
10 June 2025
As Keating advised, it's time for Australia to seek its security in Asia
The world America made for us is passing away. Its place is being taken by a new and harder post-American world, and we are at a loss to know what to make of it.

10 June 2025
Six more giant gas projects could join Labor's latest carbon bomb
While Woodside's North West Shelf gas plant approval has led to a chorus of protest, there are at least half a dozen more projects in the pipeline that could add to Australia's emissions.

10 June 2025
Political parties are failing to attract new members. Not only women
Government is getting more difficult. Many voters have turned off. They are scathing of politicians and deeply cynical about their honesty and motives.

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10 June 2025
US unlikely to be able to hold its own against China
Were the US to come up against China in a war in the Pacific, indications are that Washington would have the worse of the exchanges.

10 June 2025
Weaponising the Department of Justice: echoes of the Star Chamber
Instead of acting as a guardian of the law, the Justice Department will use judicial power to pursue political vendettas and silence dissent.

10 June 2025
‘Deadly’ sports diplomacy: why Australia’s Indigenous people must be a part of our sports strategy
The fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have practised sports diplomacy for more than 60,000 years is a powerful story.

10 June 2025
What Trump is building is the problem, not the man himself
We treat Donald Trump as the primary obstacle to a smooth trade order but he is not the problem. What he is building is the problem because it replicates the rising mechanisms of democratically elected political fascism.

10 June 2025
Decommissioning rates show gas heating could be gone by 2032, but oil exec bonuses might suffer
While Peter Dutton lost the election and with it his plan to force gas exporters to reserve a portion of their gas for domestic Australian consumers, concerns around availability of gas are not going away. According to AEMO, Victoria, NSW and South Australia are on the verge of gas shortages by around 2028 to 2029.

9 June 2025
More than 600 Australian Jews say 'no' to war in Gaza
More than 600 Jewish Australians have signed a statement calling on Jewish community and religious leaders to speak out against the atrocities of the Netanyahu Government in Gaza.

9 June 2025
Message from the editor
One of the things I love most about this job is the reading and listening (to radio).

9 June 2025
China takes a softly-softly approach to diplomacy in the US
China’s ambassador to Washington, Xie Feng has adopted a less assertive approach than some of his predecessors.
Latest on Palestine and Israel

9 June 2025
Palestinian genocide gets some big-screen time
Films and the internet are proving to be a valuable way for the message of the Palestinian struggle to be publicised.

8 June 2025
Gaza conditions 'worse than hell on Earth': Red Cross chief
We cannot continue to watch what is happening, said Mirjana Spoljaric. It's surpassing any acceptable legal, moral, and humane standard.

7 June 2025
Talk of a two-state solution may not go much further
A two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem has not been mentioned for ages, but was revived recently. However, it may end with just that – talk.

6 June 2025
Media shortcomings in covering terrorist Netanyahu’s daily Gaza mass murders
Opposition by former high officials in Israeli’s military and national security establishment and Israeli allies – France, England, and Germany – to the aimless killing of civilian families in Gaza is increasing.

6 June 2025
Ali Kazak and the transformation of the politics of Palestine in Australia
It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing on 17 May of Ali Kazak, at the age of 78. Over five decades, Ali dedicated his enormous energy to building understanding and support for Palestine, the land of his birth.

6 June 2025
Bogus charges of antisemitism are the new McCarthyism
The word antisemitism has become so debased that depending on who is using it, I might well take it as a sign that the accused is worth listening to.

5 June 2025
'These could be our children': Israeli women opposing the war, an interview
Not only abroad, but also within his own country, Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is finally facing growing and substantial protests against his war in Gaza.

5 June 2025
When education funds genocide: students raise their voices in defiance
For more than a year, the world has been witnessing the genocidal massacres committed by Israel against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed, including university students and teachers, and academic institutions have been completely destroyed.

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 PDFLatest on China

10 June 2025
US unlikely to be able to hold its own against China
Were the US to come up against China in a war in the Pacific, indications are that Washington would have the worse of the exchanges.

9 June 2025
China takes a softly-softly approach to diplomacy in the US
China’s ambassador to Washington, Xie Feng has adopted a less assertive approach than some of his predecessors.

8 June 2025
‘Strategic clarity’ over Taiwan is just so much American bombast
Ally or not, no one with a decent sense of self-preservation can afford to take a security guarantee by the United States at face value nowadays.

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Latest letters to the editor
When critique sounds suspiciously like conspiracy
Adam Slonim — St Kilda East
US won’t stop the murders of the hungry in Gaza
Geoff Taylor — Perth
Pre-1978 progress in China
Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041
One month in, the honeymoon is over
Bob Pearce — Adelaide SA