December 17, 2025

A beautiful mosaic: celebrating multicultural Australia

Multicultural Australia has enriched the nation’s cultural life, creativity and global standing. These achievements deserve recognition and defence at a time of growing hostility to migration.

February 8, 2026

From Les Misérables to Trump – what happens when moral certainty hardens

Polarisation is often described as ideological. But its deeper cause may be moral – a loss of the capacity to recognise goodness in those who disagree with us, and the consequences that follow.

January 21, 2026

De-icing the Earth: a fatal decision

Global ice is melting fast, with major sea level rise and extreme heat locked in unless emissions fall sharply. The window to act is closing.

November 28, 2025

Why Labor can’t be bold without confronting tax reform

If the Albanese government wants to deliver lasting reform – in education, healthcare, housing and climate – it will have to confront the hardest political question of all: how to raise the revenue to pay for it.

January 22, 2026

Australia looks like a winner – but we’re losing where it counts

Australia remains wealthy but structurally fragile – highly dependent on raw exports and poorly positioned for a more complex, decarbonising global economy. Economic complexity is a warning signal we can no longer ignore.

January 19, 2026

What does it mean to be bold on the economy?

Australia’s export mix is dangerously narrow. A mission-led industrial strategy is needed to build competitive advantage and lift productivity.

January 8, 2026

We've had 26 royal commissions. Their failures should caution us against a repeat

Calls for a royal commission after the Bondi shootings reflect public anger and distrust, but decades of experience suggest such inquiries rarely deliver lasting reform or accountability.

November 13, 2025

‘Extraordinary and reprehensible circumstances' - Part 4

Malcolm Fraser was a conservative in terms of the constitution. His view was the Senate was “primarily a house of review – and apart from exceptional circumstances should not frustrate, certainly not on a purely obstructionist basis”

October 27, 2025

As Nobel laureates show, the US can’t take tech lead over China for granted

It’s hard to tell who will ultimately win the tech race, but this year’s Nobel economics prize gives us some clues.

February 17, 2026

Ley's by-election to test Coalition

The looming by-election in Farrer is shaping as a four-cornered contest that could reveal how vulnerable the Coalition has become.

November 12, 2025

What Washington really thought of Whitlam before the dismissal

The cloud of American involvement in the events of November 1975 is unlikely to ever clear. Especially while US presidential libraries continue to block access to critical documents that might shed light on the shenanigans.

October 23, 2025

Albanese and Rudd sold out freedom of the press this week

Many Australian journalists think Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ambassador Kevin Rudd did a wonderful job this week in handling the corrupt narcissist who runs the United States, Donald Trump.

October 20, 2025

Gaza has a ceasefire, now Palestine needs self-determination

Whether it’s the Israeli Government, an international peacekeeping force, or a post-conflict reconstruction authority for Gaza chaired (grotesquely) by Donald Trump, the fate of Palestine still rests in the hands of outsiders.

February 19, 2026

Scapegoating migrants is as old as history itself

Scapegoating migrants is designed to distract our attention from the truth and real issues – the abuse of corporate and media power and failure to tackle housing shortages for younger generations.

January 24, 2026

Carney’s moment: a Western leader finally says the quiet part out loud

Mark Carney’s Davos speech is a blunt diagnosis of a world in rupture, where power now trumps rules and coercion is openly deployed. The answer, it argues, is collective action by middle powers – a modern “third path” that resists subordination and rebuilds leverage.

November 25, 2025

Our politicians continue to fail us on immigration policy

As One Nation rises by recycling anti-immigration rhetoric, both major parties are fumbling their response – missing the chance to offer a clear, credible and principled long-term plan.

November 16, 2025

Trump’s ploy at the UN is American imperialism masquerading as a peace process

The Trump administration is pushing an Israeli-crafted resolution at the UN Security Council aimed at eliminating the possibility of a State of Palestine.

October 11, 2025

Celebrate the ceasefire, but don’t forget: Gaza survived on its own

Western leaders now claim credit for “peace”, but Gaza’s survival belongs to its people alone.

December 9, 2025

Australia’s cost-of-living crisis has a housing problem

Cost-of-living pressures dominate political debate, but the sharpest strain is not falling incomes. It is housing costs, particularly for first-home buyers, fuelled by stagnant productivity and chronic undersupply where people want to live.

November 23, 2025

The UN embraces colonialism: the Security Council and the US Gaza plan

The Security Council’s backing of the Trump plan for Gaza ignores international law, punishes the Palestinians, and rewards those responsible for genocide.

January 15, 2026

I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I resigned as director of Adelaide writers’ week

Cancelling the Australian Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation.

November 21, 2025

Working with PM Fraser - a country divided - Part 3

John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising.

December 11, 2025

2025 in Review: Bullies and sycophants, cowardice on high, courage from below

A year defined by bullying power politics, media cowardice and moral failure – alongside rare but vital acts of courage that point to a different future.

October 10, 2025

Trump says Israel and Hamas sign off on first phase of Gaza ceasefire plan

Mediator Qatar said more details of the agreement would be announced at a later date.

December 4, 2025

Australia’s immigration 'debate' is rhetoric, not policy

Australia is awash with immigration rhetoric, but little of it is grounded in evidence, clear definitions or serious policy alternatives. Rather than an informed public debate, Australians are being offered slogans, blame and ambiguity.

October 19, 2025

Was the gospel preached at Charlie Kirk's memorial service?

It is now more than a month since Charlie Kirk’s murder (10 September) and memorial service (21 September).

November 1, 2025

Australian Palestinian farm in the occupied West Bank raided by Israeli settlers

Australian citizen, Palestinian farmer and vigneron Sari Kassis, whose family company Domaine Kassis wines sells both locally and overseas, has reported that over the past two weeks there has been a rapid increase in destructive raids on his farm by the Israeli “Hilltop Youth”.

January 18, 2026

Best of 2025 - Why Labor can’t be bold without confronting tax reform

February 24, 2026

Values, ethics, fear – Australian women and children in the Al Roj Camp

Politicians frequently appeal to Judaeo–Christian values, yet retreat from them when fear dominates debate. The test is whether those values guide policy when it is hardest to apply them.

February 22, 2026

When Ramadan and Lent overlap, faiths move in parallel

As Ramadan and Lent unfold simultaneously across Asia, Muslim and Christian communities move through parallel seasons of fasting, prayer and charity – shaping public life in subtle but significant ways.

February 18, 2026

Will Japan’s remilitarisation drag us into a war?

Japan’s rapid rearmament marks a decisive break with its post-war pacifist stance. As regional tensions sharpen, Australia and New Zealand must decide whether alignment offers security or invites new risks.

February 2, 2026

Australia’s Trump reprieve masks a deeper strategic dilemma

Australia may have escaped the worst of Donald Trump’s return to power so far. But beneath the surface, Washington’s shift towards spheres of influence is exposing serious weaknesses in Australia’s strategic posture.

December 19, 2025

A better symbol

After the Bondi massacre, grief was swiftly overtaken by politics. Public mourning and the misuse of symbols raise hard questions about solidarity, power and what genuinely brings light.

November 30, 2025

New architecture, old assumptions: Australia and the China question

Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks of balance, equality and a new regional order – yet Australia’s China policy still carries Cold War assumptions that risk strategy, prosperity and peace.

November 10, 2025

‘Mr Whitlam’s style’ – Part I

“I had no contemporary political heroes. I preferred Labor values to Liberal ones. I believed in a mixed economy. I disliked the people who’d got us into the Vietnam war. I was grateful to those who’d got us out. I admired Gough Whitlam, but not as much as he did.”

January 23, 2026

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny – and this one ticks every box

A sweeping new bill to combat antisemitism, hate and extremism was rushed through federal parliament this week with minimal scrutiny and major rule-of-law flaws. Its vague definitions, retrospective reach and expanded executive powers risk undermining rights, due process and democratic accountability.

November 15, 2025

Keating on the malevolence and brutality of The Dismissal

Paul Keating had just been appointed to his first ministry when the governor-general brought it all crashing down on November 11. The former prime minister is interviewed by Niki Savva.

November 20, 2025

Working with PM Fraser - the business view - Part 2

February 27, 2026

Authority is not leadership – and Australia keeps confusing the two

Australia’s political culture mistakes authority, comfort and continuity for leadership. Without the courage to create disequilibrium and confront hard choices, real reform remains impossible.

January 10, 2026

Francesca Albanese and the lonely road of defiance

The UN special rapporteur investigating Gaza is sanctioned, blacklisted and treated as a criminal. The response reveals how power reacts when accountability is applied to the powerful.

October 7, 2025

Secret cargo: Inside Australia's covert F-35 parts pipeline to Israel

At least 68 shipments of F-35 fighter jet parts have been flown on commercial passenger planes to Israel from Australia as recently as last month, leaked documents reveal.

October 6, 2025

7 October 2023: What really happened? Part 1

At dawn, on 7 October 2023, Hamas fighters blast over 100 holes in the walls and fences that separate the Gaza Strip from Israel.

February 5, 2026

Davos and the myth of a global conversation

The World Economic Forum claims to represent global cooperation, but its structure, silences and hierarchies tell a different story about who sets the agenda – and who is expected to listen.

January 27, 2026

Trump fills the great Albo silence

Australia’s leaders are trying to avoid becoming a target in a harsher, more coercive world. But silence and caution can’t substitute for strategy – or for honest leadership that levels with the public.

January 16, 2026

Banning slogans won’t build social cohesion

After Bondi, New South Wales politicians want to ban words and slogans. But rushed laws could punish political speech, not protect the public.

October 15, 2025

Ceasefire sparks fresh calls for global media access to Gaza

Press groups are also demanding justice for the more than 200 journalists slaughtered in Palestinian territory over the past two years.

February 10, 2026

Antisemitism laws, double standards and Australia’s unfinished reckoning

Proposals to legislate new antisemitism definitions raise hard questions about identity, equality before the law, and why Australia continues to avoid confronting its most entrenched forms of racism.

January 12, 2026

Grief, proximity and the failure of moral judgement

After Bondi, intense grief and fear shaped public response. But emotional proximity can distort moral judgement, narrowing debate and crowding out the analysis needed to prevent future violence.

November 11, 2025

The Second Dismissal

In an extract from The Double Dismissal, Emeritus Professor Jenny Hocking, distinguished fellow of the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University, and Dr Matt Harvey, senior lecturer at Victoria University of Technology, describe the chaos that led to two dismissals on 11 November.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal