The contemporary world is run by political dinosaurs facing extinction
Allan Patience

The contemporary world is run by political dinosaurs facing extinction

An aging generation of mostly male leaders is presently occupying the commanding heights of the most powerful states around the world.

The superannuation system matures at 12% of wages
Paul Keating

The superannuation system matures at 12% of wages

Tomorrow, thirty-four years after I nominated a 12% wage equivalent as the appropriate level of compulsory contribution into superannuation, the system finally matures.

Bunker busters shook us all
Jack Waterford

Bunker busters shook us all

Iran’s grievance, moral or legal, against Israel and the United States over the bombing of nuclear sites is not assisted by the fact that Israel itself is an outlaw with nuclear bombs produced outside the system.


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NZ cities are getting hotter: Five things councils can do now to keep us cooler when summer comes
Timothy Welch

NZ cities are getting hotter: Five things councils can do now to keep us cooler when summer comes

Stand in any car park on a sunny day in February and the heat will radiate through your shoes. At 30°C air temperature, that asphalt hits 50–55°C – hot enough to cause second-degree burns to skin in seconds.

Switching from a failed vape and tobacco policy to a successful one
Ross Fitzgerald

Switching from a failed vape and tobacco policy to a successful one

Australia’s health policy in relation to vapes is in disarray. Yet this deeply flawed approach is currently supported by all state, federal and territory governments.

AUKUS project has worsened Australia’s ties with China
BA Hamzah

AUKUS project has worsened Australia’s ties with China

I have argued elsewhere (Asia Sentinel, 24/5/2025) that five factors could throw the US$245 billion AUKUS deal off balance following the recent decision by Washington to review the deal.

Murdoch’s News Corp has moved into the mortgage business. Where are the regulators?
Roberta Esbitt

Murdoch’s News Corp has moved into the mortgage business. Where are the regulators?

If you want to advertise a house online in Australia, you don’t have many options. Just two companies dominate the market.

The obscenity of American preaching
Richard Cullen

The obscenity of American preaching

One way to get a robust, comparative fix on how obscene American global preaching about human rights has become is (borrowing a vivid image from Caitlin Johnstone) to imagine what the world might think about a scorching lecture from a Taliban leader on the Western oppression of women and women’s rights.

Labor’s Left majority: A defining moment
Stewart Sweeney

Labor’s Left majority: A defining moment

The May 2025 election delivered something quietly historic. For the first time since the 1970s, the Labor Left faction holds a majority in caucus.

Trump 2.0 alienates Southeast Asia’s next generation
Sharon Seah,  Eugene Tan

Trump 2.0 alienates Southeast Asia’s next generation

US President Donald Trump’s second term has sent the global economy into a tailspin with a torrent of tariffs announced on 2 April.

Scrubbing away the bloodstains, tipping out the truth
Duncan Graham

Scrubbing away the bloodstains, tipping out the truth

Lit lovers argue who first said History is written by the victors. It's sharp enough to belong to Churchill, though earlier and longer versions come from politicians in the US and Germany – including fascist Hermann Göring.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Lattouf’s victory, our fight: Standing firm against intimidation
Sue Barrett

Lattouf’s victory, our fight: Standing firm against intimidation

In April 2025, I posted a comment in The Age, sharing how, after 40 years in my Goldstein neighbourhood, I’d never felt unsafe until I was wrongly accused of antisemitism.

Starvation and profiteering in Gaza (with Francesca Albanese) | The Chris Hedges Report
Chris Hedges

Starvation and profiteering in Gaza (with Francesca Albanese) | The Chris Hedges Report

Francesca Albanese joins Chris Hedges to break down the current starvation campaign in Gaza, and her upcoming report detailing the profiteering corporations capitalising on the erasure of Palestinians.

Three blows against Zionism in a single day
Joe Lauria

Three blows against Zionism in a single day

A court ruling in Australia, an election result in New York and a military setback for Israel, all coming last week, signalled a serious turn of events for Zionism and its supporters, writes Joe Lauria.

The generational divide in the West over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: from a culture of loyalty to a culture of justice
Refaat Ibrahim

The generational divide in the West over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: from a culture of loyalty to a culture of justice

A deep analysis of the growing generational divide in the West over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Don't talk or write about Palestine. It's a career killer
Linda Briskman

Don't talk or write about Palestine. It's a career killer

The new McCarthyism sweeps through the university sector at a terrifying pace. At the core is conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel, spurred on by the pro-Israel lobby that has convinced or recruited governments and large sections of the media.

Beyond complicity: Western accomplices to genocide in Gaza
Stefan Moore

Beyond complicity: Western accomplices to genocide in Gaza

After decades of unwavering support for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, it seems Western leaders can no longer avert their gaze from the horrific televised images of mass carnage and starvation in Gaza and brutality on the West Bank.

Lattouf’s win over ABC a big victory for freedom of expression
Greg Barns

Lattouf’s win over ABC a big victory for freedom of expression

Journalist and broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf’s win over the ABC in the Federal Court is a significant victory for freedom of expression.

Israel's 'weaponisation' of food is a 'war crime': UN
Julia Conley

Israel's 'weaponisation' of food is a 'war crime': UN

It is weaponised hunger. It is forced displacement, said one UN human rights official. All combined, it appears to be the erasure of Palestinian life from Gaza.


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.

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Latest on China

China is taking Silicon Valley’s market ‘hacks’ to a whole new level
Karman Lucero

China is taking Silicon Valley’s market ‘hacks’ to a whole new level

From blitzscaling to leveraging network effects, China is using the same methods to dominate supply chain and disrupt markets.

No time to dye: ABC’s China bias is licensed to kill credibility
Fred Zhang

Anti-China Media Watch

No time to dye: ABC’s China bias is licensed to kill credibility

The ABC has long held a reputation as Australia’s sober, publicly-funded bulwark against tabloid sensationalism – the broadcaster you turn to when you want analysis, not alarmism.

China’s partnership with Muslim world is redrawing global landscape
AbdulWahed Jalal Nori

China’s partnership with Muslim world is redrawing global landscape

Once seen as unlikely partners, this axis is now grounded in respect, sovereignty and a shared aspiration for a post-Western world order.


John Menadue

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Latest letters to the editor

I’d rather be a Boomer than a Millennial

Maggie Woodhead — Perth, western Australia

I can’t quite grasp the overall message of Trish Bolton’s Boomer talk. Yes, we are privileged, and had things so much easier in early adulthood than do millennials these days, but we apparently have to suffer scorn, ridicule and derision from those much younger than us. And we should not be blind to the fact that not all Boomers are financially secure. But aren’t these truisms just facts of life in any non-homogenous group? Neither of my two children in their late thirties/early forties can envisage ever being able to buy their own home albeit they are both in...
Disinformation and extreme weather the greatest risks

Ray Peck — Hawthorn

There are growing calls for Australia to boost defence spending – but is it wise or necessary? As Julian Cribb points out, the “lust for conquest, self-aggrandisement and dominion” from some world leaders is diverting attention and resources from the far greater threat of climate change. In January, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds to midnight — the closest it’s ever been — citing not only the risk of nuclear war but also escalating climate change and the spread of disinformation. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Risks Survey, based on over...
Taxes, no taxes and no services

Bob Pearce — Adelaide SA

The divisive nature of politics has led us to this point and under this system there always has to be someone to blame. It has become the norm for the cost of services and government projects to always be reported as a cost, not a benefit eg when was the last time Medicare, PBS, aged care or the NDIS were reported as the benefits provided? It is always the cost to the taxpayer. We hear about the price of upgrading the electrical supply system, NBN, highways etc forgetting that for many years private suppliers have benefitted from the...
Fitness means best-suited, not strongest

Peter Sainsbury — Sydeny

Julian Cribb says, with some, I hope excusable, editing that, ‘The pathological character of modern political leadership … has diverted us from our own survival, as a civilisation – and maybe as a species, … contributing to a humanity, as Darwin might have described it, “less fit to survive”’. The phrase survival of the fittest is mostly misused these days to imply that individuals and groups who fulfill the Olympic motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger”, to which one might add smarter, better armed, richer, more ruthless, etc., are very justifiably most likely to succeed in life. Julian, with...



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