Our Team

Stephen LunnSocial Affairs Editor

Stephen Lunn is The Australian’s Social Affairs Editor, covering social policy issues including ageing, population, disability, welfare, and migration. He has previously been the paper’s environment writer and Tokyo correspondent. He has also worked in public policy advocacy in the private sector, and practised as a lawyer in Australia and the UK. Stephen has a Masters degree in law from the London School of Economics.

@lunns

Latest

special needs in schoolsPolitics

QTU President, Kevin Bates. Picture: QTU

That’s your job, mum tells teacher

A mother of five children with disabilities tells inquiry of her response to a complaining teacher.

Stephen Lunn

Nation

Aged care ‘worse in the bush’

Rural Australians should be receiving better access to aged care than those in the city, the aged care royal commission has heard.

Stephen Lunn

royal commissionNation

NSW Supreme Court judge Justice Ronald Sackville with wife Pamela and granddaughter Calliope at Old Supreme Court building in Sydney, is to be awarded Officer in the Order of Australia (OA) in Australia Day honours list.

Disabled seen as ‘undeserving’

Australians with disabilities ‘are too often seen as undeserving of the same education as other people’.

Stephen Lunn

inquirerInquirer

NWNAUSFEATURESBrenda Evans was a younger person with disability who spent time in a residential aged care facility, before coming out in 2016.She is telling her story of what it was like to be in aged care at 49.Brenda photographed at the Granny Flat she lives in at Nerang, Gold Coast, Qld. The dogs in pictures are Archie (Light colour) and Angus (dark)Removing young people with disabiity from aged care is one of the immediate priorities for government identified by the Royal Commission into aged care's interim report.Photography : Russell Shakespeare

Be ashamed, Australia

The royal commission’s early findings are damning, highlighting a grim and shameful state of affairs.

Stephen Lunn

Damning findingsPolitics

Voluntary Euthanasia meeting at Cotton Tree Park.Photo: Kari Bourne / Sunshine Coast Daily

Aged care: sorry truth ‘diminishes’ our nation

‘Cruel and harmful’ aged care must be reformed, a royal commission has urged.

Stephen Lunn

Politics

Margot Harker has given evidence to the Aged Care Royal Commission of her experiences receiving in-home care.She will be part of the reaction to the findings of the commission's interim report which is due to be released this afternoon.

Clients fear they’ll be overlooked

An in-home care recipient fears she and others like her will be overlooked in the wash-up of the aged-care royal commission.

Stephen Lunn

HEALTHPolitics

Ongoing care for suicidal patients plan

Health minister’s plan to integrate mental health system in ‘once in a decade’ transformation.

Rosie Lewis and Stephen Lunn

sweeping reforms urgedPolitics

06/11/2018: Michael Brennan; New chairman of the Productivity Commission, in Sydney.Pic by James Croucher

Hidden cost of mental illness to economy

A million Australians with mental health conditions are going untreated each year, while the economic cost has hit $180bn.

Stephen Lunn

Nation

Teen girl lonely and sadness on the beachMental health genericthinkstockGirl depressed on the beachfemale sad depressed lonelysuicidal teenagerDepression genericMental illnessSexual abuse generic

Early checks needed to ease risks

The Productivity Commission has backed checks of children aged up to three as part of a strategy to fight a mental health crisis.

Stephen Lunn

Nation

27/10/2019. Rob Sturrock and Julia Davis, with their two young children. They have been married five years, and have both opted to go part time four days a week to find a work/life balance. They say it is stressful juggling it all and key is an employer who actually buys in, rather than pays lip service.A New national survey has found 62 per cent of parents and carers report difficulties looking after their own physical and mental health as they try to balance competing work and family pressures. Half of all women and one-third of men who were parenting or caring reported they were under a lot or a great deal of stress when juggling work and family roles. Two-thirds reported feeling too emotionally or physically drained when they got home from work to contribute to their family and half had missed out on family activities in the past month, due to time they had to spend at work. Jane Dempster/The Australian

When it all gets too hard

Two in three parents are struggling with their physical or mental health due to the competing pressures of family and work.

Stephen Lunn

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/stephen-lunn/page/111