Opinion

With the final season of the hit fantasy/horror series crashing the streaming platform on its release day, it’s timely to consider one question: what is Netflix without Stranger Things?

MITCHELL JOHNSON: Ben Stokes, and England, need to get some runs on the board — and maybe a Test win — before sledging their own greats as their hubris was clearly their undoing in the first Test.

EDITORIAL: The public service’s continued bloat is strangling private sector growth. Will the Albanese Government have the guts to make the cuts necessary to rein it in? 

JENI O’DOWD: Potholes might be deemed too bland to be a problem, but couple them with a struggling ambulance service and you have a recipe for disaster.

AARON PATRICK: An opposition that looked like a political irrelevancy managed to embarrass the government over taxes, energy prices and interest rates

DANE ELDRIDGE: There is nothing a Kiwi hates more than admitting an Australian is right, but Brendon McCullum’s refusal to see the writing on the wall is beyond the pale.

EDITORIAL: The constant chopping and changing of regulations must end and give way to a system that is workable for both conservationists and developers.

LISA STHALEKAR: Travis Head’s heroics should signal the end of Usman Khawaja’s Test career and he only has himself to blame.

ROSA PRINCE: The case is overblown and Trump’s graceless, grasping threat is yet another White House assault on press freedom.

AARON PATRICK: China’s third-ranked political leader, Zhao Leji, helped oversee a vast purge of officials designed to entrench Xi Jinping’s power.

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty to charges he engaged in rigged high-stakes poker games that prosecutors said had ties to the Mafia.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: It is unclear where the new deal is headed. Here is what seven experts in the United States, Europe and Russia think needs to be done. 

EDITORIAL: It was bewilderingly bad, brainless cricket. The good news is, it’s over for now.

CAMERON MILNER: The sun is setting on Anthony Albanese’s era in office. While Tony Burke and Mark Butler are poised to ascend to the top job, there is one other reluctant candidate who could step up.

AARON PATRICK: Podcaster and marketing lecturer Scott Galloway’s guide to masculinity has become an international hit by urging men to pursue sex, relationships and professional advancement.