April 26, 2025

The myth of the US good cop

As Donald Trump destroys the old world order a new myth is taking hold: before Trump, it is said, America benevolently provided the defence for the Western world, policing rogue states and promoting international free trade.

April 11, 2025

China exposes US as targeting mobile communications

In March 2024, the United States and its Five Eyes allies sounded the alarm over “Volt Typhoon”, an alleged Chinese hacking group cast as a dire threat to Western critical infrastructure.

May 5, 2025

Andrew Bolt's cynical attack on faith

On Sky News (22 April), Andrew Bolt credited Anthony Albanese with a brilliant, if devious, election ploy.

July 8, 2025

Political unrest, French negotiations and decolonisation in New Caledonia

New Caledonia stands at a precipice. Political representatives from this French Territory are meeting in Paris to try to eke out an agreement over its political future in the dark shadow of the violence of 2024 that saw New Caledonia burn and 14 people — 12 Kanaks and two French military — killed.

May 2, 2025

Australian nationalism and sovereignty

There is little in the way of an Australian nationalism in contemporary Australia and to the extent there is, it is underpinned by racism.

April 7, 2025

Trump’s lying Band of Brothers

We know that Donald Trump is not fit to be sitting in the White House. He is a dangerously disordered president, and we have observed enough aberrant behaviour to fill a psychiatric text book.

June 14, 2025

Observations from Xinjiang

Having been fortunate enough to have made three separate trips to Xinjiang over 15 years, I believe some observations may be of interest to P&I readers.

June 18, 2025

Addressing our wicked problems

If there is one thing that the literature agrees on it is that wicked problems “…are particularly challenging as they transcend the borders of traditional policy domains, involve a wide variety of actors across different scale levels and resist our attempts to solve them”.

April 14, 2025

Cross the vengeful Israeli lobby at your peril

The “them” in the title of this article is the all-too-powerful, vengeful Israeli lobby in Washington DC and those who do its bidding.

June 17, 2025

Why targeted measures on Israeli officials won’t stop the war in Gaza

On 14 June 2025, five Western nations — Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, and the United Kingdom — jointly imposed sanctions on two senior Israeli ministers: Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

April 9, 2025

Averting Iranian nuclear crisis calls for return to diplomacy

The Iranian nuclear crisis has reached a critical point. The JCPOA**,** or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement reached in 2015 to keep Iran’s nuclear program peaceful, will expire in October.

April 23, 2025

Beyond fear and false choices: Why loyalty to the major parties is no longer tenable

It’s time for Muslims and allies to vote with principle, not fear.

May 8, 2025

Catholics, social policy and the Common Good

The federal election campaign of 2025 was an interlude. Politicians, advocacy groups and the commentariat all had their lists of issues, but where were the big initiatives? The grand narratives?

April 17, 2025

Australia’s innovation system needs new partners

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

May 6, 2025

Allied health devil in aged care reform detail

As Kathy Eagar discussed, positive reforms to the Australian aged care system are somewhat undercut by bigger costs for older people and increasing privatisation via the new Support at Home program.

July 2, 2025

Five books the Bible could do without

When ancient scriptures continue to shape modern ideology and policy, especially where harm is done, it becomes necessary to ask: do all parts of the Bible deserve to be treated as sacred?

April 25, 2025

A school debate that didn’t happen

The likelihood that Australia’s public schools will be fully funded hasn’t eased growing discomfort about our failed hybrid public/private system.

July 10, 2025

The end of multilateralism

The recent unilateral strikes by the United States on Iran’s nuclear development sites underline the fact that multilateralism is dead, and has been so for some time.

June 4, 2025

Why psychologists can't clearly say what they’re trained to do

I am a registered psychologist with extensive additional training in advanced trauma modalities. But under Australia’s current advertising guidelines for health practitioners, I am unable to say that clearly in public-facing communication.

May 3, 2025

A fistful of dollars: The dumbing down of Australian election campaigns

We are mugs. This seems to be the first assumption behind most Australian election campaigns.

June 23, 2025

The real national emergency: Endless wars, failing infrastructure and a dying republic

Seventy years after President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about the cost of a military-industrial complex, America is still stealing from its own people to fund a global empire.

June 19, 2025

'Cakes of coal, volumes of gas': Australia accused of being climate wrecker as it seeks to host COP31

Australia has been “two-faced” by pushing to host the UN-backed COP31 climate conference in 2026 even as it has been approving massive new oil, gas and coal projects, an international climate group says.

May 9, 2025

The steady-state economy: Why we need it and how it could be progressed

A common factor underlying several of Australia’s major problems — housing, inadequate public transport, slow response to the climate crisis, loss of biodiversity, water shortage, pollution and deforestation — is the growth in consumption. Yet it is receiving negligible attention from the government and Opposition.

April 10, 2025

To Australia’s 'realists': Gnothi seauton (Know yourself)

In international relations, realism is a theory that views world politics as a competition among self-interested states vying for power and security within an anarchic global system, emphasising national interests and the potential for conflict.

July 14, 2025

Antisemitism Plan sparks fierce debate over free speech, racism, and political agendas

At a press conference in Sydney on Wednesday 10 July 2025, the Special Envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, together with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke launched the National Action Plan to Combat Antisemitism in order to address antisemitic hate, especially in the wake of intensified community tensions following the war in Gaza.

July 17, 2017

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Malcolm gazes at broad church

Just about the last thing Malcolm Turnbull did before leaving Australia last week was to inveigh against his colleagues navel gazing.

July 12, 2025

Albanese’s China mission – managing a complex relationship in a world of shifting alliances

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leaves for China on Saturday, confident most Australians back the government’s handling of relations with our most important economic partner and the leading strategic power in Asia.

July 11, 2025

Every day is a bad day to visit China, apparently

Meeting the Chinese president is apparently now treason. At least, that’s what you’d think if you followed some of our media’s coverage of Anthony Albanese’s latest diplomatic sin: talking to Beijing.

July 18, 2017

ALISON BROINOWSKI. Beware, armed response.

If Turnbulls plan becomes law and the prospects of the Opposition stopping anything to do with fighting terrorism are remote we can expect a terrorist attack to trigger an emergency response from the Special Operations Command, whose officers will have to be trained to shoot to kill other Australians.

July 13, 2025

Environment: Ocean acidification has left the safe zone for humans

Seven of the nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed. Civil society calls for major reform of COP meetings. Big banks fund Australian deforestation. China leaving USA behind in the energy transition.

July 15, 2025

The politics of a police criminal organisation

In 1972, police at an Aboriginal settlement at Papunya, several hundred kilometres west of Alice Springs, closed down a travelling Slim Dusty concert after some of the young men somehow got access to alcohol and became drunk.

September 20, 2014

Secrecy and Propaganda.

Yesterday Richard Ackland in theGuardian.com highlighted the way that the media cooperated with the government in the propaganda about raids on potential Muslim terrorists in Sydney and Melbourne. Both the NSW and Commonwealth Governments spared no effort to highlight the raids. What a contrast this is to the secrecy of ‘on water matters’ in Operation Sovereign Borders.

Richard Ackland’s article can be found on the following link

John Menadue.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/19/sydney-dawn-counter-terrorism-raids-why-now-and-why-so-few-answers

July 19, 2017

ANDREW FARRAN. The Fall of Mosul and Raqqa opens the door for Australias exit from the Middle East

Now that ISIS has for all intents and purposes been driven out of Mosul and Raqqa the time has come for the Australian government to step back and review its diplomatic policies, and military commitments, in that region and focus back on the region of primary concern: East and Southeast Asia and the Southern Pacific**.** Whatever becomes of Trump himself there is little likelihood of the US reverting to the status quo ante as existing under the Bush and Obama administrations.

July 31, 2017

DUNCAN MACLAREN. The UK heads towards a cliff.

I_f Australia were the UK and heading for a suicidal plunge off an economic, social and cultural cliff-face, wouldnt you be worried?_

July 15, 2025

Australian parliamentarians urgently need lessons in international law

As the new Parliament returns this month, it is timely to ask just how many Australian parliamentarians need urgent instruction in international law and how it impacts on government decision-making which complies with the United Nations rules-based order developed by the efforts of so many nations since 1945.

July 12, 2025

Netanyahu leaves Washington without a Gaza ceasefire, just like he wanted

Benjamin Netanyahu is sabotaging talks, hoping Donald Trump will blame Hamas if negotiations fail.

July 13, 2025

Kostakidis to go before court, after judiciary recognises anti-Zionism is not antisemitism

Mary Kostakidis should hold her head up high right now, because of all the Australian journalists who are honestly calling out the holocaust that Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians.

July 11, 2025

'It is not antisemitic to criticise Israel,' says Federal Court judge – and the Executive Council of Jewry agrees!

In the light of the revelations in the Lattouf v ABC decision about the way in which the Israel lobby hounded the ABC, the judgment in the recently decided Federal Court case Wertheim & Goot v Haddad is both significant, “interesting” and certainly more than revelatory.

July 14, 2025

Trump is single-handedly slaughtering America’s ‘exorbitant privilege’

The US president is systematically destroying faith in the dollar in global financial markets and among governments and central banks.

November 3, 2019

ARTHUR CHESTERFIELD-EVANS. Government Inaction may be a significant cause of Australias World-Leading Cancer Rates

Australia has the highest rate for cancer according to the World Cancer Research Fund[1]. At 468 /100,000 we are 7% ahead of NZ (who have 438), 33% ahead of the US (352), 40% ahead of Canada (334), 47% ahead of the UK (319), 59% ahead of Sweden (295) and 89% ahead of Japan (248)[2]. It might also be noted that Australia has gone from a rate of 383 in 1982 to 468 in 2019, a 22% increase.

July 31, 2017

IAN MCAULEY. Can Labor hold its nerve on tax reform?

Shorten has brought tax reform to the political arena. Lets hope the Labor Party doesnt go to water between now and the next election, because we need more public revenue and a fairer and less distortionary tax system.

July 17, 2017

HENRY REYNOLDS. January 26?

When we examine the violations of law when the British took possession of eastern Australia in 1788, its little wonder that a growing number of people are seeking a date other than January 26 to celebrate Australia Day.

July 13, 2025

Mahmoud Khalil to sue Trump admin for US$20m over 'unconstitutional' detention

“There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power,” said Khalil. “And I won’t stop here.”

July 12, 2025

US, China and Australia – an open letter to the PM

Dear PM Albanese, on Monday 30 June, the Chinese Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, had a letter published in The Australian entitled “China and Australia are friends, not foes. This should never have been in question.” It’s best to read the full version on China’s Embassy website.

July 15, 2025

'No' to Jillian Segal's antisemitism action plan

Representing Jews Against the Occupation ’48 (JAO48), I would like to share our response to Jillian Segal’s “antisemitism action plan”. In short: we reject it.

July 11, 2025

The fanatic’s gaze: Louis Theroux and the West Bank settlers

He has made it his bread and butter for years: finding society’s kooky representatives, the marginal, the crazed and the touched.

July 31, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Another fine mess the constitution has got us into.

We bar dual citizenship from the parliament, but the head of it the Queen of England one who presides over ceremonial openings when she happens to be in the country, is not only a dual but a multiple citizen herself.

July 14, 2025

Peter Russell-Clarke’s greatest gift was how he made you feel like one of the family

Throughout my teenage years, our lounge room sang “Come and get it, come and get it” and all in earshot would carol back, “with Peter. Russell. Clarke!”

July 18, 2017

IAN MCAULEY. The National Partys Dmmerung an awakening for representative democracy?

The National Party represents a declining demographic with values out of step with most Australians. In most democracies it would be sidelined as a fringe group. It holds disproportionate political influence only because we are not facing up to the need to break from our dysfunctional polarised political system.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal