By Angela van der Horst: With the NSW jails heading into their third month of being smoke-free zones, questions are being raised about the discriminatory nature of the ban. The smoking ban was implemented over a period of eighteen months in which Corrective Services...
By Fenella Henderson-Zuel & Samantha Bulloch: There is rising popularity among young people to stream their music via digital platforms such as Spotify, Pandora, and the newcomer, Apple Music. The ease of use, convenience and portability of these digital music...
By Carl Sargeant: In the main, Australians are a charitable bunch. We donate billions of dollars to not-for-profit organisations, more than 1 in 3 of us give gifts to non-government organisations and our volunteers rack up nearly a billion hours of unpaid work a year....
By Aldric Chuah: Indigenous people are recognised as the original inhabitants of the Australian land mass and associated islands. For 50,000 years they were autonomous and the concept of land was that no one individual owned it. It was a natural resource that would be...
By Debbie Shankar: The neon lights dance, the beat drops and thousands of ravers throw their hands in the air in celebration. But there’s a darkness behind all the excitement. Electronic dance music (EDM) culture carries an association with substance abuse and...
By Fern Thompsett: dysphoria (n) – A state of unease or generalised dissatisfaction with life. It might be time to stock up on the Mee Goreng. Standing out from the crowd of cuts proposed by the Abbott government’s federal budget last year was a devastating...
By Beau Dunne: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party have gone against their famous mantra, of letting the Australian people decide who ought to be PM, and have staged a coup to save themselves from their own mistakes. In a fast and furious coup orchestrated by...
By Elliot Scanes: Humans are currently emitting CO2 faster than has occurred on Earth for millions of years. Currently, atmospheric CO2 concentrations are at their highest point in 800,000 years and don’t look like slowing any time soon. Inevitable global warming as a...
Every time you buy goods or services, you are entering into a contract. This means you will have certain rights and responsibilities, as will the trader. Under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), products you buy come with an automatic guarantee that they will do what...
By Deanne Stindl: September 10th! An annual day on which we are encouraged to ask each other, R U OK? A day to connect with friends, family members or even someone you have just met, by starting the conversation and asking, R U OK?, in a meaningful way. Taking the...
When Bianca Tropiano started studying a Bachelor of Communication at Western Sydney University, she hadn’t picked a major. She undertook the ‘Introduction to Journalism’ subject. Whilst she didn’t really like it, she's now set to graduate with a major in journalism, a...
The Lifeblood Challenge is a yearly competition organised by the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood where each team attempts to collect as many blood donations as possible in a set amount of time. From August 1st to October 31st, Western Sydney University (WSU) is working...
Josh Bouman (he/him) is the Queer Social Club (QSC) co-founder. The QSC runs events such as, picnics, hiking, queer trivia, beach days, game afternoons, brunches, trips to a café, craft-days, karaoke and craft-days. ‘[The Queer community] is very important...
July 2025 saw Penguin’s ‘Fantasy Fest’ arrive in Australian cities, readers enjoying exclusive previews of upcoming fantasy novel releases and extensive author panel discussions. In 2023, Penguin Random House Australia, one of Australia’s ‘big five’ publishing...
Diversity Fest was once the booming heart of Western Sydney University’s social life. This year, the campus was silent, with attendees few and far between. This begs the question: Has Diversity Fest lost its spark or has a shift occurred with how students...