Civil society groups are increasingly pressing governments to turn Australia’s international legal commitments into domestic law, policy and accountability.
Alison Broinowski
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Elections will test whether Trump and Netanyahu can outrun accountability
As Spain’s Pedro Sánchez takes a markedly different path on Gaza, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu head towards elections burdened by war, scandal and deep questions about democratic accountability. (more…)
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Australia needs UN votes. Its position on Gaza will matter
Australia’s bid for a 2029–30 UN Security Council seat raises the stakes at this month’s General Assembly, where Gaza, international law, climate and relations with the Global South will all matter. (more…)
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Australia must rebuild its Asian language capability
Australia’s Asian-language capability has declined for decades, weakening our ability to understand and engage with our neighbours. Labor’s new language program may make a difference. (more…)
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From Marat to Trump: what history tells us about terror and power
A new biography of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat offers a lens through which to consider two very different reigns of terror – and what their histories might tell us about Donald Trump’s America. (more…)
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The questions Hanson was not made to answer
Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club address gave the media a chance to test One Nation’s claims on racism, public broadcasting, nuclear power, AUKUS, defence spending and foreign policy – but too many of the hardest questions went unasked. (more…)
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Trump goes shopping in the US Indian Ocean Island chain
President Trump is reportedly wanting to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius as his way of securing control of Diego Garcia. First, the United Kingdom must hand back their sovereignty. (more…)
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Duterte’s trial should worry Trump
The court cases facing Nicolás Maduro and Rodrigo Duterte highlight the legal exposure of leaders who use violence, abduction and war as instruments of power – and raise hard questions about Donald Trump’s own vulnerability to international law.
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War games behind the Iran Curtain
The US and UK governments continue to ignore their parliaments and public opinion, on the most important issue, going to war. Again Australia is on the wrong side. (more…)
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Warpower is a write-off
Cheaper and more effective ways of waging war are emerging, but then there’s the American (and Australian) way that still sees the waste of horrendously expensive equipment. (more…)
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Mission creep in the Gulf shows Australia hasn’t learned from past wars
Australia has again joined a US-led conflict with little transparency or debate, raising the risk of mission creep, economic costs and another drawn-out military failure. (more…)
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Iran on the brink
After decades of US-backed regime-change wars across the Middle East, Iran now stands alone. A new conflict would deepen regional instability and test Australia’s willingness to say no.
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Herzog greeted by mass protest despite limits on marching
Denied permission to march, thousands still gathered in central Sydney to protest the visit of Israel’s president. The demonstration revealed both the scale of public anger and the state’s increasingly fraught response to dissent.
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After Gaza, the next target is Iran
US–Israel manoeuvring over Gaza is already widening the conflict. As Sudan burns and propaganda intensifies, Iran may be the next target — with Australia again at risk of being drawn in. (more…)
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Israel, lies and videotape
We have heard a lot in the last two years and one month about Jewish Australians feeling unsafe or intimidated. (more…)
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Australia can’t get away with genocide
Australia repeatedly fights as the deputy sheriff in our ally’s wars. Afterwards, our contributions are forgotten and we continue to dodge blame for the disastrous results, including war crimes. Can we get away with this over Gaza? (more…)
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The easy way or the hard way to the same result
National leaders deceive most people most of the time. Israel’s long, atrocious, US-backed assault on the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon is the latest example, as are their joint attacks on Syria, Yemen, and Iran. (more…)
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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”. (more…)
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Lies and hypocrisy are now the truth
Many governments that call themselves democratic and law-abiding are not. The United States has set the pace in the hypocrisy stakes for years. Its fascist tendencies are now clearly on display. (more…)
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The UN turns 80
The most important agenda item for the United Nations General Assembly this month will be the future of Palestine. But Palestinian leaders will be unable to discuss it, because they will be absent. (more…)
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Terrorists are them, never us
Almost as quickly as Anthony Albanese signed up for AUKUS, he has now agreed to join the United States in making Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) the 32nd terrorist organisation designated by Australia. (more…)
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Eleven opportunities for Australia
The Pacific Peace Conference was held in Brisbane on 2 August 2025. (more…)
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Watermelons in the rain
We knew a thousand police couldn’t arrest 90,000 of us, so the march for Palestine was always going to happen. An 11th-hour decision by Justice Belinda Rigg just made it legal. (more…)
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Two remote islands with a common purpose
After a decades-long fight, Prime Minister Starmer in late May gave up Britain’s possession of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, while Australia keeps the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, our most distant Indian Ocean territory. The United States military has continuing use of both. (more…)
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Build-up to the ultimate surveillance state has just begun
While most of us are transfixed daily by more horrific atrocities, potentially deadlier operations are likely to far outlast the genocide in Gaza. (more…)
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Palestinian genocide: No more selective indignation
Australians are joining the chorus of outrage at Israel’s escalating carnage in Gaza and the West Bank. They include Jewish Australians, but few of our political representatives. (more…)
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If I were foreign minister…
I don’t want to be Australia’s foreign minister, and here’s why: I would not be good at promoting Australia’s current foreign policy to the world. That’s also why I stopped being a diplomat in 1996. (more…)
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Australia should inform itself as to who the real terrorists are
Australians may smirk at the embarrassment of Donald Trump’s neophyte administration over “Signalgate”. Particularly those old enough to remember how our allies punished Canberra for past intelligence scandals and pushed us to set up ASIO. (more…)
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Hurry up and wait
One principle of American military affairs has been said since the 1940s to be “hurry up and wait”. That certainly applies to AUKUS, an agreement so urgent that in September 2021 Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese only 24 hours to agree to it. (more…)
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An open letter to ABC chairman Kim Williams
Dear Mr Williams, In June 2024, on assuming the chair of the ABC, you expressed a desire to see the organisation develop a clearer sense of purpose aligned with its charter and, having gained clarity about its purpose, it should seek to understand how that purpose can be embodied in its offerings. (more…)