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 29, 2025

A strange thing happened last week on the way to the office of Japan’s prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba

People from the parties that had just tried to vote him out of that office were demanding he stay in that office.

July 22, 2025

Time for Australia to look beyond China and the US

Opportunities for diplomacy in the Indian Ocean will help secure Australia’s future in a multipolar world.

August 5, 2025

Hiroshima anniversary – RAAF flying boat vs atom bomb

In World War II, did Aussie airmen in slow old flying boats do more to stop Japan than America’s atomic bombs – and leave a lesson for today?

July 23, 2025

Will Albanese and Xi “cooperate” to acquire “common ground” in the fullness of time?

China policy and related diplomacy has recently made important progress based on the postponed resolution of apparently hard differences, but how long can the “reservation” of difficulty delay the explicit correction of the separation of economy and security?

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.

August 10, 2025

Spy novelist Stella Rimington, the first female head of MI5, was a ‘true trailblazer’

Dame Stella Rimington, former director-general of the UK’s domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, MI5, and author of several spy thrillers, has died this week, aged 90.

August 13, 2025

Grossly inadequate compensation offered to Kathleen Folbigg

On 5 June 2023, Kathleen Folbigg was released from prison following 20 years of imprisonment after having been wrongfully convicted of killing her four children over a 10-year period.

July 28, 2025

What about the RAAF in the AUKUS equation?

All the commentary about AUKUS is predicated on some kind of conflict with China over Taiwan. That is foolishness personified. But there is another factor that is even more bewildering. Both sides of the argument appear to have forgotten the existence of the RAAF.

July 20, 2025

The world governed from the Black House

In a world where international politics intertwine, the White House stands as a symbol of American power and influence, from which global affairs are managed through the decisions of the current US administration.

August 15, 2025

Albanese’s recognition of a Palestinian state implements a long-held Labor ambition

Those who accuse the Albanese Government of breaking with a historic Labor position of opposing recognition of a Palestinian state are wrong.

July 25, 2025

The penalty for being late is to be doomed forever

Infected by wars and climate change is the other intractable issue: how to help _43 million_ refugees? More than 3,451 _pledges_ to change the mountain-size misery have been made worldwide by governments, NGOs, and individuals, including Australians. The issue is less about gathering signatures, more about turning words into action.

August 7, 2025

Roundtable will fix nothing unless we can all park our self-interest

I’m not sure if it’s happening by accident or design, but we may be about to convince ourselves that, though our democracy isn’t nearly as stuffed up as America’s, we’re fast making ourselves ungovernable, unable to agree on how to fix our problems.

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 30, 2025

Top Australian writers urge Albanese to abolish Job-Ready Graduates, calling their humanities degrees life-changing

“Earning a humanities degree was not only life-changing, in terms of opening up a world of knowledge otherwise beyond my reach, it also turns out to have been enormously productive – for me and many, many people around me,” said Tim Winton this week. “My little arts degree has created jobs and cultural value for over 40 years.”

July 31, 2025

It’s time to talk about AI and national security

The federal government has recently introduced legislation to extend the looming sunset clause on compulsory questioning powers originally granted to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) following the 9/11 terrorism attacks.

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 21, 2025

Let’s combat antisemitism, not use it to dehumanise others - Part 1

The state of Israel’s heinous conduct must not be seen solely as a “Jewish problem”.

August 3, 2025

Is ChatGPT making us stupid?

Back in 2008, The Atlantic sparked controversy with a provocative cover story: Is Google Making Us Stupid?

August 18, 2025

Boots on the ground: Why Australia must support a UN peacekeeper mission to Gaza

Living through a genocide is deeply traumatic.

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.

August 12, 2025

It’s official: A cut in company tax will deliver little benefit at best

Be sure your dodgy modelling will find you out. I’m starting to think economists have become so used to pretending to know more about the economy than they really do, that they don’t notice the way they mislead the rest of us.

August 19, 2025

Bendigo writers' festival fiasco

If it weren’t so serious, it would be laughable. A code of conduct for a writers’ festival?

July 27, 2025

Kazuo Ishiguro said he won the Nobel Prize for making people cry – 20 years later, Never Let Me Go should make us angry

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go was published 20 years ago. Since then, the Japanese-born English writer has been awarded the Nobel Prize in 2017 and knighted for services to literature in 2018.

August 14, 2025

Open letter to Israeli foreign minister Sa’ar

The great threat to Israel’s survival is not the Arab nations, the Palestinians, or Iran, but the policies of Israel’s extremist government.

July 19, 2025

12 years on, are we not yet tired of cruel policies towards asylum-seekers?

In Australia, 2025, Progressive Patriotism is now, apparently, our political modus operandi and, as Anthony Albanese ambitiously explained, it can be “a symbol for the globe in how humanity can move forward”.

August 11, 2025

The British experience with nuclear-powered submarines: Lessons for Australia

My new report prepared for Friends of the Earth Australia demonstrates that the development of a nuclear-powered, conventionally-armed nuclear submarine fleet entails multiple public health risks and would inevitably suffer from delays and cost-blowouts.

July 17, 2025

An ambitious plan to combat antisemitism or an effective plan to silence Israel's critics?

I watched the 7.30 interview with the special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, with mounting alarm. By the end of the interview, I was afraid for the future of Australia.

July 18, 2017

LESLEY HUGHES. Solving the climate crisis: one city at a time

Although Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, many cities in the US (and in Australia) are taking climate change matters into their own hands, thumbing their collective noses at ideological-driven policy paralysis at the federal level.

November 28, 2018

TERRY FEWTRELL. Seems Pope Francis is with the People

The latest letter from Pope Francis greatly empowers Australias Catholics to use their influence and puts heat on the bishops to allow the voices and wisdom of Australian Catholics to be heard seriously.

January 9, 2018

UCANews. Democracy showdown looms in Malaysia

Approaching elections should act as a safety valve in the multi-ethnic nation.

July 25, 2017

FRANK BRENNAN, TIM COSTELLO, ROBERT MANNE and JOHN MENADUE. Stopping Boats and Saving Lives Four Years On ...

How much longer will we continue to punish proven refugees who are our responsibility while they await interminable, uncertain futures in Nauru and Manus Island? Everyone knows that not all the proven refugees will be resettled in the USA even once the USA resumes taking refugees in October 2017. Kevin Rudd first announced the most recent plan for removing unvisaed asylum seekers offshore on 19 July 2013, seven weeks out from the 2013 election. Richard Marles helped with the negotiation of the deal.

July 17, 2017

LAURIE PATTON. NBN: How many more surveys before they get it? We are not impressed!

A raft of surveys have confirmed what everyone knows. Were increasingly unhappy about the rollout of a technically inferior National Broadband Network.

July 31, 2017

JOHN TULLOH. "Hell on earth" lies just across the Indian Ocean

If you travelled from Western Australia north-west across the Indian Ocean, the first country you would encounter has been described as Hell on Earth. You will find there civil war, famine, drought, refugees, destruction and a blockade for starters. Now it has a cholera epidemic. No wonder it has been called the worst story in the world which nobody is talking about.

July 24, 2025

Albanese’s China trip shows ‘stiffening of Canberra’s spine’ in face of US pressure

Beijing rolled out the red carpet for the Australian leader this week and the two sides appeared to keep a lid on tensions.

August 5, 2025

Why every China watcher must be on WeChat

None of this is to glorify WeChat itself – it’s simply the reality of China’s digital ecosystem today.

July 30, 2025

Thai-Cambodia clash and the Thai military’s short leash

The flare-up in fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in the Dangrek Ranges reflects a longstanding disagreement about border demarcation.

July 29, 2025

How Chinese diaspora voters reshape Australian and US politics

Chinese diaspora communities in Australia and the US both face racism and loyalty suspicions under “China threat” narratives, yet their voting has diverged.

August 4, 2025

China is building the world’s biggest hydropower dam. Why is India worried?

China breaks ground on what Premier Li Qiang has called the “project of the century”, but some fear a water conflict and ecological effects.

August 2, 2025

No-one is okay

When you ask me how I am, I will answer with a lie because the truth is too painful to convey.

August 13, 2025

Recognition of the State of Palestine must be combined with principled action to stop Israel’s intensifying genocide in Gaza

The Jewish Council of Australia affirms the Palestinian people’s fundamental right to self-determination – a right that has been systematically denied by the Israeli state.

August 6, 2025

Is the ‘China threat’ real or trumped up?

In recent years, the ‘China threat’ theory has become a prominent theme in Western political discourse.

August 11, 2025

Well-being, health and the Productivity Roundtable

In June 2025 I wrote about the National Well-being Budget and Measuring What Matters. Since then, a lot has happened that deserves attention, particularly with the government’s planned Productivity Roundtable in August.

August 15, 2025

Clinton to Trump: How Putin has met, courted and frustrated US presidents

Vladimir Putin has met five US presidents over 25 years. But jazz and fishing have given way to threats and tension. The Alaska summit will be the Russian leader’s 49th meeting with a US counterpart.

August 12, 2025

Stand with Mary

It’s a privilege to join you today concerning Mary’s court case which is about the most fundamental issues of truth, justice and free speech in a decent society.

August 16, 2025

Fight no longer just in the trenches, it’s in the narrative

Since Cambodia and Thailand signed the ceasefire agreement in Kuala Lumpur on 28 July, Thailand has moved on us in six ways.

July 23, 2025

Denials can’t cloud the truth that Google is complicit in the Gaza genocide

Google and Sergey Brin know their company’s technology is not neutral – it is a pillar of Israel’s machinery of destruction.

July 16, 2025

What Australians think of Trump and the US

While the Murdoch media — and most of the pontificators writing op-eds for the rest of our news outlets — are having conniptions about whether and when Albanese might get a meeting with Trump, it comes at a time when the Australian public have little trust in the US and even less in Donald Trump.

August 18, 2025

Trump denies women in need access to contraception

For several decades, there were major gains globally in access to family planning and reproductive health services.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal