The leaked review of the Liberal Party’s 2025 election defeat details campaign failures and organisational problems. What it avoids is the harder question: what policies or direction might rebuild support.
Category: Politics
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Australia’s shameless support for the US attack on Iran makes us gullible, duplicitous, or both
For Anthony Albanese – as well as Mark Carney and Keir Starmer – to go along with Trump and Netanyahu’s cynical ploy negates any sense of moral authority we possess – a catastrophe for the rules-based order. (more…)
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Why I risked prison to add a ‘Losing Sound’ to poker machines
Poker machines are designed to celebrate wins but stay silent on losses. A new project aims to disrupt that psychological design by introducing a simple losing sound – and to push for legislative reform. (more…)
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War on Iran signals urgent need for Australia to end risky imported oil dependency
The widening conflict in the Gulf has exposed Australia’s extreme reliance on imported oil. With minimal fuel reserves and a $12 billion annual diesel subsidy to mining, energy security has become a national security emergency. (more…)
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The Liberal Party keeps losing women voters
The Liberal Party’s declining support among women is not a temporary setback. It reflects deep social change, rising educational attainment among women, and a growing disconnect between modern professional women and the party’s current values and positioning. (more…)
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You don’t have to like Iran’s government to oppose this war
After the killing of more than 150 schoolchildren in southern Iran, memories of a visit to Isfahan in 2018 return with painful clarity for Eugene Doyle. Beyond governments and geopolitics are ordinary families, whose children now bear the cost of escalating war. (more…)
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The US-Israeli attack on Iran is also an assault on the United Nations
The US–Israel war on Iran is a direct breach of the UN Charter and a blow to international law. But the attempt to impose global hegemony and hollow out the UN will ultimately fail in a multipolar world determined to resist domination. (more…)
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Happy Chinese New Year? Fine for Howard, treason for Albanese
Mocking a prime minister for wishing Chinese Australians a happy new year says less about foreign policy than about how national identity is being weaponised in domestic politics. (more…)
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War is the opiate of the Israeli masses
Israel has once again entered war to solve its “existential problems once and for all”. History suggests those promises of total victory rarely survive contact with reality.
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Royal Commission gets off on the wrong foot
The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has begun by adopting the IHRA definition as uncontroversial. Yet that definition – and its application to criticism of Israel – remains hotly disputed and politically charged. (more…)
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Migration scare campaign ignores Coalition’s own targets
The Coalition is trying to turn migration into a political flashpoint. But the long-term net overseas migration target under Labor is identical to the one projected under the Morrison government.
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Thirty years on, the Howard legacy still defines our limits
John Howard marks 30 years since the Coalition’s 1996 victory with a familiar story of stability and economic management. But the deeper legacy is the set of political and economic defaults both major parties now treat as common sense.
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If Iran resists, the global economy will pay
Western governments, including Australia and New Zealand, have backed US and Israeli strikes on Iran. But the decision risks economic catastrophe, regional escalation and the further erosion of international law. (more…)
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Trump and Netanyahu want regime change, but Iran’s regime was built for survival. A long war is now likely
The US–Israel strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader have pushed the Middle East into open war. But regime change in Tehran is far from assured and the conflict could trigger prolonged regional instability with global consequences.
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Albanese’s decision will follow him into the history books – and define us too
Anthony Albanese’s refusal to assist Australian women and children in Syrian detention camps may prove to be the defining act of his prime ministership – not for its prudence, but for what it reveals about leadership, moral courage and the limits of political calculation.
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Abbott’s finger pointing on overseas students is pure hypocrisy
Tony Abbott blames record numbers of temporary residents and international students on recent governments. But policy changes introduced and maintained under his own leadership played a central role in driving that growth.
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‘Insane this is legal’: Bettors make huge profits from suspiciously timed wagers on Iran war
Newly created accounts made around $1 million betting on the precise timing of US strikes on Iran, prompting calls for investigation into whether prediction markets are being used to profit from war.
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The Russia–Ukraine war: Australia’s unanswered questions. Part 2
As Australia backed Ukraine into a catastrophic land war with Russia, serious questions about corruption, arms diversion and governance were visible in plain sight. In part 2 of his two-part series, Michael McKinley examines what was known, what was ignored, and why it mattered. (more…)
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Wind farm Barnaby loves to hate sent to planning commission after 1,371 submissions
The 730MW Winterbourne wind project near Walcha has been referred to the NSW Independent Planning Commission after drawing more than 1,300 submissions – with a majority supporting its development.
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Louise Adler sets the record straight on Adelaide Writers’ Week
The Adelaide Writers’ Week (AWW) debacle might have served as a “life lesson” to politicians and lobbyists about the risks involved in interfering with the independence of arts organisations. But as we have seen at Newcastle and the Sydney Writers Festival some are apparently slow learners. (more…)
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Trump’s dangerous war without consent
The United States is now at war with Iran without congressional approval, and the costs – strategic, human and constitutional – could be catastrophic. (more…)
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Jeffrey Sachs on the US and Israel war with Iran
The US is fighting to maintain hegemony, in a war that will have shocking global ramifications, says Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs in conversation with Glenn Diesen. (more…)
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From Minneapolis to Africa – how states fracture when legitimacy fails
From Nigeria to Ethiopia, African conflicts show how federations unravel when force loses accountability. Minnesota’s standoff with Washington reveals the same warning signs.
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Large-scale forest thinning has limited benefits but major financial and ecological costs
Mechanical thinning is increasingly promoted as a fire control solution. But new research finds its effectiveness is mixed and the ecological, climate and financial costs often outweigh the benefits. (more…)
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Australia, refugees and the colonial hangover in the Asian century
From offshore detention to uneven moral outrage abroad, Australia’s political instincts still reflect an older colonial logic – one that sits uneasily in an Asian century shaped by multipolar power and shifting global authority. (more…)
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Regions, not postcodes: the structural reality of rural public education
Educational disadvantage in Australia is often framed as urban or socioeconomic. But across regional and remote communities, public schools operate with structurally thin staffing, services and support – and the consequences are cumulative. (more…)
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The Russia–Ukraine war: Australia’s unanswered questions. Part 1
As the Russia–Ukraine war enters its fifth year, hard questions are overdue. In Part 1 of a two-part series, Michael McKinley examines the strategic history behind the conflict and Australia’s uncritical alignment with a US-led approach that offered Ukraine little prospect of victory. (more…)
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Environment: A hotter Middle East, a warming Arctic and heatwaves that won’t retreat
Arab nations face a very hot future, more severe heatwaves will continue for 1,000 years after we reach net zero, and changing land use has contributed to global warming, now global warming is damaging the land. (more…)
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Lord of the Flies in the age of Trump
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies remains a bleak meditation on power, fear and civilisation. In today’s politics, its allegory feels newly unsettling. (more…)
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Punishment without crime: bypassing the law to criminalise dissent
A withdrawn charge is not a conviction. Yet across Australia, discontinued allegations are appearing on police checks, leaving individuals to defend themselves long after a case has collapsed. (more…)