Our annual donations campaign wraps up on Monday. Before that happens, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone who has made a contribution this year. And if you want to make a gift, you still can!

Once again our generous readers have come through with financial support and encouragement. We’ve hit our ambitious 2025 target, with more than 21,000 individual donations in the past year. More than 7,000 of you have also signed up to make regular monthly contributions.

On top of these vital financial contributions, we get a boost from everyone who takes the time to tell us they appreciate our work. Sean wrote to say he recently spent time in the United States, and The Conversation was the only news source he used. Irene said she appreciates the calibre of our writers. Another reader simply said “The Conversation is the best thing in Australian media.”

This sort of support gives us the motivation and the capacity to keep getting better. This year, with help from a small group of readers, we appointed Alison Carabine to the new role of Public Policy Editor, based in Canberra. Over the coming 12 months, Alison’s work will focus on key areas that are ripe for reform, such as the NDIS, tax, housing, climate, productivity and Indigenous affairs. We believe positive change becomes more achievable when media outlets play a constructive role, and this is something we’re determined to do.

We’re also looking to develop new ways to grow our audience of switched-on younger readers who understand the limitations of artificial intelligence and are hungry for information they can trust. Most importantly, your support funds our daily journalism, such as today’s lead article, from a three-part series telling you everything you need to know about Australia’s major new lung cancer screening program.

We just couldn’t do any of this work without you, and we are incredibly grateful. So thank you.