For those not aware of it The Conversation (www.theconversation.com) provides some of the best commentary on current issues over a wide range of topics. My own area of interest is education and one of my current serious concerns is the way Universities are using the consumer driven model to enter quite mediocre students (based on their University Entry Scores) into teaching courses just to collect federal funding. For a discussion of this see http://theconversation.com/standards-will-slide-while-teacher-education-is-used-as-a-cash-cow-11677 . The contrast with countries such as Finland where it is harder to get into teaching than it is to get into Law or Medicine is stark.