2SER's Razors Edge

Australian’s love a swim at the beach and the lifeguards in Sydney are considered among the best in the world. In fact many of us would be hesitant to go swimming at the beach and would have serious second thoughts about letting our children swim if there wasn't any lifeguards on-hand to protect us. But what many of you might not know is that some of Sydney’s most popular beach

The New South Wales/A.C.T. Alcohol Policy Alliance have released a report which claims that based on patterns from previous years, there will be around 300 deaths and 12 000 hospitalisations from heavy drinking this Summer. One of the recommendations of the report is that Sydney venues follow the model employed in Newcastle that was set-up to counter the violence there and has been

The Peace and Conflict Studies Centre at Sydney University has vowed to continue its support for the international boycott of the Israeli government, despite more than a week of negative coverage in the Murdoch press. The Australian newspaper has run ten straight days of critical coverage of the centre and its Director, Associate Professor JAKE LYNCH. Lynch declined to assist an Is

The Randwick City Council has announced a campaign to stop back-packers setting up in popular beach-side car-parks this Summer. The campaign focuses on dawn patrols by Police to enforce the no-camping policy in areas such as the Clovely beach car-park and at Coogee. Randwick Mayor, Tony Bowen, said that back-packers were disturbing the areas with excessive littering, loud noise and

As the Doha round of negotiations on Climate Change continue, the CIA have released a report on the likely impacts a warming climate will have on the world. The report, based on a variety of sources including the most comprehensive study of ice core samples ever conducted, found that during the last century the planet heated up faster than at any other time in the earth’s history

The internet has become as much a part of our daily lives as driving and eating. But who actually controls the internet? The International Telecommunications Union or the ITU is the United Nations agency responsible for information and communication technologies. Recently the ITU hosted the World Conference on International Communication where 178 countries met to update a treaty o

Relations between Australia and Israel remain tense after the Foreign Minister Bob Carr called in Israel’s ambassador on Tuesday, to convey strong concern over plans to expand settlements on Palestinian land. Carr told the ambassador that building new settlements threatens the viability of a two-state solution. Israel announced the plan just a day after the historic vote to give

Washington has become the first US state to legalise the recreational use of Marijuana. Those over the age of 21 are now able to possess and use up to 28 grams of the drug in private areas. Although some US states do allow cannabis use for medicinal purposes, Washington is the first to legalise it for entertainment. 2SER’s Sam Buckingham-Jones spoke with Professor Alison Ritter,

A Senate inquiry into the adequacy of unemployment benefits has decided not to recommend an increase, despite general agreement that the payment is too low to live on. At just $245 a week the Newstart allowance is well below the official poverty line and has been criticised by unions, charities and leading business groups. The two Labor MP’s on the committee did push for a rise,

This week the federal government lifted its ban on the pesticide Diuron after the federal pesticides authority cleared it for use at what they called reduced levels. However conservationists say the decision by Australia's chemical regulator to allow the continued use of the toxic weed killer could kill the Great Barrier Reef. Diuron is classified by the US Environmental Protection