Bring these Australian children home, PM. They did not make their own beds
Dozens of Australian women and children remain trapped in dangerous detention camps in north-east Syria, despite Australia’s legal obligations, available security powers, and repeated international requests for repatriation.
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21 February 2026
Message from the Editor
I gasped in disbelief when I heard our Prime Minster invoke his beloved mother, when blocking the return of family members of ISIS fighters to Australia this week. He said: “My mother would have said, ‘If you make your bed, you lie in it’. And he doubled down the next day, saying of the 11 women and 23 children: “I have nothing but contempt for these people.”
21 February 2026
Prince Andrew arrested – why not King Trump?
If no one is above the law in the UK, not even royalty, presumably no one is above the law in the US, not even a president.
21 February 2026
Let’s not turn back the clock on immigration
Australia needs a forward-looking, evidence-based immigration policy from the Liberal Party. They should drop the slogans, fear mongering and backward-looking thinking.
21 February 2026
Australia’s renewable surge leaves energy politics behind
New data shows Australia’s renewable energy transition has passed a tipping point – with wind, solar and batteries now supplying half the national grid and rapidly expanding.
21 February 2026
Board of Peace plans 5,000-person military base in southern Gaza
Leaked contracting documents detail plans by the Board of Peace to build a large military base in southern Gaza, including armoured towers, bunkers and a “Human Remains Protocol”.
21 February 2026
With more restrictive laws across the country, how can we protect the right to protest?
Recent state laws passed in the name of public safety are expanding police powers and narrowing the right to protest, with uneven safeguards for human rights across Australia.
20 February 2026
The three big challenges facing Angus Taylor
Angus Taylor has assembled his shadow ministry, but unresolved tensions with the Nationals, policy baggage from the last election and doubts about his own authority leave his leadership exposed.
20 February 2026
AI, productivity and the long stall in living standards
Artificial intelligence may offer the best chance to lift stagnant productivity and living standards – but without deliberate policy choices, its benefits will be uneven and limited.
20 February 2026
Reverend Jesse Jackson's legacy on the Middle East
Tributes to Reverend Jesse Jackson rightly honour his civil rights leadership. Far fewer acknowledge his long, consistent support for Palestinian self-determination – and the political costs he paid for it.
20 February 2026
Shame hasn’t vanished. Care has
Public outrage fixates on the absence of shame among elites. But the deeper problem is cultural and structural – a political economy that has pushed care to the margins of public life.
20 February 2026
Universities expose racism’s scale – and the dangers of unequal responses
New national data shows racism is widespread across Australian universities. The challenge is responding fairly, without elevating one community’s suffering over another’s.
20 February 2026
Dual nationals in Israel’s military face growing legal scrutiny over Gaza
Newly released data shows that tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers hold foreign citizenship, placing Western nationals directly within the scope of international war crimes law over Gaza.
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