July 30, 2025

Australia employs 'straddle' diplomacy with China and the US

The approach is not doctrinal, but is about speaking frankly to both Washington and Beijing.

July 1, 2025

The contemporary world is run by political dinosaurs facing extinction

An aging generation of mostly male leaders is presently occupying the commanding heights of the most powerful states around the world.

June 20, 2025

Speaking out from within: Jewish voices confront Israeli aggression

As Israel’s military campaign in Gaza reaches unprecedented levels of destruction, a global wave of protest has emerged.

June 14, 2025

Australian Honours: review

Twice a year Government House issues a list of those awarded an honour within the Australian Honours system. The vast majority of those awarded are clearly worthy of recognition, but each time the list appears there is a level of contention.

May 24, 2025

Millions want intervention to stop Israeli slaughter of Palestinians

Across Australia, around the globe, millions of people have been outraged by Israeli slaughter in Gaza and on the West Bank, their outrage compounded by despair that Israel has been given a blank cheque to ignore international law, to do what it likes.

May 14, 2025

Australia’s misunderstanding of the Asian Century

In October 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard released a white paper titled Australia in the Asian Century.

April 13, 2025

Housing reform that pays for itself – and helps future generations

Tinkering around the edges isn’t helping. We need to reverse the commodification of housing with a model that puts people first.

July 22, 2025

AUKUS – an American problem

Australians who have been critical of AUKUS have tended to focus on Australian problems with it – it’s too dear, we have neither a nuclear industry nor a nuclear workforce, etc.

July 14, 2025

Why the world needs renewable food

The future well-being and survival of civilisation rests upon a single, fragile assumption: that there will always be enough food.

August 3, 2025

Did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945 end the war?

The widely accepted moral justification for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was that they brought a quick end to the war which if continued would result in more widespread deaths and destruction.

June 7, 2025

Warren Report: Musk leveraged government access for personal gain

“Since Election Day, Musk’s staggering net worth has increased by over $100 billion,” the report states.

May 28, 2025

Our retreat from Asia has become a rout

On almost every measure, Australia has gone backwards on engaging with our region, and particularly with China, and it is time to do something about it.

May 17, 2025

Don’t stir Semar – He seeks harmony

Ancient Javanese mythology, often inherited from India and adapted to fit local culture, is rich with striking characters in the wayang kulit shadow puppet theatre. The fat-gut wise clown Semar is charged with maintaining stability.

April 25, 2025

Anzac voices – voices of warning

A shade over 110 years since the Gallipoli landings, Anzac Day is a day of mourning for many. Respect is due. And more. If we listen to the original Anzac voices, we may recognise voices of warning – relevant today.

May 18, 2025

Voice rejection sends Australia backwards

It was a dramatic return to the political stage! With the election underway, indigenous activist Noel Pearson broke a self-imposed silence which he had kept for 18 months since the failure of the referendum on the voice to parliament.

May 13, 2025

Politics courting religion: Religion courting politics

An open letter to the Coalition leadership

There has been a growing trend for Conservative politics in the US and in Australia to double down on support from conservative expressions of Christian religious faith. These religious views are not consistent with the values of most Australians, they are divisive. They do not represent the views of those with faith, like me, who find them at odds with the life and teaching of Jesus.

June 25, 2025

Our white man’s media shuns Asia

We talk glibly about our future in Asia, but we are stuck in a US and UK media cul de sac.

July 10, 2025

The story most Israelis are not allowed to hear

I write this in quite a distressed state. On Sunday, I watched the award-winning documentary film – “No Other Land”.

June 28, 2025

The generational divide in the West over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: from a culture of loyalty to a culture of justice

A deep analysis of the growing generational divide in the West over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

August 17, 2025

More fundamental changes to the means test are needed than those intimated by DSS

Based on the redacted version released recently under Freedom of Information( FOI), DSS’s incoming government brief seems overall to be a valuable document, particularly the volume titled, ‘Strategic Considerations’, which canvasses longer-term challenges for the portfolio.

July 12, 2025

Albanese’s visit to China is a moment for statesmanship

Membership of the Chinese Communist Party has just exceeded 100 million. It has long been the largest political party in world history.

April 30, 2025

Who will better manage the economy: Labor or the Coalition?

People are being asked to vote for the Coalition on the grounds that it is better at managing the economy. But the current evidence does not back up that claim.

April 11, 2025

If I were health minister…

Ministerial time is a scarce commodity. Hence setting priorities is critical. But, unfortunately, the minute I walk into my new office I will be assailed by the smell of a dead cat on my desk emanating from a stack of briefs on private sector issues.

April 9, 2025

Muslim voters: Don’t let rage cloud strategy

During our extended family gathering for dinner on Eid Day, Monday 31 March, hosted by my niece, Shakeeba Siddiqui, and her husband, Khalique Sajjad, in Edmondson Park, there was a robust discussion about the upcoming federal election with invited guests Nathan Hagarty MP, state member for Leppington and Charishma Kaliyanda MP, state member for Liverpool.

August 2, 2025

Why are our Australian institutions so silent regarding the Gaza genocide?

A reality of our day: The Israeli Government, with the full support of the United States, is conducting genocide in Gaza. Numerous other countries, including Australia, as well as a multitude of corporations worldwide are complicit.

July 6, 2025

Gunning for the Greens over Gaza - Part 1

After the federal election on 3 May, dissection of the Liberals’ turmoil received top billing.

June 10, 2025

As Keating advised, it's time for Australia to seek its security in Asia

“The world America made for us is passing away. Its place is being taken by a new and harder post-American world, and we are at a loss to know what to make of it.”

June 9, 2025

More than 600 Australian Jews say 'no' to war in Gaza

More than 600 Jewish Australians have signed a statement calling on Jewish community and religious leaders to speak out against the atrocities of the Netanyahu Government in Gaza.

June 5, 2025

Inequality and inheritance taxes

With a few exceptions (such as Andrew Leigh, Nicki Hutley and Angela Jackson), “mainstream” Australian economists — including me — haven’t thought, spoken or written as much about the causes and consequences of increasing inequality as perhaps we should have done in recent decades.

May 5, 2025

Libs on life support after thumping

What kind of future does the Liberal Party have? Two elections and Peter Dutton’s leadership have reduced it to its lowest-ever level of support – fewer than one in three Australians gave it their first preference vote on Saturday. Its “small l” liberal component in the House of Representatives has been all but wiped out.

May 1, 2025

Voting for humanity should come first in this election

The following is the text of a speech given by Sue Wareham at a public meeting Why genocide is a key election issue held on 27 April under the auspices of Australians for Humanity. Wareham is president of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia).

July 9, 2025

Missed opportunities in Japan

John Menadue points to the lack of Australian interest and involvement in Asia.

June 19, 2025

The hazards of Albanese's 'progressive patriotism'

John Menadue is absolutely right to point to regrettable omissions in Prime Minister Albanese’s 10 June speech at the National Press Club – its failure to say anything about reinvigorating a needy Australian democracy.

June 29, 2025

Starvation and profiteering in Gaza (with Francesca Albanese) | The Chris Hedges Report

Francesca Albanese joins Chris Hedges to break down the current starvation campaign in Gaza, and her upcoming report detailing the profiteering corporations capitalising on the erasure of Palestinians.

May 21, 2025

Time to change Australia’s grand strategies

As global power dynamics shift and traditional alliances fray, Australia’s current grand strategies are reaching their limits.

April 14, 2025

There is no future without children

Imagine a world without children, a world steadily depopulating like that in the dystopian novel by P.D. James, Children of Men.

July 26, 2025

Israel has succeeded in starvation, and the global moral edifice has collapsed sharply

I step out of my tent every morning, burdened with exhaustion, drenched in sorrow, searching for anything I might be able to buy for my family, a family worn down by hunger. Their bodies are too weak to move. Their faces have turned pale, drained of all signs of life. For two months, not a single grain of flour has entered our tent. My children still go to sleep every night with empty stomachs and unbearable pain.

July 2, 2025

How spending more on defence harms the nation

Anthony Albanese is taking a battering from ill-informed commentators for thinking Australia can be defended by spending a little over 2% of GDP on its military forces.

April 29, 2025

If I were foreign minister...

I don’t want to be Australia’s foreign minister, and here’s why: I would not be good at promoting Australia’s current foreign policy to the world. That’s also why I stopped being a diplomat in 1996.

August 16, 2025

Economic reform and the productivity slowdown

The productivity slowdown is mostly due to slower technological progress. The economic reform agenda should focus on measures to improve competitive pressures for firms to innovate and improve.

May 2, 2025

If I were attorney-general...

If I were attorney-general of the Commonwealth after Saturday’s election there is one person I would seek to emulate, the Whitlam era’s Lionel Murphy.

July 20, 2025

How deals are trumping port dispute on Australian PM Albanese’s China visit

Source says the two sides have decided to step back from Darwin Port controversy amid trade tensions with US.

May 4, 2025

Trump’s unilateral tariffs have pushed ASEAN closer to China

President Donald Trump has achieved a ‘miracle’ in under 100 days. He suceeded in breaking diplomatic and trade relationships with neighbours like Canada and Mexico that took hundred of years to nurture. His unilateral tariffs have upset many including China, Japan, South Korea, and the ASEAN countries.

August 18, 2025

The Ukraine war after the Alaska summit

The Trump-Putin encounter in Anchorage has angered some, disappointed others and baffled many more. Yet it has told us much about the state of the war in Ukraine, and the obstacles to the ending of hostilities.

July 24, 2025

National security 'experts' go ga-ga over China

There was a time when Australian writings on China were first-class._

May 9, 2025

Labor says its second term will be about productivity reform. These ideas could help shift the dial

In his victory speech, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese highlighted social policy as a major factor in Labor’s electoral success, particularly Medicare, housing and cost-of-living relief. He was justified in doing so.

July 13, 2025

Abandoning our fears: how Australia should respond to US-China regional confrontation

A presentation by Professor Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister, to the University of Melbourne Australian Peace and Security Forum Webinar Abandoning our Fears: Finding Peace and Security in our Region, 8 July 2025.

May 26, 2025

Gaza’s endless genocide: When killing becomes policy and justice disappears

What is happening in Gaza today is not an incidental event nor the result of a “military error” as claimed by some media outlets supporting the occupation. Rather, it is a clear extension of a colonial approach built on the foundations of extermination, exclusion, and uprooting. From the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to the Nakba in 1948, from the invasion of Beirut to the successive wars on Gaza, this genocide forms part of a clear colonial system that seeks to empty the land of its people by all means, the most horrific being the killing of children and civilians to make the Israeli settler project appear as if it faces no human obstacles.

August 11, 2025

Starvation is the constant companion of children in Gaza

Dear Child, I am the nothingness that will kill you. You do not know it, but you will feel the heaviness of your fate seep into your bones and flesh.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal