September 27, 2025

US a partner not an enemy, China says – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: Writer warns of US-China collusion “nightmare”. Plus: Trump asks Muslim bloc to back Gaza peace plan; Big US visa fee another blow to Modi; Cambodia’s decline under “dictator” Hun Manet; Progressive, conservative clash in Japan’s leadership race.

September 22, 2025

UN at 80: Transformation holds the key to its future - Part 2

To say the UN is at breaking point may be an overstatement, but there is no denying that only sustained and transformative reform can secure its future. Without such reform, its strengths will dissipate, and its weaknesses will reach new depths.

September 8, 2025

Seven hundred days of genocide: Israel attempts to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and will fail

September 4 marked 700 days since the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which began on 7 October 2023.

September 6, 2025

'Let her voice echo': Hind Rajab film receives record-breaking standing ovation at Venice Festival

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s harrowing drama “The Voice of Hind Rajab” left not a dry eye in the house on Wednesday night, earning over 20 minutes of standing ovation after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

August 3, 2025

Environment: Humans are the wisest mammals, but which have the most biomass?

The biomass of marine mammals is almost double that of land mammals. Clean energy investments are increasing but not quickly enough. Illegal gold mining wreaks havoc on the Amazon’s Indigenous communities and environment.

September 29, 2025

Message from the editor

I am writing from the back of a minibus in Chongqing this week, the mountainous mega city in southwestern China.

September 17, 2025

Fifty years without coups or dictators: How PNG built a durable democracy based on dignity and fairness

On 20 April 1972, 100 newly elected parliamentarians gathered in Port Moresby for the opening of the Third House of Assembly, Papua New Guinea’s legislative body.

August 22, 2025

Pay up, shut up, speak up against China, or we won't get the subs (some wise Americans demand)

Australia’s $368 billion submarine program is apparently wobbling again, not because US shipyards can’t keep up, or because a future president could cancel the deal with the flick of a pen.

October 1, 2025

Age policy is a shambles. Where to from here? Part 1 & 2

Wherever you look, at residential aged care institutions, at retirement village life, at the home support package scheme, or talk to the people over 65 — called “the old” — living at home making no claim on the system, just coping by whatever means they can, this stage of life means grappling with overwhelming challenges.

July 29, 2025

Ley must be saved from drowning over net zero

When Napoleon remarked that one should never interrupt an enemy when it was making a mistake, he was referring to the way the enemy was disposing of his troops, not about the policies and programs with which he proposed to govern. Like all the countries arrayed against him, (even, effectively, England) Napoleon didn’t do elections.

October 3, 2025

We killed our car industry and now we're drafted to fight against Chinese EVs (again?)

The call is getting louder and louder: Australia needs to join allies in restricting Chinese electric vehicles.

September 23, 2025

The stars suggest Albo should stay at home

If I were drafting astrology advice for Anthony Albanese over the next few weeks, I would be hinting that it was the worst possible time for international travel, and that a serious bout of diplomatic flu might be the best way to secure his (and Australia’s) long-term interests.

September 5, 2025

Miners want to go green, then we hear News Corp's 'China!' scream

Another week, another national security threat, cooked freshly with local ingredients, News Corp’s signature technique, a lot of aged China-threat cliché, and a hint of unprofessional typo.

August 14, 2025

Albanese is crying poor, but we’re losing billions a year from untaxed gas

It’s likely much will be said, but little done, at next week’s economic roundtable.

July 24, 2025

Change proposals risk relegating ANU to middle-ranking regional uni

Well known historian and long-time ANU staff member, Frank Bongiorno, says he has never seen, “such a lack of vision, such a vacuum of ideas, such general disorganisation, nor such cavalier decision-making about institutions and programs built up through hard work over decades” in all his years at ANU. He outlined his concerns in this submission to ANU management.

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.

August 8, 2025

Australia needs better China coverage. This ABC story just gave us less

The South China Sea is complicated. The ABC made it simple – and not in a good way. When public media reduces regional disputes to black-and-white, it risks turning policy into performance.

July 17, 2025

Albanese can afford to ignore noises and focus on delivering goods for voters

Although few can fault the prime minister for trying to generate more imports and exports with our biggest trading partner, everyone — ranging from an obscure Chinese social media influencer wannabe to Australian opposition luminaries such as Barnaby Joyce — has an opinion about the visit, and everyone seems to be ready to offer the prime minister a wealth of warnings and free advice.

September 15, 2025

Essential APS reform – more to do

It is hard not to fear that the Albanese Government has decided not to pursue the further reforms to the APS it promised during its first term in office.

August 2, 2025

Trump trashes India, boosts Pakistan over oil – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: India and Russian are “dead economies”. Plus: Border clash ceasefire a test for ASEAN; Populist Right rising in Japan; Jakarta wants all nations to follow France’s Palestine lead; Pyongyang “not interested” in easing tensions; Kashmir pilgrimage a “river of humanity”

September 14, 2025

Environment: Earth is getting hotter faster thanks to humans

We’ll look back on 2024 as the year we sailed passed 1.5. Marine heatwaves in 2024 and 2025 seriously damaged the Great Barrier Reef, again. Insufficient land and money to create enough new forests to offset carbon emissions. Iceland sends a letter to the future.

September 4, 2025

Messiness in spookdom: Australia's Iran Contra deal

With the prime minister’s announcement of the expulsion of the Iranian Ambassador, Australia now has its own Iran Contra scandal.

August 18, 2025

Has Labor abandoned major tax reform?

No policy area in Australia is in greater need of major reform than taxation.

August 28, 2025

Have Trump’s cuts made Australians kinder? 2025 aid attitudes survey

Aid hasn’t been an easy sell in Australia. In all the surveys we’ve run since 2015, more respondents have thought Australia gave too much aid than thought it gave too little. In our 2024 survey, 40% of respondents said Australia gave too much, while only 22% said it gave too little.

August 7, 2025

Mike Burgess on the ASIO soapbox, again

Those with a regard for their welfare would do well not to get between ASIO chief, Mike Burgess, and a soapbox.

October 2, 2025

Government secrecy 2, the public interest 0. Again

When it comes to keeping a tight rein on information, the Albanese Government does a great job of practising what it preaches.

July 18, 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.

August 17, 2025

Environment: 18th century vicar describes controlled burning in English countryside

English farmers used controlled burns of gorse 300 years ago. Too hot and dry even for cacti. Urbanisation induces genetic evolution in birds. China powering ahead with the roll out of wind and solar.

October 5, 2025

A fresh perspective on climate

The climate wars rage on interminably. A new perspective might help us see the way forward more clearly.

August 30, 2025

Furious Modi rejects Trump’s phone calls – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: India turns its attention to Japan and China. Plus: Trump wants US to own land used for bases in Korea; Despair turning young refugees to armed insurrection; Beijing pushing AI as next growth-engine; Manila ramps up its anti-China stance; The wounds that time cannot heal.

July 18, 2025

Round up the usual Chinese suspects

It’s a big week for headlines – and an even bigger week for fear. With Prime Minister Albanese landing in China, our media wasted no time rounding up their usual suspects.

September 12, 2025

If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything

A 9 September editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald, titled China and Australia in a high-speed race to win control of the Pacific, offered a vivid picture of the daily contest for influence in the region.

September 16, 2025

AFP won’t look in the mirror of a murder of one of their own

It is nearly 37 years since assistant commissioner Col Winchester, head of the ACT arm of the Australian Federal Police, was shot twice in the head soon after he drove his car into the driveway alongside his Deakin home.

September 13, 2025

Why key leaders attended China’s military parade – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: Nations “must adapt” to new power politics. Plus: Raid “will hurt” South Korea’s US investments; Trump’s strategic shift towards Pakistan; What’s next after Nepal’s 8 September massacre; Thailand gets its first minority government; Why India has the world’s biggest diaspora.

July 23, 2025

Vale John Deeble - an architect of Medicare

Following John Menadue’s refection on 50 years of Medicare this week, many have raised the contribution of John Deeble. Below is an edited version of a 2018 tribute to the man without whom the scheme would not have been possible.

August 12, 2025

The long hand of your country of origin

When the Soviet communist agent Vladimir Petrov was sent to Australia by a predecessor of the KGB in 1951, he was not tasked with stealing Australian and Western defence and diplomatic secrets.

August 9, 2025

Eighty years with the bomb: How long can our luck continue?

It cannot be said too often that it is only sheer dumb luck that has enabled the world to avoid for 80 years a repeat of the indescribable horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

September 18, 2025

How to get Albanese up for the Nobel Peace Prize

Why on earth is the prime minister boasting about having “really warm” phone chats with the oaf who is now the president of the United States?

August 1, 2025

Britain’s back, China’s the target. We’ll likely pay the price again

Britain’s HMS Prince of Wales has docked in Darwin, flanked by other warships and declarations.

September 24, 2025

Treaty delay shows Australia still thinks it knows what’s best for PNG

The Albanese Government appears to want to force Pacific countries into choices they do not want to make.

September 11, 2025

Trump: Russia, India are ‘lost to deepest, darkest China’. Guess who did this, Donald?

Biden, Trump and the leaders of Western Europe have succeeded by their incoherent behaviour in doing what would have been unimaginable 20 years ago: alienating the very nations that they most needed to keep on their side. They are now weeping into their beer (or Diet Coke, in The Donald’s case).

September 26, 2025

The poisonous chalice of recognition: A double-edged sword for Palestine

While we should not regard it as a “historical moment” or a “game changer”, the recognition does have the potential to help Palestinians lead us into a different future.

August 29, 2025

Australia is one trade deal away from backing authoritarians, says Taiwan

In the grand tradition of diplomatic overreach, Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister recently offered some sweet and spicy talking points to our media: semiconductors are tanks, China is akin to WWII Germany, and if Australia doesn’t fast-track Taiwan into the CPTPP, we might all wake up speaking Mandarin under a fascist AI regime, as reported by News Corp and 7 News.

August 6, 2025

Once Australia was important to Indonesia

Happy birthday, monster neighbour. Er, do we know you? We’re strangers here – our proper place is mid-Atlantic, ‘twixt the Old World and the New. However, we’re trying hard to cope by promoting trade and investment, while ignoring endemic _corruption_ and avoiding deep involvement.

July 28, 2025

An Australian pathway to productivity, resilience and budget sustainability

The wisdom of serious reform: The forthcoming August 2025 Government Roundtable seeks a better future for all Australians. And, indeed, our society has well-known and well documented lists of policies that can reliably deliver on that desired outcome.

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 19, 2025

Trump makes tariffs example of Korea, Japan – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: No trade deal exceptions for US allies. Plus: An expert in a government of flunkies; Sex-scandal monks had lives of status and privilege; Corruption stymies Myanmar earthquake recovery; Anwar’s leadership glow starting to fade; ‘Comrade’ is out-of-fashion in Communist China.

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.

August 10, 2025

Environment: Decisive action needed to avoid unmanageable climate tipping points

Global climate tipping points are getting closer, creating danger zones for the biosphere and human societies. Naturally regenerating forests must be left to grow for longer. The North Atlantic Ocean has swapped cod for nanoplastics.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal