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Pru Goward

January

President Trump’s uncompromising rejection of diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, has already sparked a flurry of job-title changes in US government departments and a wave of depression across the human rights world.

I was sex discrimination commissioner, but Trump has a point about DEI

The old biases the women’s movement railed against so persuasively have been replaced by new biases, almost as unfair and opaque as those of the ancien régime.

March 2022

A Ukrainian three-year-old flees from the conflict into neighbouring Romania.

The West has found its backbone and purpose in Ukraine

After decades on the back foot, the West has been shamed into action. Now it should challenge Russia’s rotten state and hollow economy.

February 2022

“You would not want to have drunk the Mike Cannon-Brookes Kool-Aid if you needed to get this right for consumers.”

Is the AGL dream team the PM’s climate saviour?

The bid to decarbonise Australia’s power giant could allow the government to let the market carry the transition risk and show the climate independents that private enterprise has it covered.

An interesting test of the Deputy PM’s uncertain hold on the English language lies ahead.

Let’s judge governments on their record, not the rumours

If we decide elections on faux character assassination, real accountability will be lost and the contest for government all the poorer.

January 2022

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame sends a message to Scott Morrison.

Grace Tame’s year as an angry young woman

The 2021 Australian of the Year represents a generational baton-change for the women’s movement, in which neither generation really gets the other.

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Stuart Broad with Joe Root after the draw in Sydney.

Omicron is the one to live with

It’s not the golden variant of the coronavirus, but governments have clearly realised people want to make their own choices about managing the risks.

December 2021

By the age of 24, many students would be better off as tradies rather than graduates.

What makes students succeed in life?

A groundbreaking NSW study into the impact of year 10 choices could now delve into other factors that shape outcomes for school kids.

The experience of Brittany Higgins opened the national parliament to scrutiny.

Sexual harassment: time to put this house in order

It is tough, feisty women who get elected to parliament who suffer a disproportionate amount of harassment. No wonder there are so few.

November 2021

Lisa Wilkinson with Karl Stefanovic, when they were co-hosts of Today.

Lisa and the gender pay gap

The gap is widest at the top of the labour market and will never be closed if well-paid women aren’t allowed to complain about being paid less than men.

The task facing UN climate talks in Glasgow is a gargantuan one.

Great carbon transition must commit to leaving no one behind

The market sees carbon neutrality as a profitable opportunity. But the greatest costs will be borne by those least able to make the transition.

October 2021

An area of Collingwood about to be cleared for social housing, Melbourne, 1964. The underclass has actually increased since the 1960s.

Why you shouldn’t underestimate the underclass

They are damaged, lacking in trust and discipline, and highly self-interested. But they are still a force that Australia needs to properly harness.

Dominic Perrottet.

Perrottet’s challenge is to charm an electorate mourning Gladys

The NSW Liberals have lost their best re-election asset, especially among women. Here is what the new premier needs to do to win a fourth term, writes Pru Goward.

September 2021

Risking nothing means learning nothing.

Risk managers are the new tyrants

We have come to demand risk-free lives, a world without downside. Now we are also realising how much it costs.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Women Marise Payne on the screen, during the National Summit on Women’s Safety.

The fake women’s safety summit

To really stop domestic violence, set reduction targets. Accountability would make state governments and service providers quake in their boots.

August 2021

One point about the so-called beauty industry is the dominance of women business owners and staff in this sector.

Use 6 million jab mark to close the lockdown gender gap

If NSW doesn’t allow the beauty sector to reopen, independent, hardworking female small business owners are headed for serious financial trouble.

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It seems some people, who presumably know they’re in lockdown, are determined to subvert the public orders by arranging a catch-up by the breakfast cereals at the local supermarket.

Paying the last 20pc will be cheaper than lockdowns

The time for talking about supermarket catch-ups is over. We must pay those who disregard public health orders to do the right thing and get vaccinated, writes Pru Goward.

July 2021

Politics has trumped the science

The politicisation of AstraZeneca by qualified and self-appointed medical experts to attack the Morrison government has been a disgrace.

Instead of gut instinct, the Barty team is known to use data analytics and detailed assessments of matches.

What Team League should note from Team Barty

Corporate organisations and sporting clubs with cultural problems should take note of the professionalism of Australia’s new Wimbledon champion.

June 2021

In the Annus Horribilis of 2020, most of the 910 Australians who died of Covid were elderly.

We haven’t failed on the virus

Suppression of the virus bred vaccination complacency. But with the most at risk twice-jabbed and zero fatalities in 2021, our COVID-19 saga may be heading for a happy ending by year’s end.

The NSW approach has enabled the country’s busiest airport to keep functioning, receiving returning Australians who can then rejoin their families in other states.

Transparency has kept NSW open

An accountable, data-driven administration and service-based culture built up over a decade is why the Berejiklian government has managed the pandemic without closing borders.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/by/pru-goward-p4yw8s