17 April 2025

Inspiring Australia?

With 48% of voters paying little or no attention to the campaign, according to an Essential poll, Senator Kim Carr, a former Labor minister, takes a look at how the two major parties have performed in what he describes as an uninspiring campaign.

20 June 2023

Our R&D system is in crisis. It's time to act

Near on a decade of neglect has left Australias national innovation system in a lamentable state, as the Academy of Science has observed.

23 March 2023

The Federal Labor Caucus did not endorse AUKUS

The $368 billion AUKUS deal raises many more questions than we have had answered to date.

28 September 2021

Kim Carr: We need answers on both subs deals

Now the governments scrapped its $90 billion contract with France to build diesel submarines, many unanswered questions about the new deal to acquire uncosted nuclear boats appear connected to the murky politics of the old one.

9 September 2021

News Corp opts for a bet each way on climate change

News Corp's climate change campaign allows the company to shift its public without being committed to much at all.

31 July 2021

Trust is the first casualty in time of plague

Who are the people who marched in Melbourne and Sydney at the weekend, chanting about freedom and demanding an end to lockdowns? One answer is obvious. They are people whose idea of freedom seems to mean being free to put the lives of others at risk by dismantling controls on the transmission of covid-19.

8 June 2021

We've got you on file: Australia's McCarthyist moment

Some people think that McCarthyism casting doubt, without evidence, on the loyalties of people in public life was dead and buried with the Cold War.

22 April 2021

Pipped at the Post: How the government tried to sell Australia Post

Parliamentary privilege is far more than a means of protecting politicians from being sued for what they say in parliamentary proceedings. It is a powerful tool for any Australian seeking to hold governments to account. By giving evidence under privilege to a Senate committee, former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate was able to expose the Morrison Government's plan to cut postal services and privatise parcel deliveries.

1 March 2021

We can and must reverse the dramatic decline of trust in Parliament

Nearly half of all legislation is now delegated legislation, i.e. made by ministerial orders, and some of it cannot be disallowed by Parliament. Such an extraordinary accumulation of power in the hands of the federal government is dangerous for democracy. A recent Senate committee report proposes strengthening the parliamentary committee system to increase accountability.