February 20, 2026

Dual nationals in Israel’s military face growing legal scrutiny over Gaza

Newly released data shows that tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers hold foreign citizenship, placing Western nationals directly within the scope of international war crimes law over Gaza.

February 10, 2026

One Nation surges to new high as Coalition slumps to record low

Multiple polls place One Nation ahead of the Coalition, raising the prospect of an historic realignment on the Australian right.

February 3, 2026

Gordon de Brouwer: A disappointing legacy

Gordon de Brouwer leaves as APS Commissioner having strengthened capability processes and leadership roles, but without the legislative and institutional reforms needed to restore integrity, independence and long-term resilience.

December 18, 2025

Cutting the Internet in Afghanistan is gender-based violence

The Taliban’s September Internet blackouts were not a technical disruption but a deliberate act of control. By cutting digital access, Afghan women were stripped of education, income, connection and voice – extending gender apartheid into the online realm.

November 24, 2025

A rare win-win for climate, farming and biodiversity – if policymakers act

Restoring Australia’s farm dams could slash emissions, improve water quality, boost livestock productivity, and enhance biodiversity – all at low cost.

February 16, 2026

Bad Bunny, good neighbour

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance was a cultural moment at the centre of American life that exposed a deeper political truth – while music celebrates belonging across borders, US foreign policy continues to enforce domination through sanctions, blockades and collective punishment.

November 6, 2025

Lancet study shows more than 3m years of human life lost in Israeli assault on Gaza

“To speak of three million years of human life erased is to confront the true scale of this atrocity – generations of children, parents, and families wiped out,” said the head of a US advocacy group.

February 18, 2026

Judge pushes back on Trump-style ‘Ministry of Truth’

A Republican-appointed federal judge has ordered the restoration of slavery exhibits at an historic US site, rejecting claims that the executive can decide what historical truth should be.

November 28, 2025

Trying teenagers as adults won’t fix youth crime

Victoria’s proposal to send 14–17 year olds into adult courts ignores international law, expert evidence and decades of failed policy. Rehabilitation, not punishment, is what reduces future harm.

October 31, 2025

Open letter to David Marr on his interview with Chris Hedges

Well-known journalist Chris Hedges, whose talk scheduled to be delivered at the National Press Club was suddenly cancelled, was confronted by the ABC’s Late Night Live host David Marr in an unexpectedly ferocious interview. One reader took exception to this.

December 6, 2025

Refugees aren’t politically progressive by default – and policy needs to catch up

Australian settlement policy often assumes refugees will embrace progressive politics. Research and community experience show refugee political identities are far more diverse – with important implications for law and policy.

November 25, 2025

The ceasefire that isn’t: 400 violations in 40 days

Israel has violated the ceasefire in Gaza hundreds of times since October, using vague or unverified justifications to carry out strike in a recurring pattern of escalation and impunity.

December 9, 2025

‘This will be my dream project’: How we got Frank Gehry to design the UTS ‘paper bag’

“I’m up for it” was the response of arguably the most famous architect in the world to our hesitant inquiry. “This will be my dream project,” he said.

October 21, 2025

'We can do this': Rio Tinto’s rapid switch to renewables shows path for quick exit from coal

You might be able to imagine the scene: An Australia sporting minister stands up in front of a vast audience to announce that something is simply not possible – it might be running 100 metres in 10 seconds, kicking a drop goal from 50 metres, or a swimming relay team beating a world record.

February 21, 2026

Board of Peace plans 5,000-person military base in southern Gaza

Leaked contracting documents detail plans by the Board of Peace to build a large military base in southern Gaza, including armoured towers, bunkers and a “Human Remains Protocol”.

February 7, 2026

Herzog’s visit exposes Australia’s legal weakness on human rights

As Israel’s president visits Australia, debates over protest, terrorism and antisemitism expose a significant problem: Australia lacks a coherent human rights framework.

December 15, 2025

Book Review: Merlinda Bobis explores four generations of colonialism and violence in the Phillipines

Merlinda Bobis’ In the Name of the Trees weaves four generations of Bikol women into a powerful exploration of colonial violence, language, land and survival.

October 25, 2025

Indonesia’s security depends on educating the minds behind its machines

Indonesia is investing in its regional influence — purchasing new fighters, drones, frigates and billions in defence contracts — while allowing its classrooms to deteriorate.

December 2, 2025

Indonesia’s Gaza peacekeeping bid raises more questions than answers

Indonesia has offered to send up to 20,000 troops to Gaza as part of an international peacekeeping force. The proposal highlights shifting regional politics – and unresolved concerns about military power, credibility and human rights.

January 12, 2026

Best of 2025 - Israel’s response to the International Court of Justice

The ceasefire plan in Gaza has dominated our news in recent days and weeks. One aspect of the plan is the obligation of Israel in the first phase to release a number — a large number — of Palestinian prisoners.

January 8, 2026

Best of 2025 - A smart productivity play: Stop subsidising loss-making native forest logging

On 7 September 2025, NSW set the proposed 476,000-hectare boundary for the Great Koala National Park and halted native-forest logging within it (plantation harvesting continues), with formal gazettal slated for 2026.

December 5, 2025

Is the focus on NAPLAN’s ‘top’ schools a good idea?

This year’s NAPLAN results reveal encouraging stories of student progress, but headlines about ’top’ schools risk oversimplifying how improvement really happens – and what parents should take from the data.

October 29, 2025

The unvanquished will: Gaza’s triumph of spirit against the architecture of genocide

For the last two years, my social media algorithm has been relentlessly dominated by Gaza, particularly by the voices of ordinary Gazans, displaying a blend of emotions that centres on two core principles: grief and defiance.

December 2, 2025

AI and the news: how it helps, fails, and why that matters

AI is reshaping the news ecosystem in the fields of search, fact-checking and personalised feeds. If used well, it can support journalism and strengthen democracy.

January 29, 2026

Bazball in Australia: poor philosophy or poor execution?

England’s Bazballers have left our shores, having lost the Ashes series and with their playing code widely panned. But was it the code or the execution that was responsible for England’s defeat?

December 1, 2025

Trade and tariffs: how reciprocity turned into retaliation

Tariff powers once tightly constrained by Congress have steadily migrated to the US presidency. That shift is reshaping global trade – and exposing countries like Australia to greater economic coercion.

October 13, 2025

Fifty years of political economics at Sydney University – what has it meant for us?

Earlier this year The Journal of Australian Political Economy published a _special issue_ devoted to recollections and implications of 50 years of Political Economy courses at Sydney University.

November 8, 2025

Computer still says no to Queenslanders wearing seatbelts

The ACT Government has just announced that from 3 November, “ACT traffic cameras will detect and issue infringements for seatbelt offences".

October 7, 2025

7 October 2023: shocking yes, surprising no

A new book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Road to October 7 - a brief history of Palestinian Islamism, by Erik Skare, shows how the seeds of the Gaza war were sown over decades.

February 24, 2026

Death tolls, settlements and the closing space for a two-state future

New research confirms that far more Palestinians have been killed in Gaza than first acknowledged, while settlement expansion and political rhetoric point to deeper structural realities.

December 3, 2025

Global campaign amplifies call for the release of jailed Palestinian leader Barghouti

An international campaign is calling for the release of Palestinian political figure Marwan Barghouti, arguing his freedom could reshape Palestinian politics and revive peace efforts.

December 22, 2025

Vulnerability at the heart of Christmas

Christmas begins with fragility rather than power. The story of Jesus’ birth places vulnerability, dependence and shared humanity at its centre.

January 15, 2026

Best of 2025 - The new political economy of innovation: Why Australian policymakers need better tools

When the Commonwealth Government reorganised its innovation responsibilities for the fourth time in a decade, public servants made jokes about updating their email signatures again.

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.

February 2, 2026

Australia’s vast sea territories – and the risks we ignore

As great powers revive territorial ambition, Australia is neglecting the strategic and economic value of its remote islands and the vast ocean zones they command.

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.”

February 19, 2026

The world is drifting back towards unconstrained nuclear danger

With the expiration of the New START treaty and the erosion of arms control agreements, the safeguards that once limited nuclear danger are rapidly disappearing – despite decades of evidence that restraint reduces catastrophic risk.

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.

February 9, 2026

Confucianism, not coercion – China’s long export of a governance philosophy

Claims that China is exporting authoritarianism rest on a shallow reading of both Chinese political tradition and how governance ideas actually travel. A longer historical view points instead to Confucianism – a philosophy that has shaped governance across East Asia for centuries.

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.

February 12, 2026

If the roles were reversed, how would the west react?

What would western outrage look like if China, rather than the United States, had carried out decades of military interventions and political interference?

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.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal