In their second in a three-part series on the crisis surrounding the closure of the Strait of Hormuz Nicola Nixon and Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj look beyond energy. (more…)
Category: Policy
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Governing on empty: the Hormuz crisis across Asia and the Pacific — part 1
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is reshaping energy, governance and inequality across Asia and the Pacific. This three-part series examines the very different long and short term impacts across the region. (more…)
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Tensions in Australia’s migration system: a missed opportunity for the Coalition
The Liberal Party has missed an opportunity to design a sophisticated migration policy that incorporates demand for labour, housing, infrastructure and energy. (more…)
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Rehabilitation fails when prisons strip people of dignity
Overcrowding, poor mental health care and degrading prison conditions across Australia are undermining rehabilitation efforts and raising serious questions about how the correctional system treats human dignity. (more…)
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Australia abandoned harm minimisation on smoking – and fuelled a black market
Australia’s steep cigarette excise increases and restrictive vaping policies have fuelled a massive illegal tobacco market while undermining the country’s long-standing harm-minimisation approach to public health.
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A more nuanced way to tackle social media’s harmful effects
Instead of a blanket ban on social media for under 16-year-olds, listening to young people’s ideas about how to tackle the harm would be more effective. (more…)
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Compassion does not end at the front gate – Message from the Editor
Like many I was revolted by the video of Itamar Ben-Gvir taunting and humiliating courageous international citizens determined to get supplies to Palestine. If you haven’t seen it, the video shows the Israeli Minister humiliating Gaza flotilla activists, who are shown kneeling in rows, heads bowed, hands cable-tied behind their backs.
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Chance for a fresh start in patching up the Commonwealth Public Service
The appointment of a new Commonwealth Public Service Commissioner highlights deeper structural problems inside the Public Service Commission, from flawed remuneration policies to weak accountability and confused reform priorities.
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The aid budget ignored a deepening global crisis
Despite the economic and humanitarian shock triggered by the Iran war, Australia’s latest foreign aid budget failed to deliver the kind of substantial regional response the country mounted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Cutting tobacco tax will not stop Australia’s illegal cigarette trade
Proposals to slash Australia’s tobacco excise ignore the basic economics of the illegal cigarette market, where untaxed products would remain dramatically cheaper even if tobacco taxes were heavily reduced. (more…)
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Australia keeps feeding a housing system that cannot deliver
Australia’s housing crisis reflects not just a shortage of homes but the structural limits of a system that relies overwhelmingly on private developers and speculative market incentives to deliver essential social infrastructure. (more…)
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The prison system is failing at the point that matters most
Australia’s correctional system remains heavily focused on incarceration and punishment while failing to build a coordinated national framework to support people transitioning back into society after release.
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The Safeguard Mechanism for greenhouse gases is flawed
The government’s main policy instrument for reducing greenhouse gases only covers a small proportion of emissions and allows companies to offset these emissions. This is totally inadequate when the climate imperative is to rapidly reduce the use of fossil fuels. (more…)
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Labor has backed away from meaningful gambling reform
The government’s long-awaited response to the Murphy inquiry into online wagering falls short of the reforms needed to reduce gambling harm, particularly among young Australians.
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The battle for human attention is becoming a battle for democracy
After US courts found Meta and YouTube liable for deliberately addicting young users, attention is increasingly being recognised not as a private commodity, but as a strategic resource shaping democracy, public debate and social stability. (more…)
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Australia needs a broader vision of social cohesion
Drawing on a submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion from the Group of Six, Vasiliki Nihas Bogiatzis argues Australia needs a broader understanding of social cohesion grounded in fairness, rights, belonging and democratic trust.
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Budget 2026: Will this budget really make housing fairer for more Australians? It’s a good start
This week’s budget begins winding back tax concessions that heavily favoured property investors and wealth accumulation, while pairing those changes with new measures aimed at boosting housing supply and long-term budget sustainability. (more…)
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Budget 2026: Leadership means more than keeping campaign promises – Message from the Editor
The obsession with whether governments have broken campaign promises is shrinking political ambition and discouraging the kind of leadership needed to tackle Australia’s deep structural problems, P&I Editor Catriona Jackson writes. (more…)
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Symbolic empathy is no substitute for tackling homelessness
Fundraising sleepouts may raise awareness, but homelessness is fundamentally a systems failure driven by housing shortages, inadequate support services and political inaction.
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Is the renewed push for a Human Rights Act worth the effort?
A Commonwealth Human Rights Act must do more than help courts identify breaches of human rights; it must enable them to strike down offending laws and give relief to wronged litigants. The groundwork for an act with teeth is still to be done. (more…)
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NDIS: the way forward
To take the NDIS to the next level will require cultural and operational changes that give the National Disability Insurance Agency the tools, and the mindset, to properly manage its business. (more…)
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Australia needs to retain women in STEM careers
If we are serious about productivity, innovation and long-term economic resilience, we cannot afford to keep losing women from STEM occupations and leadership pipelines. We cannot afford to overlook experience. And we cannot afford decision-making structures that draw from only part of the population. (more…)
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More than 1 in 3 Australian adults are functionally illiterate
Australians spend more money per capita on education than most comparable nations. We should therefore have high levels of literacy but we don’t, with persistent levels of functional illiteracy among Australian adults. There is evidence to show how to fix this. (more…)
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Not much ‘reform’ in the National Health Reform Agreement
Australia needs an integrated health service model that is able to focus on the prevention of illness rather than just more money for hospitals, welcome though this is. (more…)
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Looking for a home in a land of empty houses
Beneath the current political debates about housing demand lies an unavoidable reality. Empty dwellings sit alongside visible and hidden forms of homelessness, with many people attempting to create homes in inhospitable places rather than submit to overbearing regulation and continual intrusions into their personal lives. (more…)
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Could the government have blocked return of Australian women and children from Syria?
The Australian Government has to manage the return of its citizens, except in very particular circumstances when citizenship can be cancelled, a passport denied or a temporary exclusion order issued.
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Connect people leaving prison with a job: it works!
Almost everyone in prison today will return to our communities. Whether they reoffend depends on what we do to prevent recidivism. In Western Australia, we know what works – prisoner employment programs – so the question is will we allow it to happen instead of relying on counterproductive risk management and control strategies? (more…)
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The NDIS has transformed lives – but profit is distorting its purpose
The NDIS has enabled greater independence and inclusion, but privatisation and provider profiteering are driving up costs and distorting its purpose. (more…)
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Antisemitism inquiry interim report: we don’t need more terror laws – we need gun reform
The antisemitism inquiry interim report finds Australia already has extensive terrorism laws, while urging governments to move faster on long-delayed national gun reform.
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Why at-risk children keep falling through the net
Child protection and research systems rely on the presence of a functioning parent, leaving many of the most vulnerable children unseen and unsupported. (more…)