modern parents. And in the 1950s who could imagine paid parental leave and subsidized child care? Three historians weigh up the impact of public policy on Australian families.

Why did the Weimar Republic fail to make Germany democratic? There are lessons to be learned for the future of democracy in the 21st century.

Colonial social scientists appropriated the artefacts and wrote the cultural history of dispossessed people. To advance reconciliation,  archaeologists and anthropologists are now working in partnership with first nations.

Scott Morrison is possessed of certainty. Bill Shorten is insecure. This helps explain why the Coalition was re-elected, and why Labor lost. So says writer, Erik Jensen.

The importance and function of the human microbiome is just starting to be appreciated. It appears to have a much broader impact on our health than was previously thought.