May 15, 2025

Is government a good 'parent' to foster kids?

Australian Governments have an opportunity to make a huge positive difference in the lives of the young people who grow up in its care. All that is needed is one simple change.

July 7, 2025

Achieving health equity in Australia

The recently launched World Report on the Social Determinants of Health Equity, by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2025), paints a stark picture of the differences in ill-health, poor well-being, disease and mortality within and between countries, that arise from unfair and avoidable social conditions.

June 25, 2025

'It changes everything': Plunging costs of PV and batteries mean 24-hour solar a growing reality

The plunging cost of solar PV and battery storage has opened up a new frontier in the transition to green energy, according to a new report, with cities and industries around the world now able to access low-cost, 24-hour solar generation.

July 2, 2025

Research misconduct: Strengthening Australia’s research integrity system

A new book, Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s by Charles Piller is a deeply dispiriting story. Dispiriting in particular, as it yet again tells a story of harmful unchecked research misconduct.

June 2, 2025

Where's Tony? Minister for the arts keep low profile

When glancing across the faces of the new Albanese ministry, you’d be forgiven if you couldn’t name the minister for the arts.

April 11, 2025

Probing Thatcher’s role in Golden Temple massacre

Phil Miller reports on efforts to spur the Labour Government to investigate British complicity in a massacre of Sikh pilgrims by Indian troops 40 years ago.

June 27, 2025

All politics is global: The meaning of Zohran Mamdani’s insurgent victory

Andrew Cuomo’s attempt at a comeback served as a case study in civic fragility, hypocrisy, party loyalty, and political amnesia.

June 16, 2025

Prefab collaboration between Australia and China could help tackle housing shortages

Imagine a “Lego city,” swiftly assembled yet unshakeably strong, its steel modules secured to solid foundations and reinforced with seismic bracing, expertly engineered for both speed and strength.

May 12, 2025

In memory of the Marshall Plan – a primer for Gen Z

The attack on Pearl Harbour led to an enormous volume of United States resources being committed to the war against Nazi Germany.

April 30, 2025

The Fall of Saigon 1975: Quiet mutiny – the US Army falls apart - Part 2

_Vietnam is a conflict from which we should have learnt – but never did – about the immorality, folly and counter-productivity of imperial war.

May 14, 2025

What should Labor do with its majority?

The defining tension of Labor’s second term in office will be over how to interpret the landslide victory.

April 30, 2025

A peace reflection after Easter, remembering Pope Francis and Anzac Day

After resurrection, Jesus gives peace to those who are anxious about their lives. [John 20.19] This divine peace is a beautiful gift and one to be shared.

May 21, 2025

False balance persists in ABC Palestine coverage

In December 2024, I presented an analysis of more than 450 interviews concerning Palestine and Israel on ABC Radio National Breakfast, since 7 October 2023. During this period, the host was Patricia Karvelas. Her last show was on Friday, 13 December.

July 5, 2025

Ocasio-Cortez calls Trump's budget bill 'deal with the devil'

“It explodes our national debt, it militarises our entire economy, and it strips away healthcare and basic dignity of the American people. For what? To give Elon Musk a tax break and billionaires the greedy taking of our nation.”

May 26, 2025

The vampire kangaroo legacy

The Financial Times has reported that Macquarie (also known in Britain as the Vampire Kangaroo) has told investors it was “very proud’ of its record as the owner of Thames Water – the company it sold seven years ago.

May 9, 2025

Re-elected Albanese Govt must condemn Israel's brutality and cut ties

On 5 May, the Israeli Parliament approved plans to annex and occupy Gaza. These plans have been discussed for months. This is a blatant mission to ethnically cleanse Gaza, advancing Israel’s colonial intentions to take over the territory and rid it of Palestinians.

June 14, 2025

Democracy in the City of Melbourne: Some voters are more equal than others

Now that the dust has settled on the 2024 City of Melbourne council elections, what lessons can be learned?

May 10, 2025

The need for depressive realism and a forgotten type of truth-telling

Prolonged observation of domestic and global politics reveals a world that is continually being shaped by radical contingency and surrounded by absurdity. Other conditions can be seen, but the two just mentioned are the regnant operational conditions.

June 28, 2025

China’s partnership with Muslim world is redrawing global landscape

Once seen as unlikely partners, this axis is now grounded in respect, sovereignty and a shared aspiration for a post-Western world order.

June 20, 2025

Humanitarian visa processing – Is it who you know, rather than what you know? Part 2

Is this how we want our visa processing system to run?

April 15, 2025

In a broken world, China-Japan-Korea co-operation is Asia’s backbone

By blending economic might, technological prowess and cultural bonds, co-operation can be elevated into a transformative, inspiring force.

May 22, 2025

Factional comfort gazumps innovation courage

Sandy Plunkett’s lament in the Australian Financial Review (15/5) over Ed Husic’s sacking as federal industry minister captures a familiar truth: innovation ministries in Canberra are often burial grounds for political ambition. Husic’s fall may have been sealed by factional headwinds, but the deeper problem is that “innovation” in Australia is rarely allowed to mean what it should.

April 7, 2025

Australia should inform itself as to who the real terrorists are

Australians may smirk at the embarrassment of Donald Trump’s neophyte administration over “Signalgate”. Particularly those old enough to remember how our allies punished Canberra for past intelligence scandals and pushed us to set up ASIO.

June 23, 2025

International survey shows 81% back forcing big oil to pay for climate destruction

“People are no longer buying the lies. They see the fingerprints of fossil fuel giants all over the storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires devastating their lives, and they want accountability,” said the head of one green group.

June 6, 2025

The threat to survival of our human species is now desperately serious

It is now, nearly three years, since I published an opinion piece in a number of Australian newspapers, entitled; “ Human Extinction isn’t Inevitable, Yet…”

May 1, 2025

Vietnam goes big in its sprint to 2030

Vietnam’s General Secretary To Lamo is leading an “era of national rise” towards 2030, striving for institutional reform and rapid economic growth to break Vietnam out of the middle-income trap.

May 8, 2025

Will Labor live up to the values of Australians?

In his victory speech on election night, Anthony Albanese emphasised his commitment to “Australian values”, singling out “fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all, the strength to show courage in adversity, and kindness to those in need".

June 12, 2025

South Korea’s president faces tough balancing act between allies, adversaries

Lee Jae-myung has to deal with a North Korea emboldened by strengthened ties with Russia and must consider the stances of the US, Japan and China.

May 27, 2025

Dee Madigan and the art of the possible: Branding progress or boxing it in?

In the pantheon of contemporary Australian political strategists, few have the profile — or the punch — of Dee Madigan.

May 20, 2025

Israel's new Gaza operation should be called 'Chariots of Genocide'

About 70 people from dawn to noon on Wednesday. Almost twice the number of those killed in the massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz. Twenty-two of them were children, and 15 were women. The previous evening, 23 were killed in a hospital.

May 19, 2025

The Trump coalition wants to end democracy as we know it

Four groups aim to degrade our one-person-one-vote election system so a few billionaires and certain religious zealots can consolidate their political power.

May 28, 2025

Ley’s impossible task – Leading a party at war with its future

The future of the centre-right in Australia may depend on whether Sussan Ley can weather the current storm.

July 1, 2025

Murdoch’s News Corp has moved into the mortgage business. Where are the regulators?

If you want to advertise a house online in Australia, you don’t have many options. Just two companies dominate the market.

May 2, 2025

Marco Rubio and the death of diplomacy

There is no more important or prestigious cabinet position than the secretary of state.

April 28, 2025

Canada’s Asian dream after America First

In the six months since US President Donald Trump’s re-election, the relentless assault on core democratic principles at home and international institutions and norms has turned the world upside down and inside out for the United States, its friends, allies and adversaries.

June 23, 2025

Pregnancy as a death sentence

Genuine good news stories involving government initiatives are rare. Here’s an exception.

May 7, 2025

Thanks to Trump, China has the cards it needs to win the trade war

Trump’s actions have left nations feeling betrayed while accelerating China’s self-sufficiency. These, plus Beijing’s rare earth dominance, could spell victory.

May 8, 2025

Sino-Vatican ties likely to survive Pope Francis' passing

The death of Pope Francis on 21 April triggered widespread grief. A humble man whose political skills stood him in good stead, he inspired many. Although his doctrinal stances often upset traditionalists, few doubted his integrity.

May 3, 2025

RSL stands up for Welcome to Country while Dutton weaves and dodges

On 25 April, a group of Neo-Nazi protesters booed Uncle Mark Brown’s Welcome to Country at the Melbourne ANZAC Day Shrine service.

June 21, 2025

Australia must turn promising refugee pilots into bold policy to meet the moment

Today, on World Refugee Day 2025, close to one in ten Australians is a refugee or descendant of someone displaced.

April 23, 2025

Trump: the canker that cures?

A strong dose of home-grown fascism, of a uniquely American kind that no one else can be blamed for, may be just what the world needs to bump the US off the destructive path down which it has so often steered so many of its ever so sycophantic friends since World WarII.

May 28, 2025

Trump's second term is taking the US back to the bad old days

“Words mean just what I say they mean", Humpty Dumpty

July 5, 2025

US shift towards Pakistan may unsettle India and the South Asia balance

Islamabad welcomes the opportunity to hedge against China, but New Delhi may well go looking for other, more reliable partners.

May 9, 2025

Zionist lawfare comes for Australian journalist

The Zionist federation of Australia should be recognised as a duplicitous and malicious actor in Australian society and politics.

May 16, 2025

Support at Home: Immediate risks and urgent issues

Australia’s aged care system is gearing up for one of its biggest shake-ups yet. The Support at Home program, set to launch on 1 July, aims to merge existing in-home care arrangements into a single, streamlined, person-centred reform. Or at least, that’s the theory.

July 4, 2025

Iran: The things it won’t do to say

If Thomas Friedman’s fairytale world of light-versus-darkness were to evaporate, less noble motives for US and Israeli actions might be revealed.

July 7, 2025

The deep politics behind Trump’s presidency

It is not easy to find a coherent, positive message in the chaos Donald Trump is sowing, but let me try….

June 4, 2025

China – A country on the move

I have just returned from a four-week holiday in China, my first visit ever. Wow!

May 21, 2025

Australia’s opportunity to lead the world on human survival

_Now that the Australian election is settled, and the government has a handsome working majority, it is surely the moment for voters nationwide to engage actively with elected representatives to set a world-changing agenda in place.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal