The Conversation

Fri Jul 8

News of Zika vaccine might be reassuring, but it's too late for Rio, and do we really need it anyway?

Written by Lenore Manderson, Visiting Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies, Brown University, USA, and Distinguished Professor, Public Health and Medical Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand

Recently, two events concerning the Zika epidemic coincided: two potential vaccines against the virus were declared a success when used in mice, and Australian golfer Jason Day withdrew from the Olympic Games, purportedly because of his concern about the possibility of getting infected.

The number of media reports of these events highlight the...

Fri Jul 8

Australia must act now to secure economic ties with a rising Indonesia

Written by Stephen Smith, Winthrop Professor of Law, University of Western Australia

Australia must start the job of ensuring Indonesian investment flows south.EPA/Bagus Indahono

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s remarks during the recently concluded federal election campaign that suggested a link between asylum seekers and live exports was an unfortunate reminder of the diplomatic and political sensitivities that have...

Fri Jul 8

Australia could be about to lose its AAA rating, and here's why

Written by Ross Guest, Professor of Economics and National Senior Teaching Fellow, Griffith University

Australia’s AAA credit rating was under pressure even before the election and is now looking decidedly shaky. Ratings agency Standard & Poors has moved Australia’s rating outlook from “stable” to “negative”, due to debt and a poor chance of budget repair.

This follows warnings from the other major credit...

Fri Jul 8

Please don’t explain: Hanson 2.0 and the war on experts

Written by Patrick Stokes, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Deakin University

Pauline Hanson, Michael Gove, and Donald TrumpDragons Abreast Australia; Policy Exchange; Michael Vadon/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Along with Aqua’s “Barbie Girl,” Pauline Hanson has long stood as a grim reminder that the second half of the 1990s was much worse than the first half. And now, 18 years later, Hanson finds herself...