October 10, 2025

Is Greta Thunberg the lone voice for justice in our world?

As the world moves from one crisis to another and our politicians ignore the immense injustices that are happening in their nation and in the world, what do ordinary non-violent citizens do to let their politicians know they aren’t happy with their lack of moral and ethical fortitude?

December 8, 2025

Australia’s human rights report has been quietly buried

The world marks Human Rights Day this Wednesday 10 December. But a comprehensive parliamentary report calling for a national Human Rights Act remains unanswered. Its silence speaks volumes about the gap between rhetoric and action in Australia’s human rights commitments.

November 25, 2025

AI in journalism and democracy: can we rely on it?

GenAI tools are reshaping the information environment in ways most audiences never see. From the data that trains them to the labour that maintains them, their inner workings raise urgent questions for journalism and democratic accountability.

October 14, 2025

Japan's LDP coalition splits – what does this mean?

So, finally there is some room for principles in Japanese politics after all! Not much, but when it comes to the point of white having to embrace black something has to give.

October 13, 2025

Who would be a carer?

Whether because of temporary disability or permanent need, the demand for accessible “holiday” accommodation is growing with our ageing population.

November 24, 2025

Net Zero and the metaphysics of anxiety in Australia

Net zero is not simply an environmental target. It has become a psychological and cultural anchor in a society that feels increasingly unstable.

October 7, 2025

World water in crisis

Almost two-thirds of the world’s rivers are in a dire condition, either drying up or supercharged with floodwaters, according to the latest report on the emerging global water crisis by the World Meteorological Organisation.

December 13, 2025

A West Bank farmer left for dead – and a system that looks the other way

A Palestinian farmer survived a near-fatal settler attack – raising urgent questions about protection, impunity, and the role of Israeli authorities.

October 9, 2025

Shadow of McCarthyism looms over controversial firing of Texas professor who taught about gender identity

Texas A&M University announced the resignation of its president, Mark A. Welsh III, on 18 September 2025, following a controversial decision earlier in the month to fire a professor over a classroom exchange with a student about gender identity.

December 10, 2025

Ellen Hansen: At 75, UNHCR is needed more than ever – but its funding is being cut

As global displacement reaches record highs, UNHCR marks its 75th anniversary facing deep funding cuts that threaten its ability to protect refugees and save lives worldwide.

November 3, 2025

It’s official! Accounting tricks denied public schools more than $2b in funding in 2023

A new report by the National School Resourcing Board reveals that public schools lost more than $2 billion in funding in 2023 because of accounting tricks used by state governments under the Commonwealth-State funding agreements operating at the time.

October 21, 2025

The armistice of 1918 and the 'ceasefire' of 2025

Remembrance Day is coming. More accurately it is Armistice Day. The armistice between Germany and the Western Powers was signed at Compiègne in France on the morning of 11 November 1918, after four years of war. Sadly, there are heart-chilling parallels to today.

October 25, 2025

APEC: The curdled yoghurt of middle-power diplomacy

When APEC was born in 1989, it was more than another acronym. It was a moment of triumph for middle powers — Australia, Canada, South Korea, and others — asserting that the post-Cold War world could be shaped not just by the great powers but by those who knew how to manage co-operation.

November 14, 2025

Seoul’s submarine ambitions – what do they mean for the region?

South Korea is currently in final negotiations with the US on a deal that could reshape the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific: the construction of nuclear-powered submarines.

October 30, 2025

The morality we need, the asylum they seek

Like many grumpy hacks from an age of lost standards, I’ve belittled colleagues’ usage of the perpendicular pronoun. We’re not the Mums needing attention – only the midwives bringing the stories of others into the world. We report and depart.

November 21, 2025

UN Members complicit in genocide

UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese discusses why, in her most recent report, she called out more than 60 nations for their collective-crime roles in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

November 12, 2025

The coming class war against Zohran Mamdani

Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City should be seen as a repudiation of everything the Democrats have been doing since the DNC shafted Bernie Sanders to get Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden nominated as the party’s presidential candidates in 2016 and 2020.

October 15, 2025

Shameful distortion that lies at the heart of US conservative politics

The news of ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza is cause for great rejoicing and for giving credit where it is due. But the big questions remain: where to from here, and how did the world allow this to happen in the first place?

November 13, 2025

Lame duck syndrome emerging

Reality finally starts to bite in the US and it hasn’t come in a misspelt all-capital letters post Truth Social.

October 27, 2025

On No Kings day, a new America came to life

This is who we are. And this is what our country must be: people with a soul-deep love for Planet Earth and all who inhabit it.

October 22, 2025

At best, a respite for Gazans

Reading Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan is like venturing into the world of the eccentric early-twentieth-century British cartoonist, Heath Robinson, who unwittingly lent his name as a descriptor for any “unnecessarily complex and implausible contrivance".

November 28, 2025

What does Labor actually stand for in the Albanese era?

Sean Kelly’s Quarterly Essay The Good Fight asks a harder question than whether Labor is governing competently – it asks whether it still knows what it believes, and whether belief is translating into action.

November 27, 2025

After Gaza, the next target is Iran

US–Israel manoeuvring over Gaza is already widening the conflict. As Sudan burns and propaganda intensifies, Iran may be the next target — with Australia again at risk of being drawn in.

October 16, 2025

Remembering my Palestinian father

In these awful times of genocide and massacre, I particularly remember my late Palestinian father.

December 3, 2025

Afghanistan silence is a dangerous illusion

As Afghanistan disappears from global headlines, media neglect enables extremist resurgence, regional instability, and a deepening humanitarian crisis.

February 8, 2018

St.Vincent de Paul Society

INDEPENDENT, NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS (Three opportunities)

**Please click here** for more details.

Applications close on Monday 19 February 2018.

February 8, 2024

Jewish Council of Australia launches to provide expert voice on antisemitism and racism in Australia

A dynamic coalition of Jewish scholars, historians, human rights lawyers, and writers has joined together to establish the Jewish Council of Australia.

November 17, 2025

Forecasting the impact of Sino-Indian relations on changing world order

Geopolitics is in shock. Agile strategic thinking must acknowledge and respond to qualitative changes to the world order. A new “New World Order” is emerging.

November 14, 2025

The Global South is drowning in climate debt

As deadly storms rip through the Caribbean, a new United Nations report delivers a sobering warning: the world is failing to prepare for the climate it has already created.

December 10, 2025

Victoria government unfussed by Grand Prix debt

Victoria’s Grand Prix continues to post record losses, quietly adding to state debt while public services are cut and financial scrutiny is avoided.

October 23, 2025

To avert war, the West must shatter the mirror by which it views China

The concept of the Thucydides Trap, predicting conflict between China and the US, projects the West’s conquest-driven history onto Chinese civilisation.

November 19, 2025

Stop pretending punishment works

When Premier Jacinta Allan is photographed proudly advancing Victoria’s Treaty process, she is rightly praised.

November 10, 2025

China planning ahead with 15th five-year plan

In business, the five Ps are often referenced: “Poor preparation prevents proper performance.” That extends to planning a national economy.

October 11, 2025

Van Jones and the moral vacancy of American commentary on Gaza

The US pundit’s “dead Gaza baby” joke was not a slip of the tongue, but a window into a media culture that trivialises Palestinian suffering and deflects responsibility.

December 12, 2025

After the ATAR: keeping perspective and finding your next step

As ATAR results are released, there are practical ways for students and families to keep perspective, protect wellbeing and explore future options.

November 24, 2025

The China shift: Australia's universities in an age of suspicion

Over four decades, Australian universities developed strong teaching and research ties with China. But a wave of fear-driven policies and rising national security pressures has reshaped those relationships. Are we witnessing a retreat from engagement – or the start of a new era?

October 25, 2025

Trump, Xi and the ‘green paradox’: How China is building a climate-proof future

Ambitious transformation of the country’s energy consumption and urban planning makes economic sense too, analysts say.

October 28, 2025

Failure to cover: A week of collective omission by the Australian media

It’s worth restating at the outset what should be taken as read by everybody: genocides matter a lot.

October 13, 2025

Dying in prison

The political predilection for punishment is contributing to yet another stressor on prisons. As Australia’s prison population ages, so, too, do inmates risk dying inside.

November 29, 2025

Silencing Starlink over Taiwan would be a massive military challenge

Chinese scientists have modelled how Starlink could be jammed over an area the size of Taiwan – and found it would take an unprecedented scale of coordinated electronic warfare.

October 7, 2025

Charlie Kirk, Andrew Hastie and the 'Christian' West: Some Christian pushback

The horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk is being invested with all sorts of meaning, well beyond the personal tragedy it is for his family.

October 21, 2025

China-US critical minerals war an opportunity for Australia to get smart

As the Trump administration deepens its tariff trade war with China, the latter has placed fresh curbs on exports to the US of the rare earths and critical minerals indispensable to the production of clean energy tech, as well as defence, computing and AI capabilities.

December 2, 2025

Selective humanity: Gaza’s donkeys or its children?

International law requires equal protection for civilians in war. Yet recent actions by Western states reveal a troubling pattern in how humanitarian principles are applied – selectively, politically, and at devastating human cost.

November 27, 2025

Australia’s Christmas double standards on Palestine

As Palestinians face another winter of displacement and bombardment, Australia celebrates Christmas while ignoring its own obligations under international law. If recognition of Palestine is to mean anything, the government must act – not look away.

November 28, 2025

Why Australia needs a political party for the under-40s

With most Australians increasingly voting outside the major parties, Ian Bowrey argues it’s time for a new political force that genuinely represents under-40s and plans for the country’s long-term future.

October 8, 2025

New school funding agreements deny full funding for public schools

The claim by the prime minister, premiers and their education ministers that public schools will be fully funded by 2034 is a blatant falsehood.

December 5, 2025

Celebrating war crimes is a moral failure, not cultural pride

From ancient Rome to modern Melbourne, societies have repeatedly transformed civilian suffering into spectacle. Celebrating violence against the innocent is not a cultural quirk – it is a profound moral collapse.

October 16, 2025

Four reasons Australia's superannuation system isn't the world's best

When Australia embarked on its unique retirement incomes system in 1992, the World Bank was quick to encourage other countries to take the same approach to “averting the old age crisis”, claiming it would “protect the old and promote growth”.

November 12, 2025

Australia could be a world leader in tackling the climate emergency

My recent P&I article, “The world isn’t even trying to phase out fossil fuels”, explained why it is imperative that fossil fuels be rapidly phased out.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal