Trump's threats are no substitute for diplomacy
Eugene Doyle

Trump's threats are no substitute for diplomacy

Trump has always had poor impulse control but we are moving into a new phase with F-bombs, real bombs and threats to entire civilisations becoming daily occurrences.

When reality catches up with satire – Message from the Editor
Martyn Pearce

When reality catches up with satire – Message from the Editor

The Boys spent years exaggerating the Trump era. By its final season, political reality had become so grotesque that satire was struggling to stay ahead.

The unfairness we've learned to walk past
Fabian Webber

The unfairness we've learned to walk past

Allowing homelessness to continue is a choice. Ending it must become one too.


Living longer but not necessarily well
Lauren Ball

Living longer but not necessarily well

The 2026 report on Australia’s health shows our life expectancy remains one of the highest in the world but the last decade of life is marred by poorer health.

The handshake that never holds
Muhammad Amir

The handshake that never holds

Pakistani and Afghan negotiators have to come to the table with a Plan B to break the endless cycle of bombings and retaliatory strikes.

What the Socceroos taught us about belonging
Mainul Haque

What the Socceroos taught us about belonging

The World Cup has shown Australia that our national identity is about diversity not uniformity.

Thailand needs a long-term strategy for the next energy shock
Juthathip Jongwanich

Thailand needs a long-term strategy for the next energy shock

The Iran war has exposed Thailand’s reliance on Middle Eastern energy and fertiliser imports and points to the need for a long-term economic strategy if it is to become a regional hub for green industries and advanced technologies.


John Menadue

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Gen Z is not ageing into the old Australia
Kosmos Samaras

Gen Z is not ageing into the old Australia

Why Australia’s Gen Z is unlike any voting cohort before it and why every institution built for the old Australia is about to find out.

Who would want an ally like Israel?
John Menadue

Who would want an ally like Israel?

Looking back from 2026 to 1967 reveals the extent to which Israel will go to serve its own interests, even when this means harming its ally.

The productivity obsession has a measurement problem
Ross Gittins

The productivity obsession has a measurement problem

The focus on productivity as the key to economic growth ignores the fact that we can't directly observe productivity. We need better ways to measure improvements in overall living standards.

A nature-based food revolution
Julian Cribb

A nature-based food revolution

Forget AI. The technological advance that will save the most human lives is being led by two million Indian farmers, who are pioneering advanced natural food production in a revolutionary movement that is spreading almost by the hour.

Entitled schools are taking on entitled parents: what about the students?
Lyndsay Connors

Entitled schools are taking on entitled parents: what about the students?

Governments have fostered a sense of entitlement in private schools. They should be enforcing the principle of putting students first.

The Australian monoculture that never was
John Queripel

The Australian monoculture that never was

The history of this ancient continent has always been multicultural, and the Christian scriptures offer no support for the exclusionary monoculture now being promoted from the political right.

US strike on Iranian school came after ‘bypassed warnings’ about outdated target info
Brad Reed

US strike on Iranian school came after ‘bypassed warnings’ about outdated target info

US commanders reportedly ignored warnings that target intelligence was years out of date before a strike killed more than 150 schoolchildren in Iran.

The new geography of migration is reshaping economic success
Stewart Sweeney

The new geography of migration is reshaping economic success

The world’s geography of migration is changing, and with it our understanding of economic development, national success and the role of public policy.

The hypersonic hypocrisy of Pacific nuclear politics
Jeremy Rose

The hypersonic hypocrisy of Pacific nuclear politics

Australia and New Zealand rightly criticise China’s nuclear-capable missile tests in the Pacific. Their silence on repeated US tests exposes a glaring double standard.

Defence policy deserves more than slogans and selective history
Paddy Gourley

Gourley on Government

Defence policy deserves more than slogans and selective history

Pat Conroy's speech at the National Press Club was not a convincing presentation of the ALP's record on defence.

Diversifying the critical minerals supply chain
Marina Yue Zhang

Diversifying the critical minerals supply chain

Reducing dependence on China in the world's critical mineral supply chain doesn’t require building a separate market. The trading system must find a balance between defence interests and the push for decarbonisation.

Eight economic myths that are helping destroy our future
Mark Diesendorf

Eight economic myths that are helping destroy our future

Eight persistent economic myths help protect vested interests, deepen inequality and accelerate environmental destruction. The economy must be rebuilt around wellbeing, sustainability and justice.

What “regime change” in the US means for Australia's engagement in Asia
Ronald C. Keith

What “regime change” in the US means for Australia's engagement in Asia

US foreign policy under Trump calls for bipartisan reaffirmation of Australian values and national interests.

EV charging needs national coordination
Hussein Dia

EV charging needs national coordination

Australia’s EV charger rollout has been fragmented and incomplete. It's time for it to be brought together as a coordinated network.

How to address a democracy in retreat
John Menadue

Reclaiming Democracy

How to address a democracy in retreat

The democratic project is about more than elections; its institutions must be revitalised on the basis of fairness, respect, openness, integrity and trust.

Australia should take another look at France’s nuclear submarines
Peter Briggs

Australia should take another look at France’s nuclear submarines

The choice between high- and low-enriched uranium submarines will shape Australia’s nuclear security, waste and non-proliferation obligations for generations.

John Menadue's book on Israel's war against Gaza

Israel's war against Gaza

Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has spread a series of lies propagated by Israel and the United States. This publication presents information, analysis, clarification, views and perspectives largely unavailable in mainstream media in Australia and elsewhere.

Download the PDF

Latest letters to the editor

Compounding greed

Bob Pearce — Adelaide SA

High school was a very long time ago when I was taught about compound interest. But all this talk about productivity sounds very similar and I believe that expecting to compound the increase on your productivity or compound the increase in your profit has some obvious limitations in my opinion and is ridiculous / impossible.
Efficiency over effectiveness

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

As Ross points out in our managerialist culture using the singular and obsessive focus of modern economics we have interprted productivity as simply producing more with less. It is a culture that focuses almost wholly around reducing costs for a given level of output. It can be summarised by the word efficiency in the narrow economists use of the word. The problem with that is it has led western economies to their current ability to produce the wrong things as cheaply as possible. To lift our heads above the simplistic goals of Neo-liberal economics we must distinguish between efficiency and...
Submarine penalty

Pinchos Woolstone — Brooklyn, New York

Did the Australian Government pay France a sizeable penalty a number of years for withdrawing from its contract to purchase the French submarines? If the answer is yes, could that money be used as a credit if Australia pulls l out of the US purchase and returns to its original contract with France.
Set student numbers within a population plan

Jenny Goldie — Cooma NSW

Abul Rizvi recommends that we develop a long-term plan for net migration and to clearly explain that plan to the Australian public. Yes, good idea though it needs to go beyond that. The government needs to develop an overall population plan, set net migration within that, and set overseas student numbers within that. And when determining all these things, it must be within the parameter of the ecological carrying capacity of this country, particularly in light of climate change. According to a report last week by the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group, 'the convergence of extreme heat, food system pressures...
Too keen to sell fossil fuels

Lesley Walker — Northcote

Australia might be, as Ross Gittins suggests, at the forefront of that global renewable energy change. And that is wonderful. But Australia ranks fifth of 15 countries responsible for nearly 80 per cent of global oil and gas extraction since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. Since 2017 Japan’s gas use for electricity generation has fallen 37 per cent. Japanese companies are selling LNG they buy from us to the developing parts of Asia. This undermines their shift to renewables. In 2024 WA’s Labor government commissioned a Deloitte report to support the idea that LNG exports helped “reduce emissions”....
Sauce for the goose!

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

I imagine the Chinese would be perfectly happy to cease long-range missile testing over the Pacific on one very important condition. The US has been threatening and undermining China on and off since 1949, when according to them they lost China! Not of course that they ever owned it despite sending their military to China prior to World War 2 in an attempt to evict Japan and take over its dominance in China. They provided financial and military support to The vicious Chinese Nationalist regime of Chang Kai Shek. The CCP, subsequent to the war, fought the Nationalists and won...
Reaction rather than intention

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

This article perhaps unintentionally leaves the impression that China imposed its tighter controls over rare earths as a weapon against the US and the West. In reality China has reacted to sanctions, tariffs and other weapons the US and Europe have unashamedly used to prevent or stall Chinese economic growth and to limit its capacity to defend itself. The controls on rare earth exports have been imposed as a reaction to the aggressive measure taken by the US against it and also because it wishes for a peaceful and cooperative world in alignment with the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence...
Poverty reduction in China a myth?

Finn Ryan — Rockingham WA

The World Bank methodology: how much have the incomes of the poorest have risen in real terms using a whole-economy basket. If it’s just the luxury goods getting cheaper, this is admittedly a flawed approach. The bare-bones basket flounders in the opposite direction: let’s pretend that in the greatest period of economic structural change ever known – what is being produced and how it’s being produced has been utterly transformed – people are buying exactly what they did before. For example cloth got much dearer in 1993 – the year poverty increased enormously according to the authors. In 1980 the...