A new parliamentary term in Canberra for a re-elected government with a huge majority is a timely opportunity for long-term policy and regulatory reform. One necessary focus is the ecosystem for business success in society under 21st century conditions, in an age of existential threats. (more…)
Category: Policy
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The GST — past, present, future — and always tense
There’s little elegance in the way Australia approaches tax reform. It’s never a highway cruise. (more…)
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Tax, productivity growth and equality
Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ upcoming economic summit has triggered renewed debate over the links between tax, productivity, growth and equity. And inevitably arguments between the right and the left – can we understand both and find a way through? I hope so. (more…)
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An entirely new approach to public policy
At the outset of the second term of the Labor Government, we may reasonably ask: What policy innovations will the prime minister and his colleagues bring forward? (more…)
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Australia employs ‘straddle’ diplomacy with China and the US
The approach is not doctrinal, but is about speaking frankly to both Washington and Beijing. (more…)
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Top Australian writers urge Albanese to abolish Job-Ready Graduates, calling their humanities degrees life-changing
“Earning a humanities degree was not only life-changing, in terms of opening up a world of knowledge otherwise beyond my reach, it also turns out to have been enormously productive – for me and many, many people around me,” said Tim Winton this week. “My little arts degree has created jobs and cultural value for over 40 years.” (more…)
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An Australian pathway to productivity, resilience and budget sustainability
The wisdom of serious reform: The forthcoming August 2025 Government Roundtable seeks a better future for all Australians. And, indeed, our society has well-known and well documented lists of policies that can reliably deliver on that desired outcome. (more…)
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Will Albanese and Xi “cooperate” to acquire “common ground” in the fullness of time?
China policy and related diplomacy has recently made important progress based on the postponed resolution of apparently hard differences, but how long can the “reservation” of difficulty delay the explicit correction of the separation of economy and security? (more…)
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Progressive patriotism fails the independence test
Anthony Albanese’s recent John Curtin oration sparked hope among some that Australia might pursue a more independent foreign policy. (more…)
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Time to clarify the scope for bipartisan cooperation in a new Federal Parliament
It would be wise if the Prime Minister and the new Leader of the Opposition were to meet early in this new Federal Parliament to clarify what they think is the desirable and possible scope for bipartisan cooperation. (more…)
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No simple solutions for specialist problems
A referral to a specialist doctor should set patients on a smooth path to the care they need. But it can be more like an alpine hike, with steep fees and treacherously long waiting lists. It’s putting lives at risk. (more…)
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Navigating a bipolar world
The US might yet save us from ourselves by adding conditions to the nuclear submarine agreement that no Australian Government could accept. (more…)
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The geopolitical context of Albanese’s China visit
Prime Minister Albanese and I have a few things in common. We were both born on 2 March and we have both been in car accidents, and as I write this, we are both in the People’s Republic of China. (more…)
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Is Australia finally coming to terms with East Asia?
Comedy and economic development have one thing in common: timing is everything. (more…)
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The politics of a police criminal organisation
In 1972, police at an Aboriginal settlement at Papunya, several hundred kilometres west of Alice Springs, closed down a travelling Slim Dusty concert after some of the young men somehow got access to alcohol and became drunk. (more…)
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Abandoning our fears: how Australia should respond to US-China regional confrontation
A presentation by Professor Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister, to the University of Melbourne Australian Peace and Security Forum Webinar Abandoning our Fears: Finding Peace and Security in our Region, 8 July 2025. (more…)
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Albanese’s visit to China is a moment for statesmanship
Membership of the Chinese Communist Party has just exceeded 100 million. It has long been the largest political party in world history. (more…)
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The housing crisis is everyone’s problem
The housing crisis has been decades in the making but we cannot afford decades to solve it. (more…)
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Australian childcare – do you reap what you sow?
The present crisis in the childcare industry in Australia has been in the making for the past 50 years. (more…)
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Achieving health equity in Australia
The recently launched World Report on the Social Determinants of Health Equity, by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2025), paints a stark picture of the differences in ill-health, poor well-being, disease and mortality within and between countries, that arise from unfair and avoidable social conditions. (more…)
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Flood management: Science, technology and people’s responses
To reduce the risks posed by floods requires both scientific input and appropriate community reaction. It is not always clear that both are in evidence. (more…)
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The magic of the mandate: Now you see it, now you don’t
In 2003, then prime minister John Howard committed Australia to the US-led invasion of Iraq. (more…)
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India’s state and central governments still aren’t speaking the same language
The first rule of discussing language policy in India is to leave any expectations of a calm conversation at the door. (more…)
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Will the ‘Mr Magoo Nation’ stand up against ‘Trumpist’ geopolitics?
In the June 7-8 issue of The Australian Greg Sheridan railed against the ‘’crushing waves of [Chinese] military threat” and satirised the Albanese Government’s “pathological passivity” as reminiscent of Peter Seller’s quietly subversive Chauncey Gardner. (more…)
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Switching from a failed vape and tobacco policy to a successful one
Australia’s health policy in relation to vapes is in disarray. Yet this deeply flawed approach is currently supported by all state, federal and territory governments. (more…)
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Labor’s Left majority: A defining moment
The May 2025 election delivered something quietly historic. For the first time since the 1970s, the Labor Left faction holds a majority in caucus. (more…)
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Australian foreign policy is in the doldrums
Opinion polls indicate Australians are at last waking up to the fact that their country’s security reliance on Trump’s US is no longer tenable. (more…)
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Faster than forecast, accelerated warming creates a climate time-bomb for the Albanese government
The physical reality of accelerating climate heating and faster-than-forecast impacts have mugged climate policymaking, which now needs to be rebuilt with up-to-date scientific observations and understandings, and a risk-management approach that gives particular attention to the most-damaging, plausible high-end scenarios. (more…)
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Regime change and blowback in Iran
According to US political scientist Chalmers Johnson, in the 1950s the CIA coined the term “blowback” to refer to “the unintended and unexpected negative consequences of covert special operations that have been kept secret from the American people and, in most cases, from their elected representatives”. (more…)
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IDF actions in Gaza directly contradict Jewish ethical tradition
The Israeli response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 has been massive and all-encompassing. (more…)