Refugees aren’t politically progressive by default – and policy needs to catch up
Australian settlement policy often assumes refugees will embrace progressive politics. Research and community experience show refugee political identities are far more diverse – with important implications for law and policy.
Recent articles in Policy
5 December 2025
Words or action? Dreyfus and human rights at home
Mark Dreyfus has been appointed Australia’s special envoy on human rights. Is the government prepared to match international advocacy with concrete action at home – by finally legislating a Human Rights Act?
1 December 2025
The great failure of the property industry
In every era, certain industries become so large, so politically embedded, and so culturally unexamined that their performance ceases to matter.
30 November 2025
New architecture, old assumptions: Australia and the China question
Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks of balance, equality and a new regional order – yet Australia’s China policy still carries Cold War assumptions that risk strategy, prosperity and peace.
15 November 2025
Tackling vehicle emissions – the next big climate task
Reducing transport emissions is fast approaching as the next big issue in Australia’s climate debate.
11 November 2025
It’s Ley, or virtually certain Liberal self-immolation
People closer to the action than I are suggesting that the end is nigh for Sussan Ley. They may be right; momentum is often all in these matters.
11 November 2025
Australia-China policy: Guardrails, not walls
An industry networking day in Canberra this week laid bare a simple truth: politics is still beating economics in Australia’s China policy.
8 November 2025
Abandoning net zero: Farce, fantasy and falsehoods
Australian politics is now descending into a theatre of science-denying absurdity. A mainstream party is now embedded in denial of clear scientific evidence that renewables are the lowest cost option for Australia through to 2050.
8 November 2025
Australia's AI policy vacuum
Australia abandoned its AI regulation plan. Now citizens are filling the ethical vacuum government created.
7 November 2025
The new political economy of innovation: Why Australian policymakers need better tools
When the Commonwealth Government reorganised its innovation responsibilities for the fourth time in a decade, public servants made jokes about updating their email signatures again.
7 November 2025
Focusing on the EPBC but dropping the ball on protection
While national environmental attention is fixed on EPBC Act reforms in Canberra, some Australian states have dropped the ball on forest protection – and this is seriously undermining Australia’s target of protecting 30% of the continent by 2030.
31 October 2025
Gaza under siege: The continuation of Zionist demographic cleansing policies since the 19th century
Israeli propaganda tries to present the war on Gaza as a “defensive reaction.” Yet the historical record tells a very different story: systematic genocide, the destruction of civilian life and deliberate attempts to uproot entire populations. All of this is a direct continuation of Zionist colonial policies that began in the late 19th century.
24 October 2025
The crumbling illusion: Why American public opinion on Israel is shifting
For the first time in decades, the public in the United States and across the West has begun to see Israel’s wars and occupation for what they truly are: acts of systemic injustice driven by malevolence and impunity.
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23 October 2025
Superannuation and the Canberra Press Gallery's fantasies
17 October 2025
Family violence and migrant women – a better way
14 October 2025
Disarming extremism in the algorithmic age
2 October 2025
Palestine, hate and the fantasy of White Australia
29 September 2025
What should Australian Governments do about ‘mental health’?
