The Age

Let sport create its own soundtrack

Opinion The natural sounds of sport are being drowned out.

The Age

Thomson turns up the heat, adds little light

Opinion The MP is not off the hook, but the Health Services Union's mire got deeper.

SMH

Everyone else to blame: Thomson

Opinion CRAIG THOMSON'S so-called explanation to Parliament yesterday rebutting accusations that he spent many thousands of dollars of union dues on securing a political career and on personal indulgence, including payment for sex, was never going to clear the air.

SMH

The drugs debate Australia needs

Opinion THE Herald's stories of families battling with the consequences of drug use have been heart-wrenching. Loving parents, like those of Daniel Smith in Saturday's Herald, see their child caught in a spiral of dependency and try - in vain, sometimes - to keep them safe. Or worse, find out too late - when their child reacts badly or overdoses, or police bring news of a death to their door - that a loved one has been using drugs. Something like that happened to Anna Wood's parents in 1995, whose views we report today. The reactions of those families to the question we raise today differ strongly. No one can call any reaction wrong: each case, each experience of drugs, is different.

The Age

Reality hits as Europe faces policy rethink

Opinion The crisis never went away. It had to come to a head.

The Sun-Herald

Don't try this at home: extreme living on $245 a week

Opinion There have been pious noises from Julia Gillard the party's commitment to its traditional constituency, working families.

The Sunday Age

Mental illness is much more than a word game

Opinion However you label them, sufferers of mental disorders need help.

SMH

Moment of truth has arrived for eurozone

Opinion AND so the world finds itself, once again, at the mercy of Europe's politicians. After the failure of Greek politicians to forge a government, Greeks will return to the polls in a month in what is billed as a referendum on whether Greece should stay in the euro. As a consequence, Europe and the world have entered a new and dangerous period of instability and uncertainty about the future of the euro. The temporary peace that was struck by leaders earlier this year with a bailout for Greece has broken. Indeed, the euro crisis was never dead, just sleeping.

The Age

The war on drugs we keep losing

Opinion Few areas of law enforcement divide expert and popular opinion so sharply as drugs policy. Those familiar with the history of the so-called global ''war on drugs'' that US president Richard Nixon proclaimed in 1971 know it has been a failure. Illicit drugs of addiction continue to be widely available in Western societies, including Australia.

Detainees deserve natural justice on ASIO

Opinion Security rulings demand scrutiny as lives are in limbo.

SMH

Trio's shadow over super system

Opinion FRAUD is an ever-present risk in any financial system. Mostly it is the work of individuals inside investment houses, banks and superannuation funds who steal through forgery or misrepresentation. Often enough institutions find it easier - less embarrassing - to make good the loss to clients and bear it themselves. Other frauds are large enough to undermine an institution. What the Trio Capital experience shows, however, is that it has been possible under Australian law for thieves to take over an entire investment house which had been soundly run, with the intention of defrauding its clients. That fraud was so great, and lasted so long, that it has dented confidence in Australia's retirement incomes policy.

The Age

Deadly trend casts cloud over police pursuits

Opinion A rising toll reminds us that public safety must take priority.

SMH

Insecure work versus flexibility

Opinion THAT there are termites eating at the foundations of the house that Australian workers built for themselves, not many would dispute. Despite the overall economy's happy position, the workforce feels less secure. The foundations - steady work with pay and conditions fixed by collective agreements, with an adequate dole to tide over the occasional recession - are shaky.

SMH

How to resign from China

Opinion THERE is confusion, it seems, about the status of Chinese citizens who acquire foreign nationalities and then return to do business in China. It has arisen again during a visit by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, over three Australian business people of Chinese origin serving jail terms imposed by Chinese courts for what might be broadly called white-collar crimes.

The Age

China drops a hint about a Pacific cold war

Opinion Australia should consider its role in a US military build-up.

SMH

The straight and narrow for MPs

Opinion The Prime Minister has said she is willing to look at the idea of a code of conduct for all MPs.

The Age

Test what is studied, don't just study the test

Opinion NAPLAN might tell us less about schools than we think it does.

SMH

A timely warning on corruption

Opinion THE report of Papua New Guinea's special investigative panel on corruption makes dismal reading. Task Force Sweep finds that corruption has transformed from a sporadic phenomenon to one that is ''systemic'' and ''institutionalised''. Entire government agencies are run by corrupt people abusing their authority to loot the state and deprive the nation's 7 million people of the level of service, development and welfare they are owed.

The Age

Rising ever higher, Melbourne eclipses itself

Opinion The view from the new city towers? More towers.

The Sun-Herald

Gillard still has many hard lessons to learn

Opinion By reaching the highest office in the land, Julia Gillard displayed extraordinary political adroitness.

The Sunday Age

Rise of the far right has ominous implications for Europe

Opinion The economic threat posed by Europe's debt crisis has long been understood. But what is becoming clear is that the financial malaise also poses a different danger: that battered voters will turn to extremist parties that deal in dangerous fantasies of national pride and xenophobic paranoia.

SMH

The stench versus the black hole

Opinion BUDGET week is usually a positive time for a government as it sets out its plans. But this budget week has been dominated overwhelmingly by not one, but two negatives.

The Age

Alternative PM all attack, no policy

Opinion Opposition Leader Tony Abbott invested his budget-reply energy in a savage personal attack on the unpopular Prime Minister.