September 11, 2025

A good captain can stop this Senator’s social cohesion ‘Titanic’

After the largest public rally with racist associations for migrants we have witnessed since the demise of the White Australia policy, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comments really hurt.

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.

September 28, 2025

Two rights experts to address Press Club on Palestine recognition

Two globally renowned figures in the field of human rights will address the National Press Club in Canberra on 1 October on the topic “Palestine recognition: necessary but insufficient”.

September 23, 2025

Saudi-Pakistani military pact: what does it change?

On the face of it, the mutual defence pact ceremoniously concluded between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan last week primarily formalises an arrangement that has been in place for six decades or so. However, the fraught regional outlook enhances its potential significance.

October 4, 2025

Is China’s reported ban on BHP a bluff, or a glimpse of the future?

Though they still haven’t been officially confirmed, reports China’s state-owned buyer told steelmakers to stop purchasing iron ore from Australian mining giant BHP have rattled both markets and Canberra.

September 27, 2025

Is history repeating itself?

As the fallout from the Charlie Kirk assassination metabolised into a mass movement, a few voices raised a very unfortunate parallel – the assassination of Horst Wessel.

September 9, 2025

Intergenerational equity and tax reform

Much of the discussion about the need for tax reform to preserve intergenerational equity is confused. The main challenges facing young people, in particular, are the limitations on the supply of housing and climate change.

September 16, 2025

‘We took the gloves off’: Former Israeli military chief admits 220,000 Gaza casualties

A former Israel Defence Forces chief of staff says more than over 10% of Gaza’s population of approximately 2.2 million was killed or injured since October 2023.

September 12, 2025

NSW AG based Kathleen Folbigg’s compo on ‘no state malfeasance’, but no one has looked

When baby Azaria Chamberlain’s matinee jacket was found at Uluru in 1986, it led to the prompt release of her mother, Lindy Chamberlain, from prison.

August 30, 2025

Time to dial back the Australia-US alliance

There’s a concept in political analysis known as the Overton Window. The concept holds that at any given time within mainstream society there is a range (i.e. window) of accepted political topics and arguments for discussion.

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.

August 1, 2025

How Trump’s vision of a single-minded China containment has failed

Instead of disengaging to focus on China, Trump’s America is more deeply involved in Europe’s defence and the Middle East than before.

July 26, 2025

EVs and electric hot water can transform cities into 'giant batteries' to slash peak demand

Electrified homes and vehicles could help transform Australian cities into “giant batteries,” a new study has found, where each resident is effectively equipped with around three Tesla Powerwalls-worth of flexible energy storage capacity.

September 1, 2025

How the Fourth Estate failed journalists

Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish statesman and political theorist, is credited, with coining the phrase “Fourth Estate” in 1771.

July 28, 2025

To resist injustice in Gaza and the wider world

Egyptian-born Omar El Akkad had studied in the United States and been 10 years a journalist when, in the summer of 2021, he became an American citizen. Covering the War on Terror in Afghanistan and at the U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay exposed him to the “deep ugly cracks in the bedrock of this thing they called “the free world.” Yet he believed the cracks could be repaired – “Until the fall of 2023. Until the slaughter.”

July 21, 2025

No simple solutions for specialist problems

A referral to a specialist doctor should set patients on a smooth path to the care they need. But it can be more like an alpine hike, with steep fees and treacherously long waiting lists. It’s putting lives at risk.

July 11, 2025

US sanctions UN expert Albanese over criticism of Israeli genocide

One critic said Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s “crude effort” to sanction Francesca Albanese “only serves to establish that the US is an international outlaw.”

September 2, 2025

The media’s Israeli atrocity treadmill

News outlets are so busy chasing Israel’s latest crime in Gaza — currently its horrific attack on Nasser Hospital — they never pause to piece together the bigger story of genocide.

August 21, 2025

Obstacles to childcare safety reform: Government is the problem

The wheels of government (small “g” – politicians and public servants) are turning to Do Something about childcare safety.

August 14, 2025

Burning wood for power Is a dangerous step backward

The NSW Independent Planning Commission is currently considering an application to reopen the Redbank Power Station near Singleton.

July 18, 2025

Navigating a bipolar world

The US might yet save us from ourselves by adding conditions to the nuclear submarine agreement that no Australian Government could accept.

July 19, 2025

Tasmania’s snap election 2025: How did we get here and where are we going?

Tasmanians are going to the polls on 19 July as the result of a snap election more than two years early.

July 17, 2025

Australia needs to recognise the rationale for a US-China war has changed

Up until the Trump era, it was understood that the United States might go to war with China to in order to defend democracy in Taiwan.

September 8, 2025

The speech we are still waiting for Anthony Albanese to deliver

Last week, rallies were held under the banner of “March for Australia.”

July 12, 2025

Imperial hypocrisy about 'terrorism' hits its most absurd point yet

The US has removed Syria’s al-Qaeda franchise from its list of designated terrorist organisations just days after the UK added nonviolent activist group Palestine Action to its own list of banned terrorist groups.

August 20, 2025

The great waste

Each person on the planet now uses an average of 12 tonnes of materials a year. The problem is, Earth can only renew about seven tonnes of that prodigious consumption in a 12-month period.

August 23, 2025

Consumer watchdog launches investigation into 'sneaky, confusing' energy retailer tactics

A “super complaint” alleging “sneaky, confusing energy pricing tactics” by Australian electricity retailers has sparked an investigation by the national competition watchdog, amid concerns consumers are being deliberately misled about which energy plans to choose.

August 9, 2025

IDF chiefs break ranks

Israeli military and security chiefs are active participants in Netanyahu’s biblical holocaust on Palestinians.

July 25, 2025

Economic reform must included industrial transformation - Part 2

Going forward, what are some of the key design principles and priorities to consider as building blocks for a comprehensive, evidence-based industrial strategy, which both creates and adapts to the technologies and jobs of the future?

September 15, 2025

When Albanese thanked a wanted war criminal

Monday, 11 August 2025, was a dark day in Australian political history. On that day, a serving Australian prime minister publicly thanked a wanted war criminal.

July 22, 2025

Why a surprise jump in unemployment isn’t as bad as it sounds

New figures show Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 4.3% – its highest level since late 2021 – in June this year, up from 4.1% in May.

July 15, 2025

Usman Khawaja: grace under pressure, faith underpinning it all

In Australian sport, few stories echo as deeply as that of Usman Khawaja. He is known for his calm presence at the crease, his graceful technique, and the quiet way he has built a legacy in a game that was not always welcoming.

September 5, 2025

'Greatest corruption in presidential history': Trump family reaps US$5b more in crypto profits

“Your family gets higher energy prices and cuts to healthcare. His family gets billions,” said Rep. Greg Casar.

August 29, 2025

MAGA 2.0: Making China great again

In Donald Trump’s make-believe world prices are falling, the economy is booming, he is bringing peace all around the world, and gas costs less than US$2 a gallon.

September 24, 2025

Jimmy Kimmel returning to ABC after grassroots campaign decrying his suspension

“We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday,” said Disney.

September 22, 2025

'Too cheap to contain and too big to ignore': The electrotech revolution that will sweep away fossil fuels

A new report published this week has highlighted the profound disruption and transformation of the global energy system — driven by the uptake of low-cost, highly efficiency “electrotech” — solar and wind, electric vehicles and heat pumps, batteries and digitalisation.

September 3, 2025

Beijing invited me to their special celebration. Here's why I'm happy to go

When Australians at their Bakelite radios heard of China’s victory over Japan in 1945, they knew this was the triumph of an ally. World War II had started with the Rape of Nanjing in 1937 and the Chinese lost 20 million people resisting the invasion.

August 7, 2025

Recognise Palestine? Then free Marwan Barghouti!

The world’s most important hostage must be released. Powerful Western countries have signalled that in the face of the genocide they may recognise the state of Palestine. States need leaders. That’s why Marwan Barghouti — often dubbed the Palestinian Mandela — must be freed.

August 19, 2025

China’s shift to quality is redrawing Southeast Asia’s tech map

On 1 August, China’s state planner announced a crackdown on “herd behaviour” in emerging industries, targeting the surge of capital into hot sectors such as electric vehicles, batteries and solar.

September 26, 2025

More Boomers are choosing not to retire. Why? They don’t want to

As the great bulge of babies born after World War II has moved through their life course, the world has changed to suit them and their needs.

September 19, 2025

UN genocide finding makes global obligations clear

The international community has been waiting for this moment of moral clarity.

August 8, 2025

Under Trump, 'the federal government itself is a threat': Report details plot to subvert 2026 elections

“The administration is setting the stage for election subversion. This power play poses a grave threat to the future of US election infrastructure. It is also, in many respects, illegal.”

July 14, 2025

Localise relationships of care and responsibility

Continual crises in all the health, education and human services industries are no longer “exceptions”. They are continuous chronic symptoms of what’s wrong with our neoliberalised, marketised “care economy”.

August 27, 2025

Caritas Internationalis statement on the man-made famine and assault on Gaza City

On 20 August 2025, Israeli forces stormed Gaza City, where nearly one million displaced civilians had sought refuge, many already starving.

September 30, 2025

New revelations of the Murdoch empire’s underbelly – From The Hack’s real-life journalist

This is the humblest day of my life, declared Rupert Murdoch to a parliamentary committee on 19 July 2011.

August 26, 2025

'Stop the genocide': Thousands of Israelis rally against war and famine in Gaza

“We stood proud and tall together because there is nothing that will stop the just civilian resistance to the genocide and occupation,” said one protester.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal