November 4, 2025

The left wins the Irish presidential election in a landslide

Catherine Connolly (born 1957) only became involved in active politics in 1999. Michael D. Higgins, the outgoing president of Ireland (2011-2025), encouraged Connolly to join the Labour Party and stand for election.

November 18, 2025

‘My Viceroy’ - Part 5

“I thought it no bad thing that the public in Australia and, perhaps, also those in other monarchical Commonwealth countries, not excluding Britain, should have been reminded that the Crown possessed reserve powers.” Sir John Kerr to the British High Commissioner to Australia, December 1975.

October 27, 2025

Australia’s role in the F-35 supply chain – what a tangled web we weave!

The government’s ducking and weaving about military exports to Israel went up a whole new notch this month, arguing in _Senate estimates_ that just because something was shipped from Australia, doesn’t mean it was exported from Australia.

November 29, 2025

Why false beliefs feel safer than the truth

People clinging to falsehoods is not a failure of intelligence, but a deeply human attempt to protect emotional stability in an overwhelming world.

October 18, 2025

Harm reduction is ubiquitous and effective so why doesn’t Australia use it for tobacco?

Harm reduction policies are widespread, and generally work, are safe and cost-effective.

November 20, 2025

UN approval of Gaza ‘Stabilisation Force’ slammed as ‘Denial of Palestinian self-determination’

CodePink said the plan “will leave Palestine in the hands of a puppet administration, assigning the United States, which shares complicity in the genocide, as the new manager of the open-air prison.”

January 9, 2026

Best of 2025 - Hamas is better than us

This headline could get me jail time if, as reported, the New Zealand Government is planning to take the same authoritarian turn that the UK has sunk to with its proscription of Palestine Action. It would represent another dangerous conflation of protest with terrorism.

December 19, 2025

Storms expose Gaza’s humanitarian collapse

Heavy rains and gale-force winds have turned life-threatening for Palestinians in Gaza, where the destruction of housing and restrictions on aid have left millions without shelter.

November 14, 2025

Rising electricity prices have nothing to do with renewables

Electricity prices are elevated, but anyone who claims renewable energy has driven the rise is either uninformed or is deliberately lying.

January 10, 2026

Best of 2025 - Trump’s mongrel punt

In the Australian vernacular, a mongrel punt is an erratic kick forward of a football which leaves those participating in the game with an awkward choice between contesting possession (possibly at the cost of broken fingers) and waiting to see where the ball bounces.

November 17, 2025

Victoria’s ‘adult time for violent crime’ reforms will not solve the youth crime problem

The Victorian government has announced a new youth justice reform package. The package is punitive in its nature, focused around an “adult time for violent crime” measure for several offences.

October 8, 2025

7 October 2023: Return of the Hannibal Directive and the genocide starts now – Part 2

By noon on 7 October 2023, news of Palestinians taking hostages grip the attention of Israel’s top military and political leadership who are gathered in the “Pit”, the Kirya bunker in Tel Aviv.

January 5, 2026

Best of 2025 - Taking a win from Alaska

On 15 August, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska, the first head-of-state meeting between the two countries since the Ukraine War began.

December 12, 2025

The real winners of Australia’s under-16s social media ban

Australia’s social media ban for under-16s is sold as child protection, but its most tangible effect is a transfer of power away from global platforms and back to legacy media interests.

October 11, 2025

An Australian chemist just won the Nobel Prize. Here’s how his work is changing the world

The 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded for the development of metal-organic frameworks: molecular structures that have large spaces within them, capable of capturing and storing gases and other chemicals.

December 13, 2025

Frankie Goes to Bethlehem: myth, music and the power of love

In 1984, Frankie Goes to Hollywood released a reverent nativity ballad that revealed how myth, music and Christmas still speak beyond belief.

October 16, 2025

Vanity, defence or just wanting to show off?

For a demagogue, what could be more stirring than to take the salute on a raised dais as thousands of armed men and women march past like robots in perfect synchronisation?

November 10, 2025

Young people are increasingly being killed or injured on e-bikes. It’s time for governments to act

In the span of just a few days, two children were killed in separate e-bike crashes in Queensland – one on the Sunshine Coast and another on the Gold Coast.

November 1, 2025

Yes – he's a dictator

The latest polling from the Public Religion Research Institute provides a stunning reflection on how Americans now regard Trump.

October 20, 2025

India’s American dream in tatters

The last couple of months have exposed the humiliating realities of the subordinate alliance that India has been gradually sliding into with the US over the last three decades.

October 17, 2025

Family violence and migrant women – a better way

Nashita Pasha is one of six talented young Australians who will travel to the UN General Assembly in New York next week as part of the Global Voices project.

October 15, 2025

Nobel Peace laureate calls for US bombing of her country

Within hours of being named the Nobel Peace laureate for 2025, María Corina Machado called on President Trump to step up his military and economic campaign against her own country, Venezuela.

December 20, 2025

Why did Trump send his warships to Venezuela?

As US pressure on Venezuela intensifies, Washington is reviving an openly interventionist approach to Latin America. The targets extend beyond Caracas to the region as a whole.

November 19, 2025

It’s as if their lives do not matter

Many Rohingya have gone missing at sea, but this latest boat tragedy highlights ASEAN’s indifference.

November 26, 2025

Why multicultural aged care is the key to meeting Australia’s ageing challenge

Australia’s ageing population is growing faster than the systems built to support it, especially for culturally and linguistically diverse communities. A co-designed, public–private aged care model offers a practical, humane and economically sound path to meet this challenge before crisis overwhelms the system.

December 11, 2025

Blood, silence and history: questioning Indonesia’s 1965 narrative

As Indonesia prepares to release a new official national history, an Australian historian’s account of the 1965–66 mass killings threatens to reopen a long-suppressed debate about power, violence, and memory.

November 7, 2025

When truth can no longer be silenced

In Australia, secretive and remote institutions armed with increasingly restrictive laws are seriously eroding civic freedoms.

January 11, 2026

Best of 2025 - Inequality and the future of democracy

Rising inequality and declining living standards have posed a threat to democracy in several democracies, but so far not in Australia. However, the increasing inequality of wealth, driven by housing becoming unaffordable without rich parents, is a threat.

October 30, 2025

The (grossly misleading) Boyer lecture: Some things it forgot to mention

One of the lectures, entitled “ Australia is fricking amazing!” by Justin Wolfers was an ecstatic eulogy celebrating Australia’s achievements and institutions.

October 22, 2025

Trump CIA intervention in Venezuela risks another US war of choice, experts warn

“Using covert or military measures to destabilise or overthrow regimes reminds us of some of the most notorious episodes in American foreign policy,” said a former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders.

January 13, 2026

Best of 2025 - Superannuation and the Canberra Press Gallery's fantasies

The Canberra Press Gallery was completely absorbed with the supposed politics of last week’s superannuation changes and completely failed to consider their merits and why the changes were therefore made.

January 6, 2026

Best of 2025 - Brave new world

As Australia’s newly elected government seeks to navigate the shoals of President Donald Trump’s new world after the election on 3 May, it will behove us to think beyond our tariff concerns and AUKUS and focus on Southeast Asia.

December 16, 2025

A just transition can remake Australia if we choose to think bigger

Australia’s shift to renewable energy is a rare chance to redesign our economy and improve wellbeing, equity and social cohesion. A truly just transition would reshape much more than the energy system.

October 28, 2025

More defence spending, please – just not on the military

Donald Trump has pushed the Australian and other governments to increase defence spending. Defending society from threats is important, but there’s more to it than soldiers and weapons.

December 4, 2025

Malcolm Fraser: a decent man committed to an independent Australia

Personal experience and recent reflections challenge the popular caricature of Malcolm Fraser, revealing a former prime minister increasingly willing to defy orthodoxy in defence of sovereignty, justice and independence.

October 10, 2025

Journos as heroes and villains - 'The Hack' reviewed - Part 2

The Hack is rare among films and television programs for showing journalists doing journalism to other journalists.

October 24, 2025

Australia has amongst the highest teacher shortages in the OECD

A new OECD report reveals that Australia’s education system is facing a diabolical staffing crisis**.** Since 2018, teacher shortages have soared leaving Australia among the worst-performing nations in the OECD.

October 14, 2025

Trump’s sham peace plan

There will be no peace in Gaza. Only the temporary absence of war.

January 16, 2026

Best of 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.

November 26, 2025

Conservatism, denial and the climate crisis: why short-term thinking is holding us back

Human societies are generally conservative, averse to substantial change – and they are getting in the way of the necessary intervention on climate change and emissions reduction.

January 5, 2026

Best of 2025 - The ABC's public comment guidelines: A 'crackdown' on management, not workers

The ABC’s new public comment guidelines, which replace its existing “personal use of social media” policy and follow the debacle of the Antoinette Lattouf affair, have been portrayed by rival media organisations as “a crackdown”, “a gag order”, “a hit” on ABC employees, and other such alarming epithets.

December 1, 2025

How soybeans became a fault line in China’s food security

China now buys 60 per cent of the world’s soybeans. That dependency shapes its food security strategy – and its trade battles with the United States.

October 29, 2025

From illusion to real peace: Trump’s test in Gaza and Ukraine

Real peace demands Palestinian statehood, Ukrainian neutrality and the courage to defy the war lobby.

November 19, 2025

Pope Leo and transparency in child sexual abuse cases

If the Catholic Church wishes to change a culture of secrecy, leadership has to come from the top.

November 6, 2025

Practical, equitable … cute? Labor’s free solar plan sparks call for more electrification and flexibility

The federal energy minister’s plan to make electricity free for three hours in the middle of each day for customers on the default market offer has made a big splash in the energy world, and sparked calls for more electrification and demand flexibility.

December 17, 2025

AUKUS meets reality – UK ‘all in’ a mess (Part 2)

Australia is betting on a British program plagued by delays, underinvestment and workforce shortages – a gamble that risks leaving the country without any sovereign submarine capability.

November 11, 2025

Environmental reforms: Opportunities that must not be missed

The Australian Parliament has another opportunity to reform laws that will address the huge array of issues confronting the degradation of Australia’s environment.

November 7, 2025

‘New York, this city belongs to you’: Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech

Thank you, my friends. The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, “I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.”

October 11, 2025

The Australian media is more concentrated than ever. Here are the three moments that got us here

In its announcement of the proposed merger with Southern Cross Media, Seven West described the deal as “consistent with Seven West’s stated strategic position of being in support of media consolidation in Australia”.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal