June 30, 2025

China is taking Silicon Valley’s market ‘hacks’ to a whole new level

From “blitzscaling” to leveraging network effects, China is using the same methods to dominate supply chain and disrupt markets.

April 30, 2025

The election and the social determinants of health

The Social Determinants of Health are the conditions in which we work, live, and play. We, as a society, choose these conditions and/or choose not to change them. They play at least as important a role in health outcomes as access to care.

April 27, 2025

Environment: Australian Governments sacrifice the environment for dollars and votes

The sham of biodiversity offsets for coal mining. Will the climate benefit if Australia hosts the COP in 2026? Albanese further weakens Australia’s outdated environmental protection laws.

June 10, 2025

Weaponising the Department of Justice: echoes of the Star Chamber

Instead of acting as a guardian of the law, the Justice Department will use judicial power to pursue political vendettas and silence dissent.

May 27, 2025

Trump inflicts cruelty on the disadvantaged – and seems to enjoy it

Perhaps the most despicable of the character flaws of Donald Trump is his cruelty and his apparent enjoyment of the same!

July 7, 2025

Lawsuit aims to end 'systematic' snatching of brown-skinned people by Trump agents

“These guys are popping up, rampant all over the city, just taking people randomly, and we want that particular practice to end,” one attorney in the case said of Department of Homeland Security agents.

May 9, 2025

India and Pakistan have fought many wars in the past. Are we on the precipice of a new one?

India conducted military strikes against Pakistan overnight, hitting numerous sites in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and deeper into Pakistan itself. Security officials say precision strike weapon systems, including drones, were used.

April 15, 2025

Federal election: A different type of beauty contest

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is fighting this election as if it were what some of my sisters in journalism would call a dick-measuring competition.

July 1, 2025

Switching from a failed vape and tobacco policy to a successful one

Australia’s health policy in relation to vapes is in disarray. Yet this deeply flawed approach is currently supported by all state, federal and territory governments.

May 1, 2025

The $60b energy boom hidden in Barnaby Joyce’s backyard

It’s the kind of economic windfall that regional Australia dreams of: $60 billion in investment, 4000 construction jobs, more than 5000 ongoing jobs, and enough clean energy to power half the country.

June 2, 2025

It is time to take our indifference to the Gaza horror seriously

It is time to take our indifference seriously. I remember having a heated discussion with classmates when I was in my first year of high school. We had just had a history lesson on the rise of Nazi Germany and the murder of over six millions Jews, intellectuals, and communists. We were arguing about how many Jewish people we could have “rescued” from the gas chambers and what we would have done if we had been alive then, how we would never have let that slaughter happen.

June 17, 2025

Australia’s quiet role in China-ASEAN dynamics

Southeast Asia’s strategic equilibrium is undergoing unprecedented stress tests.

June 7, 2025

US military waste contractor with flawed safety record backing Australian N-waste dump

A US military mega-contractor assisting an Australian company to develop a proposal for a nuclear waste dump in Central Australia has a flawed safety record in handling nuclear waste storage.

May 8, 2025

The global conversation on Western aid cuts

This year has seen massive changes for global development, with the United States, United Kingdom and other donors announcing cuts to foreign assistance. The Development Policy Centre has estimated that official development assistance, which peaked in 2023, will reduce by between 25% to 50% by 2027.

April 27, 2025

A minority Labor Government's policy agenda – Part 1

A minority Labor Government is widely seen as a likely outcome in the forthcoming election.

April 16, 2025

Why bagging China could deny Dutton crucial votes he needs to win

China seems to play a central role in American and Australian elections.

April 12, 2025

Republic of Korea – Tricky transition times ahead

The unanimous decision of the ROK’s Constitutional Court ( 8-0 including those judges nominated by his party) to uphold the National Assembly’s decision to immediately impeach former president Yoon Suk Yeol marks a very significant milestone in the country’s short democratic history.

July 3, 2025

The devil's dance with Iran

Iran has been on a hit list of seven countries in a geostrategic plan for the reconfiguration of the Middle East first drawn up by the US in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks.

June 3, 2025

Time again for stewards to do a moral health check-up

Was there ever anything more predictable, and more shameful than the detached and independent — and, of course, apolitical — decision by federal Environment Minister Murray Watt that damage caused to Aboriginal Australian heritage values could not weigh as heavily as the economic interest of Woodside’s Northwest Shelf project, worth billions of dollars, potentially trillions?

April 24, 2025

Memory shapes China's response to Trump’s tariffs

To asses China’s reaction to Donald Trump’s tariffs we have to go back around 165 years.

April 7, 2025

Hosting the UN climate summit is far from ‘madness’ – here’s how Australia stands to benefit

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would withdraw Australia’s bid to co-host next year’s global climate summit if the Coalition wins the federal election.

July 5, 2025

Fifteen years of UN Women: A call to action, not complacency

Fifteen years ago, UN Women was established with a bold mission: to drive real and lasting change for all women and girls.

May 29, 2025

Australia is about to see a step change in its renewable transition strategy

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Or so said the actor Jimmy Dean.

May 12, 2025

Critical minerals offer a path to check US unilateralism

Trumpian trade policy promises a period of spasmodic aggression and persisting uncertainty.

July 10, 2025

'Indefensible': Trump budget law subsidises private jet owners while taking healthcare from millions

A provision of the budget law that President Donald Trump signed last week will leave taxpayers to “pick up the tab for the private jet industry and billionaire high flyers”.

April 13, 2025

Sherlock Holmes investigates the wages explosion that never was

I like to imagine that, if Arthur Conan Doyle were still alive, and had turned his creation, Sherlock Holmes, to solving the economic mysteries of the 21st century, he would have written this conversation:

July 4, 2025

China’s rapid adoption of AI demands greater scrutiny of the social impact

In contrast to the perception that Beijing has placed a lot of “guardrails” on AI, China’s AI regulation so far has been limited.

June 25, 2025

Banning social media for kids is not the answer. Jonathan Haidt is wrong

Jonathan Haidt is described as a modern-day prophet who claims to have the cure for the epidemic of anxiety afflicting young kids today.

June 27, 2025

Don't talk or write about Palestine. It's a career killer

The new McCarthyism sweeps through the university sector at a terrifying pace. At the core is conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel, spurred on by the pro-Israel lobby that has convinced or recruited governments and large sections of the media.

April 8, 2025

Trump’s trade war is bad, but how bad is up to the rest of us

At last, we know enough about US President Donald Trump’s opening move on tariffs to start thinking about what it all means. By imposing tariffs on America’s imports, he’s shot his economy in the foot, but the rest of the world decides how bad it’s likely to be by what we do in response.

May 6, 2025

South Korea at a crossroads

On 4 April, South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously ruled to remove the impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol from office for what it described as having “violated the constitutional order and posed a serious threat to the democratic republic”.

May 24, 2025

Closer ASEAN ties can help China counter US militarisation of region

However, Beijing’s foreign policy and economic agenda are at cross purposes, with nations in the bloc suffering from chronic trade deficits.

June 29, 2025

Local power: How councils turn conversations into energy upgrades

When it comes to cutting emissions and lowering power bills, many Australian households won’t be swayed by glossy ads, government policies, or even rebates. What often gets people to take action is a conversation – with a friend, a neighbour, or someone they trust.

May 15, 2025

The first-ever historic agreement between the US and Hamas – with Netanyahu in a secondary role

The direct talks between the United States and Hamas took Israel by surprise and led to an agreement that resulted in the release of the Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander.

April 22, 2025

One side, two or many? How to develop ties with our region

Everyone recognises that we need closer ties with our region. Peter Varghese has written about the importance of “deepening our regional relationships”.

June 21, 2025

News Corp’s China obsession: why beating the drum is easier than thinking

Introducing our new columnist Fred Zhang, who brings you his take on the way the Australian media reports and/or mis- and under- reports on China.

June 18, 2025

Albo's steady-as-she goes strategy – will it work?

Anthony Albanese has made it clear that we cannot expect a more ambitious government strategy in future, despite the size of his election win.

May 30, 2025

Time to go beyond words on Gaza

With Israel compounding the misery of the people of the Gaza Strip through its latest operation, Australia has finally come to a point of condemnation.

April 14, 2025

Why cap the number of university students from abroad?

Having been unable to pass legislation, the Albanese Labor Government (as it likes to be called) decided in 2024 to use the “slow student visa process” to reduce international student numbers because of the problems they cause in taking houses and jobs from Australians.

June 5, 2025

Marco Rubio: The secretary of statelessness

Question: What member of Trump’s cabinet has four major posts, but only one job? Answer: Marco Rubio

June 14, 2025

The cultural and linguistic roots of protest in China

In 1760, the newly established Qing Dynasty was looking to expand Chinese territory by claiming the region of Xinjiang. Many Chinese intellectuals and scholars opposed this.

June 12, 2025

A Joycean defence of Harvard (and Australia’s universities?) from Trump’s derangement Part 2 of 2

In the context of President Donald Trump’s all-embracing appetites and hatreds, Harvard being under attack by his administration should, almost reflexively, be easy to defend.

April 25, 2025

Close the US military bases in Asia

The best strategy for the superpowers is to stay out of each other’s lanes.

June 22, 2025

US brain drain set to gather pace as academics seek posts outside Trump’s America

Increasing numbers of scientists are eyeing opportunities in Australia, Canada, China and Europe amid threatened cuts to funding.

May 4, 2025

A monstrous media and murder in Gaza

Imagine how this would have been reported if Russian soldiers had executed Ukrainians in this way. Not like this, you can be sure.

April 17, 2025

Easter: More rising than falling

“I call upon heaven and earth this day to witness that I have put before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life! Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy, 30:19)

April 9, 2025

The stock market: an instantaneous referendum

Large movements in the stock market can cause unexpected events beyond it to happen very quickly.

July 1, 2025

AUKUS project has worsened Australia’s ties with China

I have argued elsewhere (Asia Sentinel, 24/5/2025) that five factors could throw the US$245 billion AUKUS deal off balance following the recent decision by Washington to review the deal.

May 28, 2025

The drought is back – we need a new way to help farmers survive tough times

Australia in 2025 is living up to Dorothy McKellar’s poetic vision of a country stricken by “ drought and flooding rains”.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal