October 17, 2022

US promoting nuclear war anxiety to extend scope of government

In the late 1960s I was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. It was a time of strong anti-war sentiment among students opposed the war in Vietnam.

January 12, 2025

After the Trump inauguration

American presidential inaugurations traditionally nurture a sense of unity, pride and aspiration — drawing on the quality of American oratory brought to mind by John Kennedy and Barack Obama — that causes emotions to soar.

December 5, 2024

Survival of a people: Threats to Palestine’s existence as Israel kills 45,000

Israeli leaders insist that all the people of Gaza are Hamas. In the same breath, Prime Minister Netanyahu boasts that victory in his war depends on the complete annihilation of Hamas, by which he presumably means a whole people?

October 18, 2024

Could Albanese do better with less help?

Senior political office is a hazardous place where job security can be fortuitous.

March 7, 2024

Why ASEAN-Australia summits matter

The ASEAN-Australia leaders’ summit in Melbourne offers the opportunity for Australia to embrace ASEAN’s ‘inclusive regionalism’ and the organisation’s centrality in mediating the Indo-Pacific struggle between the great powers.

December 3, 2023

As genocide unfolds, what can you do? Boycott. Divest. Sanction.

Israeli children sing, “We will annihilate everyone” in Gaza. The song was played on Israel’s national broadcaster Kan. This fact was exposed by the Electronic Intifada – Ali Abunimah – on 19 November. It pretty well says it all. So, what can you do about it? Well, one thing you might do is support BDS.

November 24, 2023

What happened to the UN’s ‘Responsibility to Protect’?

The world watches the destruction of Gaza as 13,000 thousand Palestinians are killed including 5,600 children. The world watches as Gazan hospitals are invaded, patients ordered to flee south where there is neither water, food nor safety. The world watches while Israeli spokespersons claim they never target civilians, and then comes the propagandist fig leaf to conceal all the cruelties. An Israeli spokesperson points to a hole in the ground beside a hospital as evidence of Hamas’ headquarters.

October 18, 2023

Another day in the colony

The deputy prime minister Richard Marles was asked by Insider’s host David Speers if the voters of Australia were right to roundly reject the constitutional recognition of Indigenous peoples and the Voice to parliament. Of course they were right, said Marles, they’re always right. In a press conference and later during question time in parliament, Anthony Albanese said he respected the outcome of the referendum, pointing out that it’s wonderful that democracies like Australia can have such referendums without the disorder we see in other countries.

October 4, 2023

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese to visit Australia

On 11 November the Australian Friends of Palestine Association, (AFOPA), based in Adelaide, will host the nineteenth Edward Said Memorial Lecture (ESML), at the Hawke Centre in Adelaide. The event is news-worthy particularly as the Australian Labor Party (ALP) struggles with the issue of Palestine at this time.

December 14, 2021

Bullying the neighbourhood: the show trial of Bernard Collaery and Witness K

There are echoes of the Dreyfus affair in the Australian government’s pursuit of two Australians who blew the whistle on Canberra’s dealings with East Timor.

April 4, 2025

In every China-US war game scenario I've seen, America has lost

Global security alliances are in turmoil, and Australia needs to critically rethink its defence and foreign affairs policies.

February 20, 2025

The betrayal of Creative Australia

The board of Creative Australia, formerly the Australia Council, has betrayed its mission by enabling censorship and gross political interference in the arts, and its members must resign or be sacked.

February 2, 2025

The Taiwan story, How a Small Island Will Dictate the Global Future, by Kerry Brown, Penguin, 2024

Professor Kerry Brown is among Britain’s most distinguished China specialists. He has written very widely on modern and contemporary China and has experience not only in academia, but also in the British diplomatic service. He has some Australia experience, having directed the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney from 2012 to 2015.

December 6, 2024

The Electoral Reform Bill is stalled but the party is far from over

The Australian Uniparty— also known as the cosy ALP/LNP coalition of self-interest—is jockeying for electoral reform. Talks between Labor and the LNP have broken down so those reforms are not coming in any time soon but, as former New South Wales Labor premier Jack Lang was fond of saying, “Always back the horse named ‘self-interest’, it’s the only one that will be trying.”

November 21, 2024

On the verge of WWIII?

‘Joe Biden allows Ukraine to use long-range US-supplied ATACMS missiles on targets in Russia, prompting threat of world war’ – so runs the ABC headline of 18 November. Serious stuff, not to be lightly discounted, and yet perhaps what we are seeing is primarily performative politics, viewed through the smoke of uncertainty and reflected in the distorting mirrors of propaganda. In short, whilst the consequences could not be more dangerous, when we unpack the narrative, it seems that, at the moment at least, the situation is not so critical as it might appear.

November 19, 2024

Trump Redux: what matters to foreign relations

As the novelty of Donald Trump’s win wears off, we have moved beyond the superficialities of the views of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ambassador Kevin Rudd about the Trump agenda and persona.

November 17, 2024

Making sense of life and death at a time of genocide and climate emergency

I saw my first dead body when I was four. Her name was Helen. She was lying in our suburban driveway one evening when our little Suzuki returned.

November 16, 2024

APEC – Disintegration or defiance?

The APEC Peru agenda has been hijacked by the spectre of a Trumpian attack on its foundational principles. China provides the only viable counterbalance.

October 28, 2024

The world at 90 seconds to midnight

What further evidence do apes with apps, the inhabitants of planet Earth, need to have before the liveable climate, the lungs of the Earth, overheat and the mere failure of a computer chip or a brain neuron triggers the sixth mass extinction of species in the history of planet Earth?

January 2, 2024

The War Power in Australia: Lessons from the Iraq War in 2003

The release of some of the cabinet documents from 2003 calls attention to how the war power is exercised in Australia.

November 29, 2023

Was Pezzullo recording leak from a federal agency monitoring his communications?

The sacking of Mike Pezzullo was inevitable once Nine media published his email correspondence with a Liberal party lobbyist and powerbroker. So far, however, the Public Service Commission and the government is doing altogether too much to avoid detailing the circumstances that provide chapter and verse of the numerous improprieties that covered the correspondence, or the Pezzullo management style and his relationship with the coalition government setting that made them possible.

November 18, 2023

Gaza - What is the end game?

In recent weeks some frightening possibilities have come to the world’s attention. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has noted plans, by some, for high density Jewish cities in the Gaza Strip. Such plans call for total destruction and mass expulsion in Gaza.

October 13, 2023

Deafening silence as Israel kills over 320 children in Gaza

“Where is the outrage we saw when Israeli children were killed?” asked a co-founder of IfNotNow.

October 7, 2023

AUKUS: The greatest policy blunder

Recent speculation about the regulatory obstacles to the AUKUS agreement add to the Congressional concerns over the industrial base’s capacity to deliver the Virginia class submarines and meet to USN’s force level targets. Moreover, hanging over all of America’s foreign policy positions going forward is the faltering support for foreign adventures and the prospect of another isolationist-leaning Trump Administration abandoning ‘bad deals’. AUKUS remains bad policy.

January 25, 2023

Nuclear deterrence: a dangerous gamble we must not rely on

Nuclear weapons are deadly, indiscriminate, and have the potential to wipe out life on earth. But they are still held by a handful of states who believe that they bring security and who are so wedded to them that they cannot see what is in front of their noses.

November 25, 2022

Ukraine: The other side of the story

It appears that wherever one looks or reads there are calls for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine: no other event is called for; in other words, capitulation by Russia.

October 16, 2022

When will the stars shine again in Burkina Faso?

This is a tale from far away about tribulations and upheavals in countries adjacent to the Sahara desert. It has direct relevance to Australia in that much of the upheaval arises from the overthrow of the Libyan government in 2011 by NATO or more particularly France and the United States.

November 25, 2021

No island is an island anymore: the flaw in Morrison’s 2050 plan

There’s the emissions reduction modelling, and then there’s the reality. Guess which side the Australian government prefers?

November 12, 2021

Paul Keating on Australia's national interest, Taiwan, and the absurdity of war

Australia is still trying to find its place in Asia, Paul Keating says, which explains why we’re so preoccupied with Taiwan and China.

December 8, 2024

‘A future of dust’ – Jeff Sparrow on Gaza and why, in evil times, writers have a responsibility to take sides

“We must ask for no references to Gaza/Palestine/Israel as it’s a very sensitive topic in our area. If these topics are included it drastically changes our risk management plans for events. Thus for safety and harmony we kindly ask the guest speakers avoid these topics and any questions about it that come up.” - Sam Wallman and I received this message from our publicist, one day before an event at a suburban library about our coauthored book.

March 4, 2024

The parade of talk going nowhere

ASEAN has been around for so long media outlets rarely spell the full name - Association of Southeast Asian Nations. That sounds significant and grand. It’s not.

February 4, 2024

When escalation means escalation

In one of the world’s poorest countries, Yemen, there is a tribe called the Houthis. Emanating from that tribe to lead a larger coalition of other tribes is a group which does not want to be ruled by a Western or Saudi backed puppet government, they are called Ansar Allah, which means Supporters of god. Western media, in an effort to either simplify, or perhaps to denigrate them, have given Ansar Allah different names, they are now referred to as either Houthis or Iranian Backed Houthis, or sometimes Iranian Backed Militia, they are rarely, if ever, referred to by their correct name. There is a good reason for this; we are being spoon fed a line that this is all Iran’s doing and led along a path of escalation to include a war with Iran.

January 22, 2023

We are at war, with no strategy adequate to the challenge

Unlike the Ukraine war, the war I am referring to is not a military war; it’s our battle for planetary health, and we have no strategy adequate to the challenge.

October 30, 2022

The remarkable resilience of Hong Kong

Vibrancy and efficiency combined with a particularly safe living environment all remain evident in Hong Kong in a way not commonly seen in other large, modern global cities. Still, the series of tests which the HKSAR faces today are acutely demanding. This, though, resonates with the position faced in most jurisdictions worldwide. Hong Kong, meanwhile, has an extended track-record of candidly accepting matters as they are, over time, prior to regrouping and moving forward affirmatively.

January 24, 2022

Right-wing protesters in Canberra lit a fire under democracy, but did we care?

The assault on Old Parliament House in Canberra last month illustrated the depth of pernicious American influences on Australian public life.

January 19, 2022

No justice for Djokovic: the danger of different rules for politicians

Plenty of parliamentarians, mainly in the government, have made more incendiary statements against Covid vaccination than the tennis star ever did.

December 4, 2021

From our readers: Labor isn't offering voters even a 'small target'

In letters to the editor this week: Labor’s policy vacuum, how Australia is (not) handling climate change, the value of independent political candidates.

March 31, 2025

The new kids shaping the election block

Gen Z and other relatively young Australians who feel they owe little to major parties are an unpredictable voting force heading into the 2025 federal election.

January 31, 2025

Is an ‘antisemitic’ CCP DeepSeeking Aussie data? - Anti-China Media Watch

This week’s big China threat story is DeepSeek, an Open-Source AI (artificial intelligence) platform that the alarmists are signalling is further proof China is stealing our personal data. Those shouting loudest are the right-wing free marketeers but what are we to make of Wall Street greeting the rise of DeepSeek by wiping $1 trillion off the value of, chip maker, Nvidia in just one day?

January 15, 2025

Can Korea avoid another war?

In the current edition of the prestigious publication Foreign Affairs Robert E. Kelly and Min-Hyung Kim argue a strong case for South Korea to build nuclear weapons to counter the military threat from North Korea. “Assembling even a limited arsenal would give South Korea greater strategic independence and reduce its constant anxiety over the shifts in US foreign policy”, they argue.

December 13, 2023

Australia’s China knowledge capability: gratitude, dismay, hope

A visceral emphasis on fear over engagement has marked Australia’s approach to China since 2015. Only 17 Australians graduated with Honours degrees in China Studies between 2017 and 2021 across the entire country. This year no grants were awarded by the Australian Research Council for China-related research or collaborative research involving Chinese institutions. Will the Albanese Labor government follow in the steps of Whitlam, Hawke, Keating and Rudd, by valuing knowledge and engagement over ignorance and fear?

December 7, 2023

UNCOP28 at a time of international stress and vivid suffering

At UNCOP28, clear-eyed, we persist. And not without hope. There is a saying; ‘Pessimism of the intellect; optimism of the will.’ The time to have an influence comes and goes. Like life itself… Therefore it is best to live by the highest one can conceive when one has the opportunity!

March 24, 2023

AUKUS - "These are the horrors"

_AUKUS. This is a horror for which I now fear for the lives of my children and their children. Every time a Labor member of parliament or senator puts foot outside their office to appear in public, turns up at a public meeting, we need to ask them: why have you betrayed us? Why have you allowed this to happen? What are you going to do?

November 12, 2022

How did Dag Hammarskjöld die? The CIA and Indonesian connection

More than six decades after his plane crashed it remains the great Cold War mystery: Was UN secretary-general (1953-61) Dag Hammarskjöld killed by sabotage, a technical fault, pilot error or air attack? If he was assassinated who was the mastermind?

March 12, 2022

Russia, China and the Game of Weiqi. Ukraine is not a predictor of Taiwan

Scott Morrison is beating up fear of an Arc of Autocracy in a bid to boost his electoral chances. This short-term objective will not help Australia win the complex game of Weiqi chess currently being played in our region. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is not a predictor of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and neither situation directly threatens Australia to the extent Morrison would have you believe.

February 16, 2022

Albanese leaves supporters wondering: is there a line he won't cross?

Labor played party games when it should have been making a clear stand against bigotry.

January 22, 2022

Can Australian universities come back from the dead?

Academic freedom has been slowly and steadily eroded, with academics turned into service providers and students into consumers.

December 17, 2024

Thorpe to take Australia’s genocide regime to the ICC, as Regev case struck down

The private prosecution that Krautungalung elder Uncle Robbie Thorpe launched against Mark Regev, a former senior advisor to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, that charged the Australian Israeli with advocating genocide was taken over by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions late on the afternoon of 9 December and the case was then officially dropped in court the next day.

November 30, 2024

Updates from Jerusalem, then and now

From the Committee to Protect Journalists: “ The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on Gazan journalists since Israel declared war on Hamas following its attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. As of November 26, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 137 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal