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.

October 5, 2025

Hedges Report: NPC Australia caves to Israel Lobby, cancels talk on our betrayal of Palestinian journalists

The National Press Club of Australia cancelled my talk on how the media, by amplifying Israeli lies, have betrayed Palestinian journalists, 278 of whom have been assassinated by Israel.

September 10, 2025

The price of genocide: How US funding sustains an unravelling Israeli economy

In an important step toward the economic isolation of Israel due to its genocide in Gaza, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global has decided to divest from yet more Israeli companies.

August 22, 2025

Statement by former NSW Premier and Foreign Minister Hon Bob Carr

Israel’s decision under its fanatic ethno-nationalist government to both approve more West Bank settlements and invade Gaza City now tragically defines the whole Zionist project: a 70-year campaign to purge Palestinians and create a greater Israel. Netanyahu’s criminality now defines Israel’s mission and recasts its history.

September 28, 2025

America’s democratic decline

As Donald Trump’s second term as president unfolds, his authoritarian tendencies and autocratic proclivities are increasingly cast into sharp relief.

August 26, 2025

Australia and Taiwan caught between Trump and Xi’s great-man fantasies

If there was any doubt in Canberra that the traditional political alignment with the US is in turmoil, the past week or so confirms it irrefutably.

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.

September 21, 2025

Magical alchemy: Arundhati Roy’s compelling memoir illuminates a ‘restless, unruly’ life

“She was my shelter and my storm.” With these words in the opening pages of her memoir, Arundhati Roy unfurls a narrative of extraordinary filial bonds that renders trite those therapeutic memoirs of family dysfunction scattered across the publishing world.

September 15, 2025

Message from the editor

It seemed almost too much to look back to the events of 9/11 in New York, when there is so much killing and grief swirling the globe now.

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.

September 23, 2025

The Liberal Party's economic strategy

Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley claims too many of us are too dependent on government. But where is the evidence, with government income support in Australia being more tightly targeted than in any other country?

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.

September 29, 2025

Goodbye petrostates, hello ‘electrostates’: How the clean energy shift is reshaping the world order

For more than a century, global geopolitics has revolved around oil and gas. Countries with big fossil fuel reserves, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, have amassed significant wealth and foreign influence, helping shape the world order.

September 12, 2025

A nation of narcissists

Narcissism is the open-and-shut condition of the elites who fashion and execute American foreign policy. And they are utterly incapable of seeing their country as it is.

August 30, 2025

Ditch AUKUS Pillar One. It involves Australia too much in US strategy

Defence Minister Richard Marles said in June that if war broke out between the US and China, Australia would inevitably be involved.

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.

September 25, 2025

Hamas is better than us

This headline could get me jail time if, as reported, the New Zealand Government is planning to take the same authoritarian turn that the UK has sunk to with its proscription of Palestine Action. It would represent another dangerous conflation of protest with terrorism.

September 20, 2025

Genocide betrays the living and the dead

Genocide scholars Damir Mitric and Jill Klein have deep personal and professional experience in genocide and repercussions across generations. As the world watches in horror as the genocide in Gaza continues, they bring us their story.

September 1, 2025

Message from the editor

Off the back of last week’s huge protests for Palestine in Australia, the global movement to end the genocide continues to grow.

August 28, 2025

Managing a mature Australia-China relationship

The Australia–China bilateral relationship remains strong, despite Australian concerns about China’s commitment to a free and open rules-based trading system. Trump’s disruptive tariffs demonstrate that Australia must balance its relationship with the United States while ramping up cooperation on regional economic and trade issues with China.

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.

September 3, 2025

Israel, hasbara, antisemitism and Iran

Not long after the Hamas attack of nearly two years ago, I began perceiving a pattern. With Israel’s reprisal accelerating and Gazan deaths climbing, the near unanimous support for Israel in countries like Australia was starting to crumble.

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.

June 7, 2025

Talk of a two-state solution may not go much further

A two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem has not been mentioned for ages, but was revived recently. However, it may end with just that – talk.

July 10, 2025

Tariff deadline extended as Trump’s trade talks falter

It was supposed to be 90 trade deals in 90 days, turbocharged by the threat of ‘ Liberation Day’ tariffs.

April 28, 2025

A couple of seats that could go against the anti-Dutton grain

“The people have spoken.” “We have a clear mandate.” Really? In many cases, like the landslides of 1975 and 1996, the above quotes are undoubtedly true. But in others, like 1984 and 1998, I’m not so sure.

April 24, 2025

Yes, we do need a population plan

Abul Rizvi rightly argues that “ we desperately need a population plan to enable better planning for our future by governments at all levels, and businesses”.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal