NAPLAN can reveal broad patterns in literacy and numeracy, but it cannot diagnose individual student needs and too often turns disadvantage into school reputation. (more…)
Category: Politics
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Want to lift productivity? Force businesses to give workers a big pay rise
Weak growth, falling real wages and poor productivity are linked, and one way to force business to invest and improve efficiency may be to lift wages across the economy. (more…)
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The myth of a joint Pine Gap
While Washington sets the priorities and commands decision-making, Australian operational staff at the base are outnumbered by Australian ‘guards and gardeners’. (more…)
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Labor’s controlled conference avoided the questions that matter
The ALP National Conference should have tested the government’s reform record and commitment to international law, but factional control turned it into a managed exercise in avoidance. (more…)
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AUKUS Infrastructure, part 2: The Henderson bottleneck
In the second of a six-part series on AUKUS infrastructure, the focus shifts to Henderson, where fragmented land tenure, commercial disruption and regulatory delays could block the facilities needed to sustain nuclear-powered submarines. (more…)
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Queensland’s seatbelt fines deserve a Robodebt warning
Queensland’s high-value seatbelt camera fines are being challenged over evidence quality, driver responsibility and fairness, raising questions about whether government revenue is being protected ahead of justice. (more…)
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One Nation’s student visa plan would kill a $55 billion export industry
One Nation’s proposed visa cap and threat to deport students would devastate international education, put tens of thousands of jobs at risk and leave universities facing financial crisis. (more…)
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The Senate could leave Labor managing, not governing
One Nation’s rise may not stop Labor winning the House of Representatives, but it could reshape Senate preferences and leave a future Labor government unable to legislate. (more…)
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After Berlin’s deadly Pride attack, grief needs empathy not Islamophobia
In the aftermath of the deadly Berlin Pride attack, grief is being pulled between silence, scapegoating and political recruitment – when what communities need is empathy, leadership and difficult conversation. (more…)
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AUKUS infrastructure, part 1: The docking gap that could sink Pillar 1
The first in a six-part series examines the maintenance reality behind AUKUS Pillar 1, and the looming risk that Australia may receive Virginia-class submarines before it has certified infrastructure to dock and sustain them. (more…)
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Australia should not copy America’s China research retreat
Australia’s most influential STEM research increasingly depends on collaboration with China, yet excessive security settings risk pushing universities and researchers away from work that serves the public good. (more…)
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Renewables-powered data centres could revive Australia’s regions
Renewable energy, data centres and energy-intensive industries could shift economic growth towards regional Australia, where power can be generated and used closer to source. (more…)
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Vale Charles Garrard (Garry) Woodard
Garry Woodard was a distinguished Australian diplomat, historian and strategic analyst whose service, scholarship and independent judgment helped shape and record Australia’s engagement with Asia. (more…)
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Albanese sees the problem. Labor still cannot name the system
Anthony Albanese acknowledged structural problems in the economy at its National Conference, but Labor still treats capitalism as a system to be repaired rather than transformed. (more…)
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Protection for some, pedagogy for others
The racial hierarchy of the Australian government’s response to its envoys’ recommendations leaves Muslims unprotected by the law. (more…)
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Labor cannot small-target its way past Hanson
Labor’s cautious path to a third term may be electorally defensible, but avoiding a fundamental argument with Pauline Hanson leaves both Hansonism and Labor’s own weaknesses untouched. (more…)
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China and Australia cooperation: is it too much to ask?
Australia and China can rebuild trust through practical confidence-building measures and cooperative projects, especially in the Pacific, where shared interests are urgent. (more…)
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The cockroach that bit Modi
A satirical youth movement built on memes and a cockroach mascot has done what no opposition party managed in a decade: it has cracked Narendra Modi’s grip on India’s national story, and taken a cabinet minister with it.
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Trump, Infantino and the politics of patronage
The World Cup presentation with Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino revealed how FIFA converts football’s collective wealth into patronage, reducing supporters to customers and participation to spectacle.
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Campus free speech on Palestine was the real casualty
A people’s tribunal has found that Australian universities restricted free speech and academic freedom on Palestine, even as vice chancellors apologised for not doing more to police protest. (more…)
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Seventy-five years on, the Refugee Convention still matters
At 75, the Refugee Convention remains a vital framework for protecting people fleeing persecution, but it needs renewed political will and international cooperation to work.
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Putting a ceiling on prisoners’ human rights
The Victorian Corrections Amendment Bill 2026 reveals what happens when a government decides that the difficulty of respecting rights is a sufficient reason to remove them. (more…)
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Racism and the response of four former Prime Ministers
In an open letter in August 1998, four former prime ministers expressed their concern about the upsurge in racism at the time of the Howard Government and the coming election. (more…)
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Environment: sustainability is about redefining what makes a good life, not sacrifice
This week’s environment round-up looks at the search for sustainable wellbeing, the vast fungal networks keeping ecosystems alive, and the likelihood of warming exceeding 1.5°C before 2030.
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Australia is letting its Indonesia relationship drift
Like marriage, international relations need to be cosseted and cherished. Ours with Indonesia is going the other way through indifference. (more…)
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Iran’s wartime story is being told through art, music and memes
As war reshapes daily life in Iran, citizens are using public gatherings, music, poetry, religious chanting, memes and AI-generated videos to reclaim agency and community.
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Public life needs fewer empty notes – Message from the Editor
Public life is loud, reactive and full of people mistaking noise for importance. But there is a difference between speaking when something must be said and simply filling the silence. (more…)
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Israel’s prison policy exposes Western media silence
Israel’s latest prison proposal has drawn attention in Israeli media, but its limited coverage in the Anglosphere points to a deeper failure to confront the treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
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FIFA has given up its responsibility to keep politics out of football
FIFA claims political neutrality, but its treatment of Palestinian football shows an organisation willing to accommodate occupation, apartheid and Israeli impunity. (more…)
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The Victorian prison bill is about much more than fresh air
After being found to have breached prisoners’ rights to one hour of fresh air a day, the Victorian Government is looking to remove that right in the name of operational flexibility. (more…)