As One Nation rises by recycling anti-immigration rhetoric, both major parties are fumbling their response – missing the chance to offer a clear, credible and principled long-term plan.
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Category: Politics
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Best of 2025 – Our politicians continue to fail us on immigration policy
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Best of 2025 – Losing the democracy sausage vibe
The last federal election saw a sharp rise in harassment and aggression at polling places, according to submissions from around the country. From death threats to deception, the once-peaceful ritual of casting a vote is under threat – and Australia needs to act. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Axed AG tells how Labor really changes the Constitution
Despite Labor’s longstanding appetite for constitutional reform, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus now points to a different path: bold, nation-shaping change without the need for a referendum.
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Censorship doesn’t silence – it amplifies
Attempts to silence writers rarely erase them. More often, they expose insecurity, deepen division, and turn targets into symbols of resistance.
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“Go ahead – make my book list”: slings and arrows, and Eastwood
Shawn Levy’s Clint Eastwood biography captures the contradictions of a screen icon — and the craft behind a career still shaping popular cinema.
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Heatwaves, bushfires, and the words that save lives
As heatwaves and bushfire risks intensify, emergency language has shifted too. The challenge is to warn clearly without losing trust.
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Best of 2025 – My one hope – to meet my wife and daughters again
Hamed Al-Mansi is a physical education teacher and farmer from Gaza. He is now alone in Gaza and his dearest wish is to reunite with his family. He has allowed us to publish an extract of his diary. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Assessing the Liberal Party’s policy-making capacity
Good policy should be evidence-based. But this is not the case with the Liberals energy policy and seems unlikely with their migration policy. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Democracies good, China bad – and history not required
Japan and China both have legitimate security concerns. But an informed debate needs major media outlets to stop systematically erasing the historical context that shapes how the region understands current events. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Five reasons Trump’s economy stinks and 10 things the Dems should do about It
The Trump economy is truly awful for most Americans. Democrats need to show America that they can be better trusted to bring prices down and real wages up. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Working with PM Fraser – the changeover – Part 1
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising. -
Best of 2025 – Coalition politicians who can’t accept the threat of climate change should resign
Politicians who cannot accept climate change is humanity’s greatest threat should have no place in the Australian parliament.
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Best of 2025 – Richo’s grave should be extra deep
Graham Richardson was a very successful operator of the Labor Party from the late 1970s who was distinctly short on redeeming virtues. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Sudan cannot be an invisible tragedy
The end of violence must be a first step in the Sudan Civil War. And Australia has a key role to play.
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Best of 2025 – How did Australian universities go from free education to $50,000 arts degrees in 50 years?
Australians think students are being asked to pay far too much for their degrees. Just under half (47%) of Australians surveyed by YouGov in June 2025 believe a worker on an average income should be able to pay off the debt for a standard three-year degree within five years. When it comes to the cost of a degree, 58% believe a student should pay $5000 or less per year – less than a third of what arts students now pay. (more…)
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Banning slogans won’t build social cohesion
After Bondi, New South Wales politicians want to ban words and slogans. But rushed laws could punish political speech, not protect the public.
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Iran in the vortex: what’s really happening
As protests unfold in Iran, Israeli and US figures openly talk of regime collapse. Foreign interference risks worsening violence and derailing change from within.
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Best of 2025 – The boy who cried antisemitism
For two years, we’ve been told Australia is drowning in antisemitism. Every protest for Palestinian human rights, every mural, every chant criticising Israel has been hauled up as “evidence.” (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Rising electricity prices have nothing to do with renewables
Electricity prices are elevated, but anyone who claims renewable energy has driven the rise is either uninformed or is deliberately lying. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – ASIO’s Mike Burgess and a lust for the limelight
In succumbing to a lust for the limelight, the ASIO director, Mike Burgess, is not making it easier for the government and citizens to retain confidence in him and the organisation he’s trying to run. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Burn it all down movements
When a 34-year-old democratic socialist defeats a political dynasty in the nation’s largest city, we’re witnessing more than another electoral upset. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – What Washington really thought of Whitlam before the dismissal
The cloud of American involvement in the events of November 1975 is unlikely to ever clear. Especially while US presidential libraries continue to block access to critical documents that might shed light on the shenanigans. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – The debate about net zero ignores the evidence
Those in the Coalition who are opposed to targeting net zero carbon emissions, argue that it will cost too much. But that claim is false and not supported by the evidence. How can they get away with it? (more…)
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Best of 2025 – How the Dismissal ripples reached Beijing: Some personal recollections
Life in Beijing in 1975 was not easy and the events leading up to the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government in November piled on the pressure. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – After Trump goes home
If anyone had any lingering doubts about the change in the world order, the sight of President Trump pumping his fist into the air at the doorway of Air Force One, before turning his back on Asia to fly home, they should be put to bed now. (more…)
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I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I resigned as director of Adelaide writers’ week
Cancelling the Australian Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation.
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Australians for Humanity – Demand that the invitation to the President of Israel to visit this country be immediately withdrawn
A call to withdraw President Herzog’s invitation, uphold international law, and defend free speech and the right to protest.
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Regime change riots in Iran fail faster than expected
Iran cut Starlink traffic and blocked communications as unrest faded and pro-government marches filled the streets.
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Best of 2025 – US-China power shift: a G2 world – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Trump hints at changing great-power relationship. Plus: Beijing wresting control of the global narrative; Myanmar’s scam centre raids dismissed as a smokescreen; Prabowo considers declaring Soeharto a national hero; US approves South Korean nuclear-powered submarine; China’s modern women need new men. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – ‘We don’t do that in this country’: judge slams DPP
An appeal by ACT director of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Engel, SC, has been dismissed by a Full Bench of the ACT Court of Appeal after only three minutes of deliberation. (more…)