October 30, 2025

Getting away with murder

What happens in Australia if Israel gets away with genocide?

February 18, 2026

Muslim women face violence, prejudice, exclusion

Reported Islamophobic attacks in Australia have surged dramatically, with Muslim women overwhelmingly targeted. The failure of political leaders and institutions to respond meaningfully is deepening fear, trauma and exclusion.

November 7, 2025

The press and the Dismissal – Part III

Television had come to the fore in elections during the Whitlam campaign of 1972 when increased funds were spent on advertising with slogans (“It’s time” was backed by a catchy jingle) and mainly short television grabs for the news.

January 15, 2026

Best of 2025 - When truth can no longer be silenced

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

December 3, 2025

The politics of forgetting: Australia, Gaza and moral silence

From the “Great Australian Silence” to Gaza, deliberate forgetting has long provided political cover for injustice. Silence, not ignorance, is the problem.

November 23, 2025

Pitch perfect: the case for backing busking

The City of Sydney is restricting busking on some streets, but in doing so it’s losing the vibrancy that comes from a community of street entertainers.

December 21, 2025

How much does it cost to end rough sleeping? An Australian-first study may have just found out

Homelessness in Australia is worsening, with services stuck in crisis mode. Evidence from Finland – and new research in SA and WA – shows a different path is possible.

November 14, 2025

As Australia welcomes its millionth refugee, its hardline border policies endure. We can lead by example again

Any day now, Australia will welcome its millionth refugee since World War II.

October 20, 2025

Countering Trump, Pacific Islanders are leading on climate change

The leaders of the Pacific Islands are forging a united front against President Donald Trump’s climate denialism and leading the world in the battle against the climate crisis.

October 18, 2025

Keating pays tribute to former NZ leader Jim Bolger

It was sad for me to learn of Jim Bolger’s death.

November 22, 2025

Trump’s latest Epstein gambit

The next time you hear that Trump has somehow reversed his earlier resistance to releasing the Epstein files, remember that he hasn’t. He could have ordered their disclosure long ago; he never needed a congressional resolution compelling it.

October 31, 2025

Taiwan as an integral part of China: A historical, legal and geopolitical analysis

The status of Taiwan remains one of the most contested topics in modern geopolitics and one of the most misrepresented.

February 3, 2026

Plan B: towards an Australian model of military self-reliance

Australia’s defence posture remains shaped by expeditionary assumptions at a time when alliance guarantees are less certain. Building a credible Plan B requires a renewed focus on territorial defence, resilience and self-reliance.

February 1, 2026

How much federal income tax will Elon Musk’s Tesla pay on $5.7 billion in 2025 revenue? $0

The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress “have allowed a hugely profitable corporation to avoid paying even a dime of federal income tax on their 2025 US profits.”

January 20, 2026

Can Washington still strike a grand bargain with Beijing?

A prominent Chinese academic argues the conditions are right for a US–China “grand bargain”. But recent events in Venezuela and the Middle East raise hard questions about what kind of America China is dealing with.

December 22, 2025

What Australia’s teen social media ban could mean for reading

As under-16s are locked out of major social media platforms, online book communities that helped many teens discover reading are disappearing too. What’s being lost, and what might replace it?

November 24, 2025

Will AI kill the middle class?

When the creators of a new technology warn that it could destroy the primary engine of global growth of the past half a century, it’s worth paying attention

February 20, 2026

Universities expose racism’s scale – and the dangers of unequal responses

New national data shows racism is widespread across Australian universities. The challenge is responding fairly, without elevating one community’s suffering over another’s.

February 7, 2026

Australian doctors protest Israel’s destruction of health rights in Gaza

Israel’s deregistration of international health providers in Gaza makes legally mandated care increasingly impossible, raising serious questions about compliance with international law.

January 14, 2026

Best of 2025 - Gunboat hypocrisy in the Caribbean

Even as Donald Trump crisscrosses the globe, bringing his purported peacemaking skills to parts of the world that did not even know they were at war, his administration has openly been preparing for militarised regime change in Venezuela. Neighbouring Colombia too isn’t safe.

October 13, 2025

How anti-China witch hunts in Canada and the UK ruin lives

Security services such as London’s MI5 and Ottawa’s RCMP appear to be going after individuals and organisations out of pure antagonism and distrust against Beijing rather than having actual evidence.

January 14, 2025

Best of 2025 - Gunboat hypocrisy in the Caribbean

December 17, 2025

Prabowo’s first year: all power, no accountability

A year after Prabowo Subianto’s election, Indonesia’s democracy is under strain as power centralises, dissent is curtailed and the military’s influence grows.

October 23, 2025

Islamophobia in Australian schools: What the Special Envoy’s report means for education

Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, recently released his landmark report: A National Response to Islamophobia: A Strategic Framework for Inclusion, Safety and Prosperity.

January 14, 2026

Best of 2025 - Getting away with murder

What happens in Australia if Israel gets away with genocide?

November 27, 2025

How Trump tried to sell Ukraine a diplomatic debacle

Two rival peace proposals for Ukraine have emerged – one from the US, echoing long-standing Russian demands, and another from Europe. Kyiv has rejected the US plan as written, insisting its sovereignty cannot be bargained away.

November 21, 2025

Denouement: trapped between empires - Part 6

“What you in Australia must understand is that you are more to blame than the CIA. You want this to happen, you want a certain administration in control, and you don’t want another administration in control. Do the loyalties of your intelligence services lie with your country as a whole or with the establishment in your country? In most instances, the answer you find is with the establishment.” Victor Marchetti, former CIA officer and deputy director at Pine Gap.

November 11, 2025

The black work of big oil

Now is the sinister time of year when the Barons of Big Oil gather together, under the auspices of the United Nations and with the blessing of most world leaders, to celebrate the 350 million needless deaths they plan to cause between now and 2050 in the name of profit.

November 3, 2025

Will the US do to Venezuela’s Maduro what they did to Gaddafi?

Something truly horrific is being planned for Venezuela. Generals are being bought and paid for, death squads are being organised and a major regime change operation is slowly gathering steam that, if executed, will have catastrophic consequences for the people of Venezuela and possibly the region beyond.

January 7, 2026

Best of 2025 - Best of 2025 - Who is a terrorist?

Since 7 October 2023 there has been a growth of the use of the allegation of terrorism for propaganda purposes.

December 8, 2025

Australia’s trust deficit is a failure of governance

Public trust in Australian politics is wearing dangerously thin. Restoring it will require clear standards, real accountability and decisions that can be traced, justified and owned.

November 22, 2025

Root canals and conspiracies

Social media misinformation is creating a public health problem of lost teeth, prolonged dental pain, unnecessary costs, and worsening inequalities in oral health.

October 19, 2025

Savvy politicians know how to ‘perform’ authenticity – the Jacinda Ardern doco offers a masterclass

There’s a telling moment in the documentary film Prime Minister when Jacinda Ardern reflects on her rapid rise from Labour leader to prime minister, saying she had “no time to redesign myself […] I could only be myself”.

January 17, 2026

Best of 2025 - Coalition politicians who can't accept the threat of climate change should resign

Politicians who cannot accept climate change is humanity’s greatest threat should have no place in the Australian parliament.

November 12, 2025

Looking back on Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day should be one on which thoughts turn to peace. Instead it tends to lead us in the opposite direction.

October 12, 2025

Omar Yaghi: Refugee from Gaza wins 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry

Born in a one-room home on the outskirts of Amman, the son of illiterate Palestinian refugees from Gaza, Professor Omar Yaghi has risen from the hardships of displacement to the highest pinnacle of scientific achievement by winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

February 4, 2026

Education savings plans and the quiet erosion of public schooling

Education savings schemes appear sensible and responsible. But their quiet rise reflects a deeper failure – a loss of confidence in Australia’s commitment to properly fund public education as a shared civic good.

January 16, 2026

Best of 2025 - Burn it all down movements

When a 34-year-old democratic socialist defeats a political dynasty in the nation’s largest city, we’re witnessing more than another electoral upset.

December 10, 2025

Nationalists play to the crowd in Japan–China relations

A warning from Japan’s prime minister about Taiwan has triggered a sharp exchange with Beijing, revealing how nationalism is reshaping diplomacy.

October 6, 2025

Palestinians out by 7 October?

No wonder Israel’s prime minister was grinning. He had his fourth meeting this year with President Trump. He also got what he came for: permission to “finish the job”.

January 30, 2026

Period pain is costing the Australian economy billions every year in lost productivity

Period pain and heavy menstrual bleeding are widespread, under-acknowledged, and quietly draining Australia’s economy. New research puts the cost at around $14 billion a year in lost productivity and shows why workplace policy reform is long overdue.

January 19, 2026

Best of 2025 - Charting Trump's decline

New polling reveals a clear and sustained decline in public approval of Trump and his policies that is already reshaping US electoral prospects, with significant implications for Congress and beyond.

October 9, 2025

Japan's likely new leader is a surprise, and not just because she is a woman

In the recent election held by Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party to find a new leader following the assassination of former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, an unlikely name to emerge was that of Sanae Takaichi.

February 5, 2026

Herzog’s visit "a terrible cruelty"

For Palestinian Australians who have lost entire families in Gaza, the decision to welcome Israel’s president to Australia is not diplomatic neutrality but an act of profound cruelty. As deaths continue despite a ceasefire, questions of grief, justice and political accountability can no longer be avoided.

November 15, 2025

China-phobia in Australia is endangering the country’s security

The toxic roots of China-phobia are deeply embedded in modern Australia’s cultural history. It has a firm grip on the minds of many of Australia’s policy wonks, politicians, media commentators, and the general public.

November 13, 2025

Burn it all down movements

When a 34-year-old democratic socialist defeats a political dynasty in the nation’s largest city, we’re witnessing more than another electoral upset.

February 17, 2026

How Iran’s current unrest can be traced back to the 1979 revolution

Repeated waves of protest show Iranians have lost faith in the promises of the 1979 revolution. But history suggests ideology can fail long before a regime does.

November 5, 2025

Zombie multilateralism: The undead world of APEC

After 20 years, APEC returned to Korea, but it feels different.

February 6, 2026

Why the governor-general should not be the prime minister’s choice

Governor-General Sam Mostyn’s remarks reveal a deeper flaw in Australia’s constitutional arrangements – one that weakens the independence of the head of state and undermines democratic accountability.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal