July 26, 2025

Menadue on the dulling of the Australian conscience

Speaking with the Victorian Branch of Australian Fabians, P&I publisher, founder and editor-in-chief, John Menadue, reflects on the his life and work, the state of national leadership and public institutions including a debased mainstream media.

July 13, 2025

As Trump flip-flops on tariffs, what’s the point of negotiating at all?

Are the tariffs a reality show aimed at Americans, a way to gain the upper hand on China, or just a distraction from sector-specific duties?

June 20, 2025

Patrick Lawrence: World’s most dangerous man and his enabler

Netanyahu has craved this war with Iran for decades, always justifying his psychotic lust by way of endless lies and an apparently bottomless paranoia.

July 15, 2025

NYT report says Netanyahu prolonged war on Gaza to stay in power

“He pressed ahead with the war in April and July 2024, even as top generals told him that there was no further military advantage to continuing,” reports The New York Times.

August 20, 2025

Universities, free speech and the High Court

Greg Barns looks at the legal implications for universities, who last year adopted an IHRA-aligned definition of antisemitism, in wake of a large scale boycott of the Bendigo Writers Festival.

August 4, 2025

Message from the editor

I spent some time in Parliament House last week and it was a delight to see the increased diversity of elected members.

July 20, 2025

An open letter from the presidents of Gaza universities

Our campuses may have been razed, but our universities continue to exist.

May 1, 2025

The fall of Saigon: From triumph to Trump (Part 3)

On 30 April 1975, Saigon fell, Vietnam rose. The story of Vietnam after the US fled the country is not a fairy tale, it is not a one-dimensional parable of resurrection, of liberation from oppression, of joy for all, but there is a great deal to celebrate.

April 30, 2025

Whither national urban policy?

Urban policy in Australia, despite our historically high level of urbanisation, has made only on-off appearances at the federal level of government.

July 4, 2025

What are police allowed to do at protests and who keeps them in check?

Earlier this week, former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas was hospitalised with serious injuries after being arrested at a protest in Sydney.

April 26, 2025

If Einstein spoke today, he would be accused of antisemitism

In 1948, as the foundations of the Israeli state were being laid upon the ruins of hundreds of Palestinian villages, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the American Friends of the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, condemning the growing Zionist militancy within the settler Jewish community.

June 19, 2025

Goodbye to all that? Rethinking Australia’s alliance with Trump’s America

Even the most ardent supporters of the alliance with the United States — the notional foundation of Australian security for more than 70 years — must be having some misgivings about the second coming of Donald Trump.

May 14, 2025

An open letter to The Greens

On election night, I sat glued to the TV, hanging on Antony Green’s every word. All I wanted was the defeat of the Liberals and huge gains for the Greens.

July 5, 2025

World Bank warns that changes are coming in the global economy

The World Bank’s just released flagship report Global Economic Prospects sounds a warning for the global economy, which is projected to slow dangerously through the next few years, while also showing substantial changes.

May 3, 2025

Being a good international citizen in a Trumpian world

We live in troubling times, globally and regionally, with not the least of our troubles being the current occupant of the White House.

June 30, 2025

South Korea’s democracy in the shadow of the far-right

On 4 April 2025, South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously ruled to remove the impeached president Yoon Suk-yeol, claiming he “violated the constitutional order and posed a serious threat to the Democratic Republic”.

May 27, 2025

A defining moment for the future of Palestine

A United Nations conference in New York between 17 and 20 June will be a defining moment for the future of Palestinian statehood and the endlessly debated, but never resolved, policy known as the two-state solution.

May 10, 2025

The Racial Discrimination Act at 50

The passage 50 years ago of the Racial Discrimination Act, Australia’s first substantial piece of human rights legislation, laid the basis for the recognition of native title in the common law in the 1990s.

August 11, 2025

Message from the editor

It has been difficult to focus on much other than the terrible events in Palestine in recent weeks. It is beyond comprehension that the Israeli Government could have made the war even worse, but with the announcement that it will attempt full occupation of Gaza it has done just that.

July 28, 2025

Message from the Editor

This week the news from Gaza has been so gut-wrenchingly awful that it is tempting to turn away. To stop reading. To stop looking.

July 23, 2025

It's clear – Israel now has a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza

Adolf Eichmann began his Nazi career as the head of the Central Agency for Jewish Emigration at the security agency charged with protecting the Reich. Joseph Brunner, the father of Mossad chief David Barnea, was three years old when he fled Nazi Germany with his parents, before the evacuation plan was implemented.

July 9, 2025

BRICS+ meets in Rio amid global shifts and internal fractures

As leaders of the group gather for a summit, the absence of China’s Xi and Russia’s Putin shifts the spotlight to India’s Modi and Brazil’s Lula.

June 24, 2025

Israel’s war with Iran exposes fragility of Jewish supremacy

Netanyahu’s government is ceding violence against its own people in order to obscure its lack of political power.

June 23, 2025

The unravelling of American exceptionalism: The inevitable decay of hegemony built on crassness - Part 1

In early May 2025, as Roman Catholic Cardinals gathered to pick the next Pope, US President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of him as the Pope shortly after saying, “I would like to be Pope.”

May 12, 2025

Recognising and embracing AI in research

Artificial intelligence and human endeavour can work together in harmony to reshape scholarly work.

May 31, 2025

Australian whistleblower David McBride’s appeal rejected

The Australian Government whistleblower is headed back to jail with no end in sight to his incarceration. He is serving nearly six years for leaking documents to the media exposing Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.

May 20, 2025

After the victory: Kelty’s warning and why it’s still not enough

The Labor Party has just secured a resounding second-term mandate – defying forecasts, media pessimism and internal doubts.

July 19, 2025

The collapse of civilisation

Days after turning 100, former Malaysian prime minister Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad posted his reflections on the state of the world.

June 12, 2025

Australia should use its power as an independent voice to push for peace

Australia occupies a unique position in the global landscape, bridging East and West both geographically and culturally. Yet it continues to underuse its potential as an independent, peace-building voice in international affairs.

May 19, 2025

The vanishing elders of Australian politics

Australia is ageing. An estimated 14% of our population is now over the age of 70 – more than one in seven citizens.

April 9, 2025

‘Selling a pup’: Is this election a populist contest after Trump?

In 2025, after nearly 50 years of global neoliberalism since Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, the rich have got richer and inequalities have grown.

August 9, 2025

Israeli military plans to occupy Gaza City in major escalation of war

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military occupation of Gaza City, located in the north of the Palestinian enclave.

June 27, 2025

How lobbyists are blocking bans on advertising for online gambling – and putting young Australians at risk

Two years ago this week, the late Labor MP Peta Murphy tabled a landmark parliamentary report — You Win Some, You Lose More — calling for a phased ban on gambling advertising.

June 3, 2025

Malaysia keeps fractious ASEAN family together

Kudos to Malaysia. Putrajaya has just finished hosting the 46th ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur over six days. Judging from the attendance, statements and declarations, the summit was a great success.

May 21, 2025

Beijing’s global vision takes shape in Africa

Mao Zedong once famously declared that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. But almost a century later, China realises that triumphing in an increasingly multipolar world also requires shaping public opinion. Accordingly, Beijing is rearranging its foreign policy outlook – especially in Africa.

July 11, 2025

Not waving, drowning – Indonesia may lose warming battle

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a flooding: With apologies to T. S. Eliot

August 19, 2025

The response to recognition

The recognition of the State of Palestine by Australia, leading, it is hoped, to full UN member state status, is an important development.

June 2, 2025

Tariff shockwaves: Indonesia’s export strategy under fire

While trade negotiation between Indonesia and the US is still underway, the archipelago must reassess its non-tariff measures to address US concerns while ensuring fair trade practices and maintaining economic stability.

May 30, 2025

Three ways to support young people with mental ill-health

The social and economic cost of youth mental ill-health in Australia is a burning issue that will persist unless we urgently and actively change the way the system interacts with young people and their families.

May 29, 2025

Aid cuts resulting in a more unkind and unsafe world

More than 305 million people need humanitarian assistance globally today – a staggering number that has almost trebled over the past decade.

May 6, 2025

P&I authors expose Israeli atrocities, but with what effect?

In his emotional victory speech after winning the 3 May election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese referred to Australian values such as kindness, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong described him as a man of compassion.

August 10, 2025

The Russians’ lost plot: will they find serenity or are they dreaming?

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Canberra Theatre. Patrons are advised that, for tonight’s performance of The Castle, the role of Mr Darryl Kerrigan will be played by Mr Vladimir Putin.”

June 10, 2025

‘Deadly’ sports diplomacy: why Australia’s Indigenous people must be a part of our sports strategy

The fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have practised sports diplomacy for more than 60,000 years is a powerful story.

July 18, 2025

Sectarian tension, Israeli intervention: What led to the violence in Syria?

Israel continues to bomb Syria, ostensibly in support of Druze forces in the southwest, even after ceasefire is declared.

June 4, 2025

International observers find Philippine mid-term elections not free and fair

In September 2023, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to upgrade the relationship between the two countries from “comprehensive” to “ strategic” partnership.

May 8, 2025

The Coalition is killing the Liberal Party

The 2008 merger of the Liberal and National parties of Queensland to form the Liberal National Party (Queensland) initially had little impact outside the Sunshine State.

April 16, 2025

Giving birth to the new international order

The multipolar world will be born when the geopolitical weight of Asia, Africa, and Latin America matches their rising economic weight.

August 6, 2025

Israel activates its cells – the Kostakidis case

The conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism is the test in the Zionist lobby case against Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis for her Gaza reporting and the outcome will be of great international significance, says Joe Lauria.

July 27, 2025

Defining antisemitism and bringing the killing to an end

In a homily delivered last Sunday Frank Brennan said the best way to counter antisemitism is by extending hospitality to the stranger and to all work to end the killing.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal