The Liberal Party is correct in claiming Australia’s relations with Israel are at their lowest point ever. The real questions to be asked are: who is responsible, and how much does it matter? (more…)
Category: Politics
-
Best of 2025 – Best of 2025 – Who is a terrorist?
Since 7 October 2023 there has been a growth of the use of the allegation of terrorism for propaganda purposes. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Albanese’s sliding doors moment on climate
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has just been handed an unflinching mirror at the Pacific Islands Forum. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Courts brace for next wave of ‘sovereign citizens’
When I wrote about the “Cavalcade of the Cretinous” in February 2022, I thought the anti-vaccination early incarnations of “sovereign citizens” were just a hopeless joke (“Summernats without the sophistication”) that would quietly go away. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Intergenerational equity and tax reform
Much of the discussion about the need for tax reform to preserve intergenerational equity is confused. The main challenges facing young people, in particular, are the limitations on the supply of housing and climate change. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – NATO in Asia-Pacific: Dragging us into a fight we can’t win
Is the future of Australia and New Zealand really as NATO forts, armed to the teeth glaring menacingly at an ever-rising China? (more…)
-
Bondi, Christchurch and what a Royal Commission can – and can’t – do
After four ideologically driven attacks in six years, Australia is again asking how to respond. The Christchurch Royal Commission offers a nearby example of how inquiry, grief and prevention can be approached.
(more…) -
Best of 2025 – Dreyfus leaves little legacy
In his term as attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus failed to address many big issues. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Labor says its second term will be about productivity reform. These ideas could help shift the dial
In his victory speech, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese highlighted social policy as a major factor in Labor’s electoral success, particularly Medicare, housing and cost-of-living relief. He was justified in doing so. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Exclusion of Ed Husic from the Albanese Ministry Statement
A showing of poor judgment, unfairness and diminished respect for the contribution of others. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Re-elected Albanese Govt must condemn Israel’s brutality and cut ties
On 5 May, the Israeli Parliament approved plans to annex and occupy Gaza. These plans have been discussed for months. This is a blatant mission to ethnically cleanse Gaza, advancing Israel’s colonial intentions to take over the territory and rid it of Palestinians. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – An economic reform agenda for Labor
The recent election was won by looking ahead. But a better economic future requires an economic reform agenda, and getting agreement will not be easy. However, there are encouraging signs that the government is up to the task. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Mamdani’s victory bought hope to Gaza
Zohran Mamdani is a Ugandan-born Muslim American politician, outspoken supporter of Palestine, and the new Mayor of New York City. His victory there is a symbolic moment that reflects a deeper shift in American awareness toward global justice, especially the Palestinian cause. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Brave new world
As Australia’s newly elected government seeks to navigate the shoals of President Donald Trump’s new world after the election on 3 May, it will behove us to think beyond our tariff concerns and AUKUS and focus on Southeast Asia. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Judaism and Zionism are not the same
No doubt about it. We live in a topsy-turvy world. How Kafkaesque can it get, when some of Zionism’s most fervent supporters have been politicians like Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton or — God help us — the Mad King of Mar-a-Lago? (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Who’s afraid of big, bad China?
Be afraid, be very afraid. But not of China. To the contrary, the proper management of co-operative relations with China is essential to Australia’s future. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – When the centre cannot hold: US polarisation is driving the word away
Once admired for its democratic institutions, cultural dynamism, and global leadership, the United States now finds itself in a different spotlight. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Furious Modi rejects Trump’s phone calls – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: India turns its attention to Japan and China. Plus: Trump wants US to own land used for bases in Korea; Despair turning young refugees to armed insurrection; Beijing pushing AI as next growth-engine; Manila ramps up its anti-China stance; The wounds that time cannot heal. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Jeffrey Sachs: Ending the genocide now
A UN Security Council vote to grant Palestine permanent UN membership would end Israel’s zealous delusions of permanent control over Palestine, write Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Fares. But the US stands in the way. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Australia is one trade deal away from backing authoritarians, says Taiwan
In the grand tradition of diplomatic overreach, Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister recently offered some sweet and spicy talking points to our media: semiconductors are tanks, China is akin to WWII Germany, and if Australia doesn’t fast-track Taiwan into the CPTPP, we might all wake up speaking Mandarin under a fascist AI regime, as reported by News Corp and 7 News. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Chasing a chimera: The political dream of AUKUS that consumes reality
For the sake of taxpayers, let’s hope that the Audit Office is inspecting the AUKUS books closely. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Malign AI could change Australian election results, says judge
Justice David Mossop of the ACT Supreme Court has issued a call to arms for lawyers generally, and the High Court in particular, to prepare for palpable threats to “a small, naive democracy like Australia”. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Taking a win from Alaska
On 15 August, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska, the first head-of-state meeting between the two countries since the Ukraine War began. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – The ABC’s public comment guidelines: A ‘crackdown’ on management, not workers
The ABC’s new public comment guidelines, which replace its existing “personal use of social media” policy and follow the debacle of the Antoinette Lattouf affair, have been portrayed by rival media organisations as “a crackdown”, “a gag order”, “a hit” on ABC employees, and other such alarming epithets. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – John Menadue in conversation with David Marr
In a wide-ranging discussion, P&I editor-in-chief John Menadue discusses a life full of achievement driven by conviction, and nominates seeing off the White Australia policy and establishing P&I as highlights. He is speaking with David Marr on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Australia and Taiwan caught between Trump and Xi’s great-man fantasies
If there was any doubt in Canberra that the traditional political alignment with the US is in turmoil, the past week or so confirms it irrefutably. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Australia must defend International Criminal Court
If it were China or Russia, the imposition of sanctions and threats of harm to prosecutors and judges of the International Criminal Court would be front page news in Australia. (more…)
-
Between identity and politics: Unpacking the systematic conflation of “Antisemitism” and criticism of Israel
Whenever Jews anywhere in the world are subjected to an attack or a threat, Israel, along with a wide network of political and media supporters, is quick to frame the incident as a direct extension of historical antisemitism. (more…)
-
‘Australians for Humanity’ demand the invitation to Israel’s President be withdrawn immediately
The Israel President cannot be welcomed in Australia. The government he represents has been found by the International Court of Justice to have breached international law: the Netanyahu regime has committed a range of international crimes against humanity including war crimes, apartheid, illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing. (more…)
