January 27, 2026

Australia’s flood management has improved. It’s still not good enough

Australia has made big strides in flood warnings, levees and planning rules – but too often the message still doesn’t land. The next step is practical community engagement that builds real understanding, trust and safer decisions.

January 18, 2026

Best of 2025 - Why the trauma community must break its silence on Gaza

As Gaza reels from unimaginable physical and psychological harm, the global trauma healing community has remained largely silent. Breaking that silence is essential if therapeutic work is to remain honest, ethical and grounded in the reality clients bring into the room.

November 9, 2025

Tony Abbott’s history of Australia wants us to be proud of men like him

Former prime minister (and journalist) Tony Abbott has published a political history of Australia.

October 28, 2025

Trump's rare earths deal to counter China was a badly needed 'Sputnik moment'

The other day US President Donald Trump said: “With a communist in charge? Look, you just go back a thousand years, it’s been done many times, a thousand years, it’s never worked once.”

January 5, 2026

Best of 2025 - Malign AI could change Australian election results, says judge

Justice David Mossop of the ACT Supreme Court has issued a call to arms for lawyers generally, and the High Court in particular, to prepare for palpable threats to “a small, naive democracy like Australia”.

December 19, 2025

2025 in Review: Palestine, international law and Australia’s silence

In 2025, the crisis in Palestine brought international law to a breaking point. Australia’s response, marked by caution and inaction, raises hard questions about responsibility, principle and moral leadership.

December 4, 2025

With a sneaky tweak the government has made welfare recipients guilty until proven innocent

New social security laws allow payments to be cancelled for people with outstanding arrest warrants, even if they have not been charged or convicted, raising serious concerns about justice, rights and harm.

November 29, 2025

Hong Kong tower fire – contractor for fire-hit Tai Po project has record of safety offences

The contractor behind renovation work at the site of Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades had previously breached safety requirements for construction projects on multiple occasions.

March 14, 2026

Immigration and toxic nostalgia

A counterfactual simulation suggests Australia would be smaller, older and economically weaker today if immigration policy had remained restricted to predominantly European sources.

February 10, 2026

India’s submarine deal shows what due diligence looks like

India’s decision to buy conventionally powered submarines from Germany highlights a sharp contrast with Australia’s AUKUS pathway on cost, capability and planning.

January 25, 2026

Song Sung Blue: a joyful tribute to enduring partnerships, grit and second chances

A new film inspired by a real-life tribute act follows two working-class Midwesterners who build a life and a stage partnership through hardship, music and resilience. With Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson at its centre, it’s a reminder of how powerful a hopeful story can be.

November 18, 2025

50,000 march to celebrate death of fossil fuel industry at COP30

An estimated 50,000 people took to the streets of Belém do Pará, Brazil, on Saturday to demand a just transition toward a more renewable energy system and egalitarian economy.

October 10, 2025

Jeffrey Sachs: Twenty-point plan minus the US-UK colonialism

Jeffrey D. Sachs and Sybil Fares offer a revised version of the Trump plan for an end of the war in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.

October 9, 2025

Cancelling Chris Hedges: What price balance?

On its homepage you will read that “The National Press Club (NPC) is a vigorous champion of media freedom and a home away from home for journalists”.

November 27, 2025

Non-aligned and successful: Indonesia’s lesson for Australian foreign policy

Australia’s new security agreement with Indonesia comes at a critical moment. Jakarta’s non-aligned tradition offers lessons for a country still tied to a lopsided alliance with the US.

November 8, 2025

How Zohran Mamdani’s ‘talent for listening’ spurred him to victory in the New York mayoral election

Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, has been elected as New York City’s mayor. He became the first New York mayoral candidate to win more than a million votes since 1969, and looks set to secure more than 50% of the total vote.

March 7, 2026

Why Albert Camus still matters in an age of authoritarianism

Albert Camus wrote in the shadow of fascism, war and ideological violence. His defence of truth, democratic dialogue and human limits remains strikingly relevant in today’s era of authoritarian politics and “post-truth” public debate.

February 28, 2026

Difficult women, comfortable power

When women refuse to soften their demands on violence, inequality and unpaid labour, the response is often to question their temperament rather than the broken system they are challenging.

December 11, 2025

Beijing warns foreign media in Hong Kong over crossing ‘red lines’

In meeting with wire agencies and other outlets, national security office says reports on fire relief efforts and Legco poll must adhere to law.

December 15, 2025

If government won’t deliver reform, citizens can

Governments routinely ignore expert advice and community lobbying. Caroline Fitzwarryne argues that Australians must organise, draft reforms and lead practical projects themselves, rather than waiting for politicians to act.

December 9, 2025

Australia’s social media age ban is days away. Here is what it really means

Public debate about Australia’s social media age ban has focused on parents and children. But the burden sits with platforms, and the deeper risks lie in what replaces young people’s online communities.

November 2, 2025

What Israel's genocide has laid bare

Two years into an ongoing genocide — recognised as such by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights, Doctors without Borders, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, the University Network for Human Rights and countless scholars of international humanitarian law, genocide and Holocaust studies — we are now to normalise the obscene, and move on.

October 22, 2025

Readying the north for war

Few Australians realise that the tropical north occupies more than 40% of our land mass while holding only 5% of the population. But governments — colonial, state and national — have speculated about its destiny since the middle of the 19th century.

December 18, 2025

Niki Savva’s Earthquake is a damning account of the election that shook Australia

In ‘Earthquake: The Election that Shook Australia’, Niki Savva dissects a federal election result that all but erased the Liberal Party from metropolitan Australia and exposed a deep crisis of purpose, leadership and relevance.

October 16, 2025

Gaza: The peace of the genocide alliance

The great war may be coming to an end, but the violence of occupation, apartheid, and territorial expansion is not.

March 11, 2026

Why patriotism should worry us more than it does

Often treated as an unquestioned virtue, patriotism can easily slide into nationalism, exclusion and hostility towards others.

February 11, 2026

Valéria Chomsky responds to Epstein controversy

“Noam’s overly trusting nature, in this specific case, led to severe poor judgment on both our parts… we express our unrestricted solidarity with the victims.”

January 22, 2026

AUKUS: a continuing expensive delusion

Australia is pouring billions into AUKUS submarines without clear delivery capacity from the UK or the US. The result could be a costly strategic and fiscal mistake – with little to show for it.

January 6, 2026

Best of 2025 - An economic reform agenda for Labor

The recent election was won by looking ahead. But a better economic future requires an economic reform agenda, and getting agreement will not be easy. However, there are encouraging signs that the government is up to the task.

February 15, 2026

Jon Kudelka’s cartoons mattered – and so did his refusal to look away

Jon Kudelka’s influence went far beyond award-winning cartoons. Lindsay Foyle reflects on a career marked by sharp political insight and principles.

January 9, 2026

Best of 2025 - Disengaging from the dangerous alliance

When, in the course of close — some would say politically intimate — relations between allies, the dominant partner demands that the subordinate partner betray its democratic principles as a cost of receiving favourable treatment, the time has come to terminate the relationship. Such is now the state of the Australia-US alliance.

November 4, 2025

The West’s double game on Gaza

In the aftermath of the attacks of 7 October 2023 and for months afterwards, Western governments that have been long-standing supporters of Israel — including the Australian Government — invoked “self-defence” to justify the severity of Israel’s response.

February 19, 2026

What does Albo stand for?

With a commanding parliamentary position and no credible opposition, Labor has unprecedented room to lead. Instead, caution, foreign policy timidity and deference to powerful lobbies are defining its moment.

October 21, 2025

Palestinian Mandela beaten unconscious. Our leaders yawned and looked away

Israel and the West pretend they want a real peace in Israel-Palestine yet the Israelis just beat unconscious the man most likely to help realise a sustainable end to the conflict: Marwan Barghouti.

November 20, 2025

Investigative journalists are the heroes of our time

Investigative journalists and whistleblowers must be cherished and protected if there is to be any chance of maintaining our fragile democratic system.

November 3, 2025

Israel’s repeated ceasefire violations are part of its strategy to keep waging war on Gaza

Here’s Israel’s strategy to continue the war on Gaza: find a pretext, no matter how baseless, use it to kill dozens of civilians and fighters, stop fire and claim you’re honouring the ceasefire. Then do it again.

March 18, 2026

Mary Kostakidis case heads to court after mediation fails

A failed mediation means a high-profile discrimination complaint over social media posts about Israel will now be decided in court.

March 15, 2026

Iran war – controlling the narrative

Claims that groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah are simply terrorist organisations reflect a political narrative that obscures the context of occupation and resistance.

December 7, 2025

When machines make the art, what’s left for human creativity?

As AI and automation take over more of the labour once central to artistic practice, creativity is shifting from making to selecting. The question is whether human expression survives that shift – or slowly withers.

February 8, 2026

What is the next chapter for Australia’s embattled writers festivals?

The cancellation of Adelaide Writers’ Week has exposed how culture wars, funding pressures and climate risk are reshaping Australia’s literary festivals – and putting their future in doubt.

January 13, 2026

Best of 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.

December 12, 2025

Israeli reporters unite against government moves to curb press freedom

Hundreds of Israeli journalists gathered on Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv for an emergency conference, sounding the alarm as the government continues to advance initiatives that threaten the country’s freedom of speech and press.

October 17, 2025

What’s constraining ‘frank and fearless’ advice?

A central argument for the government’s proposed widening of exemptions under the FOI Act is the claim that the current provisions constrain the provision of “frank and fearless advice” by the public service.

November 11, 2025

ACT director of Public Prosecutions responds

The ACT DPP issues a response to an exclusive article we published last week “ We don't do that in this country': judge slams DPP" by Andrew Fraser.

November 10, 2025

Venezuela’s oil, US-led regime change and America’s gangster politics

The flimsy moral pretext today is the fight against narcotics, yet the real objective is to overthrow a sovereign government and the collateral damage is the suffering of the Venezuelan people. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

January 28, 2026

China’s ambitions are narrower than Washington thinks

China’s foreign policy priorities are driven more by domestic stability and long-standing sovereignty claims than by ambitions to dominate the global order.

December 1, 2025

Trump wants Australian data on migrant crime

Donald Trump’s demand for Australian data on migrant crime risks reviving discredited narratives that stigmatise migrants, distort evidence and do real harm to vulnerable communities.

October 11, 2025

‘We must keep the pressure on’: Humanitarians say ceasefire doesn’t erase Gaza genocide

“This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza,” wrote the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine.

February 9, 2026

Climate sceptics dominate the noise, not the numbers

Despite political denial and media distortion, majorities in Australia and the United States accept climate change is real, human-caused and demands action.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal