The Monthly Essays

The Kafkaesque fate of Encep ‘Hambali’ Nurjaman, 20 years after the Bali bombings

As Roe v Wade is overturned in the United States, what are the threats to accessing abortion in Australia?

What does the future hold for a town battered by climate-change catastrophe?

Peter Dutton doesn’t just have a talent problem on his hands

The task ahead for Anthony Albanese in restoring the idea that governments should seek to make the country better

An elegy for music, learning and impoverished culture

The seismic shift that saw voters around the country turn on the Coalition and deliver a Labor victory

As prime minister, Scott Morrison has offered neither competence nor vision

On the shooting in Yuendumu and the trial of Northern Territory policeman Zachary Rolfe

The federal election may hinge on a new crossbench of professional women in wealthy inner-city seats and a rural revolt against the Nationals

How oil-palm plantations have uprooted the lives and dreams of a Papuan community

Gravitational waves and the secrets of the universe