Israeli practices exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza
The Gaza Strip has witnessed catastrophic humanitarian crises during the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation. The war has caused widespread destruction of infrastructure, leading to the near-total collapse of the healthcare system and essential services.
Recent articles in Policy
The personification of politics
Reducing the complexities of international politics to the idiosyncratic personalities of world leaders suggests the Western media believes concision is an antidote to the short attention spans of readers, viewers and listeners. They may be right about this.
Immigration policy and the federal election
Peter Dutton is desperate to talk about immigration during the current election campaign. That will largely be about pointing fingers at Labor, sometimes misleading fingers as he did during his budget reply and not providing details of his own policies.
The voice of America
Donald Trump’s decision to eviscerate the Voice of America has alarmed allies and delighted notional foes. America’s supporters in Australia needn’t worry, though, there are still enthusiastic institutionalised defenders of the alliance.
Building Australia’s future – For whom?
As the next federal election looms, the Albanese Government is preparing to campaign under a new slogan: “Building Australia’s Future”.
Time to split from sugar daddy
Last week, I listened to Stuart Rees and Sue Wareham, two regular contributors to P&I, discuss kindness and cruelty in public policy.
Environment: Humans’ contempt for the natural world drives environmental destruction
Environmentalists have failed to transform the underlying social values that drive environmental destruction. Fifteen companies produce 30% of Australia’s greenhouse gases. Mountains provide 60% of our fresh water, but not for much longer.
The fundamental problem at the heart of defence policy
The noise over meeting US demands on military spending underlines the fundamental problem at the heart of Australian defence policy: there is no strategy.
Hurry up and wait
One principle of American military affairs has been said since the 1940s to be hurry up and wait. That certainly applies to AUKUS, an agreement so urgent that in September 2021 Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese only 24 hours to agree to it.
When war is around be careful what you wish for!
If anyone is yet to be disgusted with war and the reckless use of armed force, recent news from Gaza and Ukraine will change your mind.
Active Management – Rethinking our approach to forest stewardship
Our recent research raises an important and challenging question: Are our well-intentioned management interventions like thinning in high conservation value forests truly serving nature, or are they inadvertently accelerating the degradation of these critical ecosystems?
Universal early learning and the three-day guarantee
The passing of the Early Childhood Education and Care (Three-Day Guarantee) Bill 2025 marks a major shift in Australia’s early childhood education and care system. For the first time, tens of thousands of children who were previously excluded from early learning will have access to at least three days of subsidised care each week (72 hours per fortnight), regardless of their parents’ work or study status.
Australia-China relations: A question of trust
Let’s restore the trust in China that we once enjoyed. This was the key message I presented to an online forum titled Does China Threaten Australia’s Peace and Security hosted by the Australian Peace and Security Forum on 18 March. Following is a condensed version of my talk.
