March 18, 2026

The Budget needs real tax reform, not tinkering

Australia’s tax system increasingly favours capital and older wealth while leaving younger Australians with rising debts and shrinking opportunities.

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.

March 16, 2026

Allegra Spender reopens the tax debate – but the real divide is wealth, not generations

Australia’s tax debate often frames reform as a struggle between younger and older generations. But the real divide lies between wage earners and those who derive growing advantage from assets, wealth and capital income.

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.

March 9, 2026

The human side of AI in childhood cancer: children as the stress test for “good” technology

Artificial intelligence is transforming cancer care, but paediatric oncology shows why technology must be guided by transparency, ethics and the needs of children and families.

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.”

March 19, 2026

ABC’s National Forum fails its first test on antisemitism

The ABC’s new flagship forum failed to interrogate key claims and perspectives on antisemitism, leaving major gaps in a critical national debate.

March 11, 2026

Going for the jugular – the energy shock is coming

The Strait of Hormuz carries the lifeblood of the global economy – and war with Iran risks turning a geopolitical conflict into a worldwide economic shock.

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.

March 3, 2026

Abbott’s finger pointing on overseas students is pure hypocrisy

Tony Abbott blames record numbers of temporary residents and international students on recent governments. But policy changes introduced and maintained under his own leadership played a central role in driving that growth.

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.

March 10, 2026

A vessel of lies: Australian sailors implicated in the Iran War

Australian personnel aboard a US nuclear submarine during an attack on an Iranian vessel highlight the deeper implications of AUKUS – and the risk of Australia being drawn into American wars.

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.

March 5, 2026

War on Iran signals urgent need for Australia to end risky imported oil dependency

The widening conflict in the Gulf has exposed Australia’s extreme reliance on imported oil. With minimal fuel reserves and a $12 billion annual diesel subsidy to mining, energy security has become a national security emergency.

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.

March 3, 2026

‘Insane this is legal’: Bettors make huge profits from suspiciously timed wagers on Iran war

Newly created accounts made around $1 million betting on the precise timing of US strikes on Iran, prompting calls for investigation into whether prediction markets are being used to profit from war.

March 1, 2026

Punishment without crime: bypassing the law to criminalise dissent

A withdrawn charge is not a conviction. Yet across Australia, discontinued allegations are appearing on police checks, leaving individuals to defend themselves long after a case has collapsed.

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.

March 9, 2026

An invitation to dance: How Bad Bunny builds a movement

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show didn’t rely on argument or translation. By leading with joy, culture and curiosity, it quietly broadened ideas about belonging in the United States.

February 23, 2026

Countering bully, tyrant Trump’s intimidating expletives – it could work

Donald Trump’s rise and endurance rest on intimidation, repetition and media amplification – and on the long failure of opponents to confront those tactics directly.

December 13, 2025

The Colby Review, AUKUS and lopsided commitments

The Colby review of AUKUS highlights how deeply Australia has tied itself to US strategic priorities while offering little clarity on what Canberra receives in return.

November 21, 2025

Australia’s science crisis reveals a century of structural failure

Private capital will not build Australia a world-class science system. Only the public sector can do that. And it must do so at a scale that matches the challenges ahead.

November 12, 2025

Our lopsided and unfair tax system

There is something weird and unfair in a tax system that requires young and productive workers to subsidise the lifestyle of the old and idle.

March 6, 2026

Prabowo’s Middle East peace gambit is long on theatre, short on strategy

The weapons are fast and devastating, driven by big bucks and high tech. They’re being used in a war of religions that’s almost 14 centuries old. Both sides have recruited God. A man of war from Southeast Asia thinks he can bring reason to bear. He can’t.

February 14, 2026

Victoria’s school funding deal locks in inequality

Victoria’s latest school funding agreement freezes public schools below the Schooling Resource Standard, formalising stagnation while preserving the language of reform. Delay is not neutral – it compounds disadvantage and entrenches inequality.

February 13, 2026

Counting protesters down – how the Adelaide protest against Herzog was reported

The Adelaide protest against the visit of Israel’s president drew thousands and passed peacefully. Yet its treatment in the media raises familiar questions about whose voices are amplified, whose are minimised, and how protest is framed for public consumption.

January 7, 2026

Best of 2025 - The Liberal Party and Israel

The Liberal Party is correct in claiming Australia’s relations with Israel are at their lowest point ever. The real questions to be asked are: who is responsible, and how much does it matter?

November 6, 2025

The press and the Dismissal – Part II

Following the Dismissal on 11 November 1975, the editors of the major newspapers understood the national mood was volatile.

October 24, 2025

Hundreds of prominent Jews and Israelis urge world powers to hold Israel accountable 'for Gaza atrocities'

An open letter, signed by at least 460 Jewish and Israeli intellectuals, celebrities and political figures, calls on the UN and heads of state to address “the underlying conditions of occupation, apartheid and the denial of Palestinian rights” that are absent from US President Trump’s Gaza ceasefire agreement.

February 21, 2026

Australia’s renewable surge leaves energy politics behind

New data shows Australia’s renewable energy transition has passed a tipping point – with wind, solar and batteries now supplying half the national grid and rapidly expanding.

February 5, 2026

When gambling money floods politics, democracy loses

Millions in gambling industry donations flow legally to both major parties, even as reform stalls and public concern grows.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal