Coalition turmoil has handed Anthony Albanese political space few prime ministers enjoy. Whether he uses it to govern with purpose – or continues to drift – is now the central question.
Category: Politics
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Australia’s moral failure over women and children in Syria
Australian citizens and their children remain stranded in Syrian camps as political fear eclipses care, responsibility and legal obligation – with damaging consequences for public decency.
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Malcolm Fraser and Fraser Island
One year after the 1975 Dismissal, Malcolm Fraser overruled state pressure and commercial interests to halt sand mining on K’Gari – a decision that reshaped Australia’s environmental history.
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Death tolls, settlements and the closing space for a two-state future
New research confirms that far more Palestinians have been killed in Gaza than first acknowledged, while settlement expansion and political rhetoric point to deeper structural realities. (more…)
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Carney and Albanese and the collapse of global order?
Ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Australia next month, it is time to ask will Australia embrace Carney’s call to harness middle power clout. (more…)
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Could old rivalries spur Albanese to act on human rights?
Kevin Rudd had the groundwork, the evidence and the political moment for a Human Rights Act – and still walked away. Anthony Albanese now has the same opportunity, and no obvious excuse not to take it. (more…)
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Globalisation of occupation: when genocide becomes an international project
Thousands of foreign nationals are serving in Israel’s military with the legal tolerance of their home states, while peaceful protest against the war is criminalised. This double standard exposes a deep failure of international law and accountability. (more…)
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Starlink, China and the governance of low Earth orbit
China’s massive satellite filings highlight how low Earth orbit has already been transformed by industrial-scale deployment – and how existing governance is struggling to keep pace.
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One error and damned forever?
Women and children held in Syrian detention camps force Australia to choose between rhetoric and the rule of law.
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Countering bully, tyrant Trump’s intimidating expletives – it could work
Donald Trump’s rise and endurance rest on intimidation, repetition and media amplification – and on the long failure of opponents to confront those tactics directly.
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Deep thinking needed on AI, not shallow predictions
Confident predictions about artificial intelligence dominate public debate – but history suggests forecasting technological futures is a poor guide for policy. What matters more are the conditions that shape how AI is actually used.
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Islamophobia and strategic blindness: Australia in the Asian century
Australia seeks deeper integration with Asia while continuing to send cultural and political signals that undermine trust among its closest neighbours. In a region shaped by Islam, history and proximity, this contradiction carries strategic consequences. (more…)
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When Ramadan and Lent overlap, faiths move in parallel
As Ramadan and Lent unfold simultaneously across Asia, Muslim and Christian communities move through parallel seasons of fasting, prayer and charity – shaping public life in subtle but significant ways.
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A history of assassination reveals how ‘targeted killings’ became an extension of state power
Targeted killing has shifted from a tactic governments disavowed to one they increasingly acknowledge and promote. A new history traces how assassination became embedded in modern state power.
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Environment: State-owned fossil fuel companies dominate CO2 emissions
16 state-owned fossil fuel companies top the CO2 emission charts, nations need to be rich to electrify and need to electrify to get rich, and Norway drives the EV boom.
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How Vietnam reshaped Murdoch’s politics – and The Australian
The Australian’s coverage of the Vietnam War shifted as Rupert Murdoch’s political alliances hardened, revealing how editorial direction followed power more than events on the ground. (more…)
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Reconciliation begins with education
Eighteen years after the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, the failure of the Voice referendum exposed how little many Australians know about the violence that followed colonisation – and why education remains central to reconciliation.
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Bring these Australian children home, PM. They did not make their own beds
Dozens of Australian women and children remain trapped in dangerous detention camps in north-east Syria, despite Australia’s legal obligations, available security powers, and repeated international requests for repatriation. (more…)
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Message from the Editor
I gasped in disbelief when I heard our Prime Minster invoke his beloved mother, when blocking the return of family members of ISIS fighters to Australia this week. He said: “My mother would have said, ‘If you make your bed, you lie in it’.” And he doubled down the next day, saying of the 11 women and 23 children: “I have nothing but contempt for these people.”
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Prince Andrew arrested – why not King Trump?
If no one is above the law in the UK, not even royalty, presumably no one is above the law in the US, not even a president. (more…)
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Let’s not turn back the clock on immigration
Australia needs a forward-looking, evidence-based immigration policy from the Liberal Party. They should drop the slogans, fear mongering and backward-looking thinking. (more…)
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Australia’s renewable surge leaves energy politics behind
New data shows Australia’s renewable energy transition has passed a tipping point – with wind, solar and batteries now supplying half the national grid and rapidly expanding. (more…)
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Board of Peace plans 5,000-person military base in southern Gaza
Leaked contracting documents detail plans by the Board of Peace to build a large military base in southern Gaza, including armoured towers, bunkers and a “Human Remains Protocol”.
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With more restrictive laws across the country, how can we protect the right to protest?
Recent state laws passed in the name of public safety are expanding police powers and narrowing the right to protest, with uneven safeguards for human rights across Australia.
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The three big challenges facing Angus Taylor
Angus Taylor has assembled his shadow ministry, but unresolved tensions with the Nationals, policy baggage from the last election and doubts about his own authority leave his leadership exposed. (more…)
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AI, productivity and the long stall in living standards
Artificial intelligence may offer the best chance to lift stagnant productivity and living standards – but without deliberate policy choices, its benefits will be uneven and limited. (more…)
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Reverend Jesse Jackson’s legacy on the Middle East
Tributes to Reverend Jesse Jackson rightly honour his civil rights leadership. Far fewer acknowledge his long, consistent support for Palestinian self-determination – and the political costs he paid for it. (more…)
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Shame hasn’t vanished. Care has
Public outrage fixates on the absence of shame among elites. But the deeper problem is cultural and structural – a political economy that has pushed care to the margins of public life. (more…)
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Universities expose racism’s scale – and the dangers of unequal responses
New national data shows racism is widespread across Australian universities. The challenge is responding fairly, without elevating one community’s suffering over another’s. (more…)
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Dual nationals in Israel’s military face growing legal scrutiny over Gaza
Newly released data shows that tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers hold foreign citizenship, placing Western nationals directly within the scope of international war crimes law over Gaza. (more…)