Adrian Pisarski
Adrian Pisarski is a public policy advocate and former Director of National Shelter. Adrian is a long-term members of the Australian Labor Party.
Con Pagonis
Con Pagonis volunteers with several multicultural community organisations. Now retired, he worked as a public sector multicultural affairs policy and programs manager at the federal, state and local government levels
Minnie Chan
Senior Reporter, China
Minnie Chan is an award-winning journalist, specialising in reporting on defence and diplomacy in China. Her coverage of the US EP-3 spy plane crash with a PLA J-8 in 2001 near the South China Sea opened her door to the military world. Since then, she has had several scoops relating to China’s military development. She has been at the Post since 2005 and has a master’s in international public affairs from The University of Hong Kong.
David Langsam
David Langsam reported on Israel-Palestine conflict 1985-97 for Fairfax media, BBC World Service, ABC Radio, The Guardian, New Statesman and The Independent.
Hurjehan Kadernani
Hurjehan Kadernani is researcher with a public health and dental background based at the College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University.
Robert M. Schaible
Robert M. Schaible is Professor Emeritus in the Arts & Humanities Department at the University of Southern Maine.
Doug Bandow
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, specializing in foreign policy and civil liberties. He worked as special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and editor of the political magazine Inquiry. He writes regularly for leading publications such as Fortune magazine, National Interest, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Times.
Peter Doherty
Peter Charles Doherty AC FRS FAA FMedSci is an Australian immunologist and Nobel laureate. He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1995, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Rolf M. Zinkernagel in 1996 and was named Australian of the Year in 1997.
Kambale Musavuli
Kambale Musavuli, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is a leading political and cultural Congolese voice. Based in Accra, Ghana, he is a policy analyst with the Center for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa.
John McCarthy
John McCarthy AO is Senior Adviser at Asialink and former Australian Ambassador to the US and several Asian countries.
Matthew Ehret
Matthew Ehret is a journalist, Senior Fellow at the American University of Moscow, and BRI Expert for Tactical Talk. He is a regular author on several political/cultural websites including Los Angeles Review of Books: China Channel, Strategic Culture, and Oriental Review. He has also authored three books from the series the Untold History of Canada.
Pearls and Irritations guest Jian Zhang
Jian Zhangis an Associate Professorin International and Political Studies at the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, UNSW Canberra atthe Australian Defence Force Academy, the University of New South Wales, Australia
RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service
RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Serviceis an award-winning, multimedia source of independent news and informed debate, covering major stories and underreported topics, including women, minority rights, high-level corruption, and religious radicalism.
Imran Khalid
Imran Khalid is an international affairs commentator and freelancer based in Karachi, Pakistan.
Michael D. Breen
Michael Breen, twenty years a Jesuit, then educational psychologist (Boston College) and researcher, (Ireland) student counsellor,(Bathurst and Wollongong Unis) organisational psychologist,(private practice, mostly in W.A.) Zen practitioner Dai Boku.
Jude Conway
Dr Jude Conway is a Novocastrian historian, who edited Step by Step: Women of East Timor, stories of Resistance and Survival (2010) and whose 2022 PhD thesis is on the Newcastle women’s movement. Jude was a fellow activist for the self determination of East Timor, who first met Vacy Vlazna in 1997 and remained friends since that time.
James A. Millward
James A. Millward is a professor of history at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, where he teaches Qing, Chinese, Central Asian and world history.
Dermot O’Gorman
Dermot O’Gorman is a global sustainable development leader with 25 years’ experience in envisioning, ideating, and implementing solutions to protect wildlife and the environment. He has been the CEO of WWF-Australia since 2010 and holds board positions with the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and the Luc Hoffmann Institute and is the Chair of OpenSC.
Sophie Vorrath
Sophie is editor ofOne Step Off The Gridand deputy editor of its sister site,Renew Economy. She is the co-host of theSolar Insiders Podcast.Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
Coco Yixin Yin
Coco Yixin Yin, a masters student at Nanjing University, is an intern at the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG) contributing to its Pekingnology and https://www.eastisread.com/The East is Read newsletters.
Pearls and Irritations guest Mike McIntire
Mike McIntire is an investigative reporter, author and editor. As a member of the investigations unit at The New York Times, he shared Pulitzer Prizes in 2022 for reporting on the hidden financial incentives behind police traffic stops, and in 2017 for reporting on covert Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election
Vivienne Porzsolt
Vivienne Porzsolt is a a secular Jew whose parents were refugees from the Nazis. She is a longtime activist for a range of social justice issues. She is spokesperson for Jews against the Occupation in Sydney and has been an advocate for justice and equality in Palestine/Israel for many years.
Guest author Robert Wood
Dr. Robert Wood has been a Benjamin Franklin Fellow at University of Pennsylvania and an Endeavour Research Fellow at Columbia University. The author of more than 300 articles and five books, Robert serves as a Director at Centre for Stories. He has a fortnightly interview on politics on community radio station RTR FM. Robert lives in Perth.
Nader Hashemi
Nader Hashemi is the director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an associate professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is also a non-resident fellow at DAWN.
Guests author Mukhtar Amanbaiuly
Mukhtar Amanbaiuly Undergraduate Student at Nazarbayev University School of Sciences and Humanities Political Science and International Relations.
Pearls and Irritations guest Royce Kurmelovs
Royce Kurmelovs is an Australian freelance journalist and author of The Death of Holden (2016), Rogue Nation (2017) and Boom and Bust (2018). He lives in Adelaide, South Australia.
Guest author Michelle Fahy,
Michelle is an independent researcher specialising in investigating links between the weapons industry and Australian government. Her work has appeared in Progressive International, Arena, Declassified Australia, Michael West Media and elsewhere. Member of MEAA.
Dave Kellaway
Dave Kellaway is on the Editorial Board of Anti*Capitalist Resistance, a member of Socialist Resistance, and Hackney and Stoke Newington Labour Party, a contributor to International Viewpoint and Europe Solidaire Sans Frontieres.
Mona Shtaya
Mona Shtaya is a Palestinian digital rights defender, working as the Campaigns and Partnerships Manager (MENA) and Corporate Engagement Lead at Digital Actions; she is also a 2024 Migration and Technology Monitor Fellow and a non-resident scholar for the Middle East Institute (MEI) in the Palestine-Israel program.
Sara Dowse
Sara Dowse is an American-born Australian feminist, author, critic, social commentator, and visual artist. Her novels include Schemetime published in 1990, Sapphires, and As the Lonely Fly, and she has contributed reviews, articles, essays, stories, and poetry to a range of print and online publications.
Refaat Ibrahim
Refaat Ibrahim is a Palestinian writer living in Gaza, where he studied English Language and Literature at the Islamic University. He has been passionate about writing since childhood, and is interested in political, social, economic, and cultural matters concerning his homeland, Palestine. He is also dedicated to amplifying the voice of the Palestinian people living under the weight of Israeli occupation and global neglect. Refaat believes that writing is the way to knowledge, representing the accumulation of keen insight; for him, it is the bridge connecting ideas to people’s minds and emotions to their hearts. He writes with purpose and principle, aiming to open a path for others to perceive things as they truly are. His pen will not stop as long as his heart beats.
Stephen Bartos
Stephen is an internationally recognised expert on governance, regulation and public finance.
Stephen was Professor of Governance and Head of the National Institute of Governance at the University of Canberra, and also a Commissioner with the International Airservices Commission, the regulator that governs operators’ access to international air passenger and freight routes into and out of Australia.
