April 9, 2025

Nuclear power is not safe, it’s more dangerous than ever

Media and campaign coverage of the rekindled pitch for Australia to embrace nuclear power has focused on the poor economics, the protracted timelines of implementation, and dubious real-world benefits as a climate strategy.

April 26, 2025

Worried about a ‘baby bust’? Then prevent pregnancy ‘wastage’

Hardly a day passes without anxiety-laden news stories about falling birth rates across the globe.

July 9, 2025

For the sake of food security, we must address population numbers

As a child, the thought of other children going to bed hungry upset me. Later, I began university studies in agricultural science with the naïve intent of ridding the world of hunger. It was all about increasing crop yields to ensure that the then 3.1 billion people might be fed.

April 11, 2025

It’s time to rethink socialist principles amid the ruins of neoliberalism

Socialist principles are an unloved entry in the contemporary lexicon of Western political thought.

July 2, 2025

Australia’s decision-makers are ignoring climate, hailing coal and impersonating Elvis

You could barely believe that there is a climate crisis going on. In the same week that climate scientists suggested the world will exhaust its remaining carbon budget within two years, carbon bombs are being set off left, right and centre, or allowed through regulatory hurdles on the promise of buying dodgy offsets.

May 5, 2025

Just not in time

Donald Trump’s tariffs and before-the-border barriers are a de facto self-imposed naval blockade of America that undermines the modern just-in-time economy.

July 10, 2025

Anti-tourism protests are not new. They happened in ancient Rome, 19th-century England and after World War II

This hot European summer, anti-tourism protests have made headlines, from Barcelona to Venice, Mallorca and the Canary Islands. The unrest is not confined to Europe, though.

May 27, 2025

Independence of Timor-Leste judiciary undermined; Doubts continue for Greater Sunrise

The government of Timor-Leste has attracted international media attention because of the proposal to pardon a notorious paedophile prisoner, defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach, four years into his 12-year sentence.

April 29, 2025

The Fall of Saigon 1975: Fifty years of repeating what was forgotten (Part 1)

The first demonstration I ever went to was at 12, against the Vietnam War. The first formal history lesson I received was a few months later when I commenced high school.

June 3, 2025

Chinese jet shoots down France’s best fighter. NZ and Australia should pay attention

For the first time in history, the US and the Western world face a genuine peer competitor in China.

June 25, 2025

Faster than forecast, accelerated warming creates a climate time-bomb for the Albanese government

The physical reality of accelerating climate heating and faster-than-forecast impacts have mugged climate policymaking, which now needs to be rebuilt with up-to-date scientific observations and understandings, and a risk-management approach that gives particular attention to the most-damaging, plausible high-end scenarios.

June 16, 2025

Australia's dependence on the US does not end with Trump

Malcolm Turnbull’s recent Foreign Affairs essay, America’s Allies Must Save Themselves, is a good intervention in the debate about Donald Trump’s impact on global order.

June 26, 2025

Iran’s internet blackout left people in the dark. How does a country shut down the internet?

In recent days, Iranians experienced a near-complete internet blackout, with local service providers — including mobile services — repeatedly going offline. Iran’s Government has cited cyber security concerns for ordering the shutdown.

April 14, 2025

China doesn't need a free kick

Western and Australian observers are suggesting that Donald Trump just gave China a free kick to tilt Asia in its favour. Extending this inaccuracy, they broaden the free kick to include Australia’s Pacific family whose interests and cultures are very different to those of Asia.

June 14, 2025

An algorithm decides whether you have an online life or not

Recently, I lost a Facebook account I’d had for 17 years. It wasn’t just a social media profile — it was a living archive of my life.

April 15, 2025

How to lose friends and help rivals

If the US wanted to thrust Indonesia into the strategic political orbit of China, it couldn’t have found a better way than imposing a 32% tariff on imports from the archipelago.

June 17, 2025

The Israeli-Iranian conflict: geopolitical transformations and the role of Chinese and Russian support

In a world undergoing profound shifts toward multipolarity, the military escalation between Israel and Iran stands out as a clear indicator of the interplay between regional conflicts and the geopolitical interests of global powers.

April 28, 2025

What to do with an ex-president?

In an imaginary situation, members of Australia’s political and miliary elite were in court at the same time defending themselves against allegations of an attempted military coup.

April 17, 2025

Xi pushes for fair trade after Trump tariffs land

After President Donald Trump’s decision to exempt selected electronic goods from tariffs, the gloves are temporarily off between Washington and Beijing. However, though some sanity has returned to the White House, the damage has already been done.

April 8, 2025

Would an Iranian nuke really be so terrible?

Since the Iranian people overthrew the US-backed despotism of the Shah in 1979, Washington’s 4½-decade campaign of maximum pressure has been couched in terms of countering the Islamic Republic’s “destabilisation” of the region.

June 12, 2025

Genocide by starvation

This is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide. It will be over soon. Weeks. At most.

July 8, 2025

Boomers bashing again: Change the rules

A departing editor-at-large from The Australian Financial Review, off to head the IPA, warns of an “intergenerational tragedy” facing young Australians.

June 27, 2025

Japan’s economic security strategy looks beyond the United States

In the face of increasingly uncertain global economic headwinds, Japan is redefining its economic security strategy.

June 19, 2025

The evil phoenix: Quenching the fire of its rebirth

This is a $5 billion scam hurting honest Australians.

May 2, 2025

It’s time for politics to grow up

Politics is nothing like parenting. But there are similarities between the two. I parent two stubborn children and, whether it is the last slice of cake or the smallest serving of vegetables, neither will give way. Ever.

April 16, 2025

The waning of empire: A dispatch from the American decline

In the early months of 2025, the United States of America, once the unchallenged steward of the liberal international order, has taken an abrupt and distinctly operatic turn inward.

April 7, 2025

Where is the 'mature debate' about the health impacts of nuclear power? Informed consent matters

There is a clear disconnect between the claims of the nuclear lobby and the real-world adverse consequences of nuclear energy. Communities, workers and indeed all Australians need accurate information about the health impacts.

May 1, 2025

The key lesson from the US: ‘Merit’ really is the most important public service value

Perhaps the most repeated message at the recent ASPA national conference, in the face of attacks on the civil service by the Trump administration, was the importance of merit-based employment.

April 22, 2025

Silence is no response to slaughter, so at least recognise Palestine

Death, destruction and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and on the West Bank continues. Israeli savagery, lying, and disdain for international law display the depths of inhumanity, but when challenged to show courage by supporting life for Palestinians, the Australian Government remains silent.

June 5, 2025

We must confound the Zionist Lobby

The recent article by John Menadue recounts how far the Zionist Lobby has managed to exercise the leverage — and it is undeniably powerful leverage — of the malignant scourge of antisemitism to further its geopolitical strategy of creating Eretz Israel and thus grasping the rewards that would flow from it.

June 11, 2025

Australia and Japan must link energy and emissions strategies

As the US retreats into industrial protectionism, Australia faces a sobering truth: our most reliable ally may now be our biggest source of volatility.

June 18, 2025

New research shows native forest logging industry going up in smoke

New research published in the leading international journal Nature Communications has added to the growing evidence that native forest logging in Australia is exacerbating wildfire risks.

July 1, 2025

The obscenity of American preaching

One way to get a robust, comparative fix on how obscene American global preaching about human rights has become is (borrowing a vivid image from Caitlin Johnstone) to imagine what the world might think about a scorching lecture from a Taliban leader on the Western oppression of women and women’s rights.

June 24, 2025

Trump’s disruption in Canada leaves the G7 at a crossroads

It could have been worse – much worse. US President Donald Trump’s early exit from Kananaskis and the G7 Summit — that he declared was necessary to deal with the Israel–Iran war — left Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with his summit largely intact.

April 25, 2025

If I were minister for employment services: No more bastardry dressed up as policy

If I were minister for employment services, I’d begin by stating what should already be obvious: Australia’s employment services system is not fit for purpose.

June 5, 2025

Thames Water disaster drags on

The Macquarie Thames Water saga may be coming to an end albeit at great cost – but not, of course, to Macquarie which has reinvested the billions it took out into other things.

May 23, 2025

Why isn’t the UN doing more than talking about Gaza?

You’re not the only one wondering why the United Nations keeps releasing statements while people in Gaza — and other conflict zones — are being killed, starved or displaced. It’s easy to feel like all the UN does is express concern, make speeches and hold meetings….but shouldn’t it be doing something tangible by now?

June 13, 2025

Two remote islands with a common purpose

After a decades-long fight, Prime Minister Starmer in late May gave up Britain’s possession of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, while Australia keeps the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, our most distant Indian Ocean territory. The United States military has continuing use of both.

April 10, 2025

Build, baby, build! But that won’t fix it all

Australia is spending billions trying and still failing to get people into decent homes they can afford. Some more radical options could be on the table.

May 6, 2025

'This ship changes the game': World’s largest all-electric ferry launches in Tasmania

The world’s largest 100% battery electric ship has been officially launched at a shipyard in Hobart and is almost ready for service in South American waters, where it will ferry up to 2100 passengers and 225 vehicles between Argentina and Uruguay.

May 1, 2025

Who holds the better cards – China or the US?

The mainstream Western media and global, alternative media outlets have been delivering a remarkable converging stream of blistering commentary since 2 April on what is now widely called, even by The Economist, Trump’s tariff tantrum.

April 26, 2025

Housing affordability: Which party has better policies?

The housing policies announced in this election by both the Labor and Coalition Parties are seriously flawed.

July 3, 2025

I'd rather a bloodied shark than AI

Until recently, I regarded AI as just another technical assist, a natural enhancement of Google where one finds the perfect word to complete a sentence, or to expand on the broad brush of Wikipedia info.

April 24, 2025

The uniform public utterances of our days

British scholar Leonard Schapiro, writing on Stalinism, observed that “the true object of propaganda is neither to convince nor even to persuade. But to produce a uniform pattern of public utterances in which the first trace of unorthodox thought reveals itself as a jarring dissonance." And it seems that in the current sanctioned discourse, the jarring dissonance is speaking up against a genocide streamed live on our phones.

May 24, 2025

Israeli officials explain balancing act between overt genocide and maintaining Western support

One of the talking points Israel apologists like to regurgitate is that Israel can’t possibly be acting with genocidal intent in Gaza, because if they had wanted to exterminate the Palestinians they could have easily done so in a matter of days.

June 20, 2025

Australian net-zero projects to be rated to prevent greenwashing

Environmental projects will be analysed and rated in Australia in a move experts say could prevent greenwashing and encourage international investments.

May 29, 2025

Whether due to indifference or disinterest, the media colludes with Gaza genocide

Clearly, the Australian media has little interest in reporting on any local reaction to the catastrophe in Gaza.

April 30, 2025

China’s not-so-quiet energy revolution: Towards the world’s first industrial electrostate

In 2023, China increased its deployment of solar and wind energy three-fold. This trend accelerated in 2024, with China installing nearly 65% of the world’s new low emission energy electricity generation.

May 31, 2025

Fiji politics: Generational change is neither optional nor easy

As Fiji inches toward the 2026 general elections, the nation stands at a pivotal juncture.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal