January 28, 2026

Female-only swimming saves lives: the overlooked gap in Australia’s drowning prevention

Female-only swimming sessions are not a cultural luxury. They are a proven, evidence-based public safety measure that too many Australian women still cannot access.

December 2, 2025

We’re not about to go full Trump no matter what the culture warriors say

Strains on social cohesion cannot be dismissed as the embrace of multiculturalism has made the task of defining what holds the community together more challenging.

October 26, 2025

Living with schizophrenia

The title of this book is emblematic. It gets to the heart of the problem of schizophrenia, indeed within the authors’ preface.

February 11, 2026

The Coalition decision that locks the Liberals out of the cities

By returning to Coalition with a declining National Party, the Liberals have doubled down on policies and demographics that alienate urban voters and younger Australians.

January 26, 2026

Beyond the ruptured alliance: an outline for Plan B

Australia’s alliance with the United States is no longer reliable, and clinging to it now risks Australia’s interests and values. The case for a deliberate, staged Plan B begins with strategic autonomy – and an overdue reckoning with extended nuclear deterrence.

January 5, 2026

Best of 2025 - Chasing a chimera: The political dream of AUKUS that consumes reality

For the sake of taxpayers, let’s hope that the Audit Office is inspecting the AUKUS books closely.

November 3, 2025

‘No restrictions’ and a secret ‘wink’: Inside Israel’s deal with Google, Amazon

To secure the lucrative Project Nimbus contract, the tech giants agreed to disregard their own terms of service and sidestep legal orders by tipping Israel off if a foreign court demands its data, a joint investigation reveals.

November 1, 2025

Understanding Australia-China research mobility

Australia’s research partnership with China is a significant component of its scientific output, particularly in engineering, technology and applied sciences.

November 6, 2025

New York, 1975: New York, 2025

Zoran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist Muslim, has won his bid to become Mayor of New York. David Rosen looks at how the city he will run has changed in 50 years.

October 31, 2025

The leader most capable of governing a future Palestinian state is languishing in an Israeli jail

As the future of Gaza hangs in the balance, the Palestinian Authority needs renewal if it’s to eventually govern the Strip and play a key role in making the two-state solution a reality.

October 9, 2025

Journos as heroes and villains - 'The Hack' reviewed - Part 1

In films and on the small screen, journalists are portrayed as heroes or villains. In The Hack they are both. Does this reflect the diminished, benighted standing journalists hold in society today or is it a step forward in showing the complexities of the work?

November 28, 2025

Trump is melting down: Is this the beginning of the end?

Mental health professionals are warning that Donald Trump’s behaviour poses serious risks to democratic governance and international security – yet the media largely looks away.

October 16, 2025

Reuniting families: reforming Australia’s approach

Saffron Williams 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.

January 20, 2026

The Royal Commission must put social cohesion first

Social cohesion should be the starting point – not an afterthought – if we want to reduce racism, resentment and extremism.

December 10, 2025

Too many states, too little nation: time to fix the federation

Australia’s federal system was designed for the nineteenth century. Today it produces duplication, dysfunction and state parochialism that frustrate national governance and reform.

October 25, 2025

Misinformation was rife during the 2025 election. New research shows many people were unable to identify it

Misinformation has become a routine part of daily life, shaping public discourse and distorting perceptions. A new report reveals that in the two weeks prior to the 2025 federal election, almost two-thirds (60%) of adults reported coming across election misinformation. Only 19% didn’t come across it and 21% were unsure.

October 17, 2025

Climate change causing oceans to decline at alarming rate

Climate change and human activity are causing the health of the world’s oceans to decline at an alarming rate, the UN has warned.

February 14, 2026

How did the Liberals’ first female leader find herself on the mat in under a year?

Sussan Ley’s rapid collapse as Liberal leader reflects her own limitations – but also a party struggling with factional dominance, ideological fracture and relentless polling panic.

January 19, 2026

Best of 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.

December 3, 2025

Coalition’s Australian values test is the ultimate dog whistle

Sussan Ley’s so-called “values test” exposes the Coalition’s desperation to court the far-Right under the guise of patriotism.

November 24, 2025

US foreign policy and Sudan: hypocrisy, incoherence and self-interest

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent remarks on Sudan appear empathetic – but they may reveal more about strategic positioning than genuine concern.

November 19, 2025

Breaking free of media group-think is a scary, lonely journey. I know. I was forced to do it

The western media’s failure to report the reality of Gaza didn’t start on 7 October 2023. It’s always been like this. Here’s why journalists won’t tell you the truth about Palestine.

October 15, 2025

Embedding free, prior and informed consent in Australia’s legal framework

Tiarna Williams 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.

February 23, 2026

One error and damned forever?

Women and children held in Syrian detention camps force Australia to choose between rhetoric and the rule of law.

December 18, 2025

India and China in deep water over Himalayan hydropower

India and China are racing to build vast hydropower projects in the Himalayas. Framed as clean energy, the dams are also about territorial control, data sovereignty and strategic power in an AI-driven world.

December 8, 2025

Friends and frenemies: Australia’s China policy is stuck in a four-tier mindset

Australia’s stabilisation of relations with China is welcome, but the old adversarial mindset remains intact. Institutional biases, selective outrage and context-free media narratives still shape how Australia sees China, limiting any genuine foreign policy reset.

February 15, 2026

A loneliness crisis is the price China is paying for rapid modernisation

China’s Spring Festival masks a deeper social problem. Beneath the world’s largest annual migration lies a growing crisis of loneliness shaped by migration, inequality and institutional design.

February 6, 2026

Why is the Australian government hosting the President of Israel?

As President Isaac Herzog prepares for an official visit, Australia faces serious questions about international law, diplomatic process, and the values it claims to uphold.

February 22, 2026

How Vietnam reshaped Murdoch’s politics – and The Australian

The Australian’s coverage of the Vietnam War shifted as Rupert Murdoch’s political alliances hardened, revealing how editorial direction followed power more than events on the ground.

February 3, 2026

Why the Voice referendum failed – and what the government hasn’t learned from it

The defeat of the Voice referendum was not preordained. It reflected political misjudgement, inadequate preparation and a failure to treat constitutional reform as the serious democratic work it requires.

December 16, 2025

How Sofronoff became a foot soldier in a war against woke

Judicial findings have significantly undermined the credibility of Walter Sofronoff’s inquiry into the Lehrmann trial, raising serious questions about bias, process and the influence of media on judicial conduct.

October 6, 2025

South Korea’s anti-China protests

This week, South Korean authorities expressed concern regarding the potential impact of anti-China protests during APEC.

February 21, 2026

Let’s not turn back the clock on immigration

Australia needs a forward-looking, evidence-based immigration policy from the Liberal Party. They should drop the slogans, fear mongering and backward-looking thinking.

January 21, 2026

The US is powerless to push China out of Latin America

Trump’s move on Venezuela signals a wider push to squeeze China out of Latin America. But Beijing’s trade, investment and infrastructure ties may prove hard to unwind.

December 11, 2025

Judge says law still failing to see "deeper truth" of dispossession

An ACT Supreme Court judge has confronted the limits of native title and criminal sentencing, arguing the law still falls short of reckoning with Indigenous dispossession.

November 13, 2025

After 50 years, it’s time we called it a coup

Fifty years ago today, an elected government was ousted by a representative of a hereditary monarchy. Broadly, Australian society has still not grappled with these events.

November 4, 2025

A United States that is disintegrating and no longer a leader in Asia

The second Trump administration has transformed US foreign policy, with immediate implications for economic and security ties with Asia and long-term implications for regional and global order.

October 24, 2025

Republicans ‘holding US economy hostage’ as nearly half of states face recession

“At a time when costs are rising and tariffs are wreaking havoc on people’s pocketbooks, Republicans are doubling down on their agenda of raising healthcare costs on millions of Americans.”

January 18, 2026

Best of 2025 - Gaza’s economy has collapsed beyond recognition

Gaza’s economy, society and basic infrastructure have been almost entirely wiped out. With 90 per cent of people displaced, food systems destroyed and schools and hospitals in ruins, reconstruction is becoming harder by the day.

December 9, 2025

Writing as resistance in a year that refused to slow down

After a dizzying year of global upheaval, this reflection looks back on writing as resistance – against war, media failure, imperial power and silence – and why truth-telling still matters heading into 2026.

February 18, 2026

The Apology sets the standard

The National Apology to the Stolen Generations modelled dignity, responsibility and mutual respect. Its spirit now stands in sharp contrast to the tone of Australian public life.

February 7, 2026

Billionaire Bezos guts Washington Post

The gutting of the Washington Post has reignited a deeper question about who controls the media – and whether billionaire ownership is compatible with a free press.

November 29, 2018

ALEXANDER KAUFMAN, CHRIS D'ANGELO. Federal Climate Report Predicts At Least 3 Degrees Of Warming By 2100 (Huff Post).

The White House’s decision to release the report over the holiday weekend is likely to bury the sobering new findings.

October 27, 2025

After OpenAI’s new ‘buy it in ChatGPT’ trial, how soon will AI be shopping online for us?

Buying and selling online with e-commerce is old news. We’re entering the age of A-commerce, where artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly able to shop for us.

January 23, 2026

A snap election and shifting alliances reshape Japanese politics

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has called a snap election as the LDP seeks to rebuild support and secure numbers through new alliances. But economic strain and rising tensions with China could still shape the outcome.

February 24, 2026

Malcolm Fraser and Fraser Island

One year after the 1975 Dismissal, Malcolm Fraser overruled state pressure and commercial interests to halt sand mining on K’Gari – a decision that reshaped Australia’s environmental history.

October 29, 2025

Why the Coalition can’t win without losing itself

The Coalition faces not a messaging challenge but a structural impossibility. Voters abandoning them won’t be satisfied by marginally tougher rhetoric.

October 19, 2025

Stephen Stockwell 1975: The Ballads of the Whitlam Dismissal

The 50th anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam Government on 11 November 1975 should prompt all Australians to ponder the strength of our democracy.

February 27, 2026

Five takeaways from Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address

How did our region see the US President’s speech? Dewey Sim of South China Morning Post reports that in the 1 hour 47 minute address, Trump cast himself as a global peacemaker and touted his economic credentials.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal