High Court strikes down Commonwealth on long-detained refugees
Greg Barns

High Court strikes down Commonwealth on long-detained refugees

The High Court’s latest ruling on false imprisonment exposes the legal, financial and human consequences of Australia’s punitive immigration detention system, and the political refusal to abandon cruelty as policy.


Bowen's electrification gospel has a truck-shaped problem
Bruce Hardy, Adam Triggs

Bowen's electrification gospel has a truck-shaped problem

Australia is urging the world to electrify, but its own freight system remains overwhelmingly dependent on imported diesel when electric trucks could cut emissions, strengthen fuel security and lower costs.

More room for dialogue with China in the Pacific region
Winston Mok

More room for dialogue with China in the Pacific region

As the US signals a move away from containment in the Pacific, China’s most strategic move would be to reorient Quad members towards their respective national interests.

Star stuck government warned by security agencies
Laurie Patton

Star stuck government warned by security agencies

As SpaceX begins trading on the Nasdaq after a record-breaking IPO, Australia’s growing reliance on Starlink raises urgent questions about communications sovereignty, emergency services, security and space regulation.

Decolonising democracy – part five
John Keane

Reclaiming Democracy

Decolonising democracy – part five

In the fifth of an eight-part series, John Keane says the declining US empire will manage without democracy as it turns on its own citizens.


John Menadue

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Why Pauline Hanson's biggest weakness is her newest voters
Kos Samaras

Why Pauline Hanson's biggest weakness is her newest voters

One Nation's surge is easiest to read as anger. It is better read through a different lens – gathering the Australians who formed their sense of who they are in an offline world, where belonging was anchored where they grew up.

AUKUS and the case for no submarines
Mike Gilligan

AUKUS and the case for no submarines

The case for AUKUS rests on treating submarines as essential to Australian sovereignty, while ignoring the broader defence capabilities that already protect Australia’s maritime approaches and raise serious questions about whether new submarines are needed at all.

Reform is hard, but Labor should hold its nerve
Chris Wallace

Reform is hard, but Labor should hold its nerve

The attacks on the government's budget reforms may be loud, but polling suggests voters are more open to tax change than the media backlash implies – and governments that want to deliver serious reform have to withstand the noise.

Is re-nationalisation the answer to Australia’s energy transition?
Gary Moorhead

Is re-nationalisation the answer to Australia’s energy transition?

Australia’s renewable energy transition is being made more expensive by poor planning, fragmented market structures and ideological battles, when what is needed is a slower, more technically grounded assessment of how to keep the grid reliable and affordable.

Israel accounted for most civilian deaths from explosive weapons in 2025
Jessica Corbett

Israel accounted for most civilian deaths from explosive weapons in 2025

A new Explosive Weapons Monitor report finds civilians are continuing to bear the brunt of explosive weapons in populated areas, with Israel’s armed forces responsible for the majority of recorded civilian fatalities in 2025.

SpaceX is the new East India Company
Alessio Terzi, Stefano Marcuzzi

SpaceX is the new East India Company

As SpaceX prepares to list on the Nasdaq tomorrow in what could be the largest IPO in history, its rise raises a deeper question: how much sovereign power governments are prepared to allow a private company to accumulate in space.

The prison revolving door is costing lives
Jane Anderson, Kelvin Quartermaine

The prison revolving door is costing lives

For people caught in the revolving door of prison, the risk of suicide often extends beyond custody, exposing the failure of justice, health and housing systems to support life after release.

Trump goes shopping in the US Indian Ocean Island chain
Alison Broinowski

Trump goes shopping in the US Indian Ocean Island chain

President Trump is reportedly wanting to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius as his way of securing control of Diego Garcia. First, the United Kingdom must hand back their sovereignty.

Technology unravels strategy and the weakness of AUKUS
Derek Woolner, David Glynne Jones

Technology unravels strategy and the weakness of AUKUS

Developments in technology, their consequences for strategic policy and challenges in sustaining Australia’s submarine warfare capability are the ultimate challenges to AUKUS.

An open letter to the Minister for Home Affairs – Australia’s obligations to Palestinians must reach the visa system
Meg Schwarz

An open letter to the Minister for Home Affairs – Australia’s obligations to Palestinians must reach the visa system

In an open letter to the Minister for Home Affairs, Meg Schwarz argues that Australia’s obligations to Palestinians must be reflected not only in foreign policy statements, but in the practical systems that shape access to visas, scholarships and education.

Why are voters cranky enough to turn to Hanson? I have a theory
Ross Gittins

Why are voters cranky enough to turn to Hanson? I have a theory

One Nation’s polling surge reflects deeper disillusionment with the major parties, but the real test is whether Labor has the courage to press ahead with housing tax reform despite the inevitable scare campaign.

America cannot shoot its way out of decline
Robert Freeman

America cannot shoot its way out of decline

Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget would not make the United States safer, but would divert resources from the education, infrastructure, research and resilience needed to rebuild national strength.

Air pollution in our cities is endangering health
Ben Elliston, Christopher M. Johnson

Air pollution in our cities is endangering health

Australians are too complacent about allowing diesel-run vehicles in urban areas. Diesel exhaust is carcinogenic and can cause other illnesses.

Decolonising democracy – part four
John Keane

Reclaiming Democracy

Decolonising democracy – part four

In the fourth of an eight-part series, John Keane shows how the fading American empire is resorting to military solutions for its mounting global ills, without winning.

Fifty years of ABC Classic and a nation still listening
Stewart Sweeney

Fifty years of ABC Classic and a nation still listening

ABC Classic’s fiftieth anniversary gives this year’s Classic 100 added resonance, celebrating not only great music but a shared cultural ritual that brings Australians together through listening.

The Kentucky colonel who drives Australian foreign policy
Kym Davey

The Kentucky colonel who drives Australian foreign policy

Australia’s foreign policy is being distorted by AUKUS, militarised thinking and a misplaced faith in US power, when the country should be rebuilding its diplomatic strength as an independent middle power.

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

Support at Home can be positive

David Griffiths — Mordialloc VIC 3195

Support at Home has not been a problem for me.I did not wait a long-time for assessment and approval – first for level one support and second for level two support. My experience is care and support. My provider is competent and trying. I don't know if my experience is typical or atypical and I would not want this experience to be used to discredit criticisms of Support at Home. All assessments and approvals should be efficient and quick and care and support should be individual-based and appropriate. I am wary of any government that shifts its focus from service...
The AUKUS curse

David griffiths — Mordialloc VIC 3195

AUKUS has corrupted Australia's defence and foreign policy priorities – initiated by an opportunistic Scott Morrison and endorsed by a cowardly Albanese. But, then, Australia's defence and foreign policy priorities have usually been subordinate to either the UK or the USA. The purpose of AUKUS is to trap Australia to going to war with China in the future. Whitlam flirted with an independent foreign policy – despite his betrayal of East Timor. Keating would have developed an independent policy but was only PM for one term. Australia is afraid to criticise the chaotic, illegal and authoritarian defence and foreign policy...
Gangster capitalism

Bernard Corden — Spring Hill QLD 4000

Further to Jack Waterford's fine polemic, you are far more likely to meet a much better standard of person in Long Bay, Lithgow or Wacol correctional centres than in any boardroom meeting involving our major banks. In an era of gangster capitalism, the private control of credit is the modern form of slavery and the only item missing on any boardroom table is the baseball bat.
AUKUS analysed

Barry Smith — Hobart

Strategically inappropriate, dangerously so. Financially reckless. Unlikely to succeed. The government is resisting all efforts to openly discuss this venture, which is so prudentially compromised from every aspect. The short sightedness of placing faith in such a long term acquisition of specific platforms (manned nuclear powered submarines) in this age of increasingly rapid technological evolution, is reminiscent of the British government planting huge areas of forests to serve the needs of the Royal Navy in the 20th century. At least they ended up with some great forests!
Have the experts on top, not on tap!

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

The article by Kathy and Susan suggests a re-write of the corporate and governmental slogan of having the experts on tap and not on top. The work of the Department that they so roundly criticise has demonstrated quite clearly that there is nobody in the Department at senior level that has any idea of the practical realities of the aged care space in this country. It frankly also suggests such a lack in the political leadership displayed in putting forward the dog's breakfast of the Support at Home program, without seeking the input of the independent experts, not just the...
Marles

Leigh Bunting — Adelaide

Marles is so far up the collective Yankee posterior, only his ankles are showing. Anything the Yanks do or say is totally smelling of roses. He refuses to criticise or argue against anything coming out of Washington. He is the perfect Yank lackey. Methinks that he is angling to be US Ambassador when his time in Australian politics is done.
Is saving civilisation too hard?

Geoff Davies — Braidwood NSW

I write out of bemusement regarding my article on why we have not heeded David Attenborough, and myriad others, warning that we are destroying our planetary life support system. My claim is that our vaunted global capitalist system is a machine for consuming the world that has been left to run on automatic. This got one thoughtful letter in response (thank you Ray Peck). It is not the first time I have written about this, in P&I and other places. The message seems to get very little traction. Given that it is about saving our civilisation I find this deeply...
Redefining a ceasefire

David Griffiths — Mordialloc, Victoria 3195

Historically under international law a ceasefire is defined as a temporary or permanent agreement between warring parties to stop fighting and suspend aggressive military action. In contrast, however a Zionist Ceasefire is when Israel agrees to a ceasefire - except Israel retains a right to temporary or permanent aggressive military action and blame others for its ongoing aggression e.g. the ongoing bombing, shelling and occupation of Gaza since the 25 October 2025 ceasefire and Lebanon since its ceasefire on 16 April 2026. According to Israel it never breaks a ceasefire. A Zionist Ceasefire is when Hamas or Hezbollah are required...