We can’t stop here, this is bat country

September 11, 2025

It’s clear the geopolitical world is shifting on its axis. It’s equally clear that Australia has some serious decisions to make in the post-American world. The United States, split between the worldly and the godly, has elected a man whom history will judge as unhinged. It’s always been a task to hold half a heaving continent together in thought and purpose, and Donald J. Trump is in no way up to that challenge.

So where does it leave Australia? We inhabit an island continent with fewer people than some global mega-cities. Two-thirds of our land is desert or arid and the other third is dependent for its productivity on three, increasingly unstable, ocean weather systems.

Economically, our mineral wealth is prodigious. Politically, we’re a robust democracy with an open society. Demographically, we’re an open-door migrant nation. Geographically, we’re at the southeastern tip of an Asian continent that’s either in political flux or controlled by authoritarian and, in some cases, belligerent regimes with whom we must live and trade.

The decisions made over the next few years will determine Australia’s future across the 21st century. One thing is clear: steady as she goes is not an option.