School attendance has been sliding for more than a decade, with more than a million Australian students now missing significant classroom time. Governments have set ambitious targets to reverse the trend, but meeting them will require a fundamental shift in approach. (more…)
Category: Politics
-
The Bondi Beach massacre: exploiting tragedy
The tragic massacre at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi was followed by a rush to assign blame, inflame fear and curtail dissent. (more…)
-
Looking for the wrong things: peace, power and the meaning of Christmas
As another bruising year ends, Christmas offers a reminder that peace is not found in power, wealth or spectacle, but in inner integrity, humility and care for others.
-
Climate hot takes for 2025
Scientific evidence in 2025 showed global warming accelerating faster than expected, while emissions continued to rise and climate policy lagged dangerously behind physical reality. (more…)
-
What Australia’s gun law response means for New Zealand
Australia is moving toward its biggest overhaul of firearms regulation since Port Arthur. For New Zealand, the lessons may be uncomfortable – and unavoidable.
(more…) -
India and China in deep water over Himalayan hydropower
India and China are racing to build vast hydropower projects in the Himalayas. Framed as clean energy, the dams are also about territorial control, data sovereignty and strategic power in an AI-driven world. (more…)
-
Cutting the Internet in Afghanistan is gender-based violence
The Taliban’s September Internet blackouts were not a technical disruption but a deliberate act of control. By cutting digital access, Afghan women were stripped of education, income, connection and voice – extending gender apartheid into the online realm.
(more…) -
AI policy is stuck on productivity – and democracy is paying the price
Artificial intelligence is increasingly framed in terms of efficiency and growth. But that framing sidelines harder questions about power, choice and democratic governance. (more…)
-
2025 in Review: What this year taught us about life, loss and shared humanity
Amid violence, war and deepening polarisation, 2025 has shown that despair and passivity are choices too – and that human survival depends on rejecting dehumanisation in all its forms.
-
A beautiful mosaic: celebrating multicultural Australia
Multicultural Australia has enriched the nation’s cultural life, creativity and global standing. These achievements deserve recognition and defence at a time of growing hostility to migration.
-
How gun ownership works in Australia – and what may change
In the wake of the Bondi shootings, attention has turned to how firearms are licensed and regulated in Australia, and whether proposed reforms would address the risks they are meant to prevent.
(more…) -
Conflicts of interest: defending the indefensible
Evidence to a parliamentary inquiry has raised serious questions about conflicts of interest and how they are being managed. (more…)
-
The long consequences of forgetting
As climate breakdown, war and institutional failure converge, the comforts of forgetting no longer shield us from the consequences of our own history.
(more…) -
Can AI help save local journalism without hollowing it out?
As local news outlets shrink and news deserts grow, artificial intelligence could deepen the crisis or, if used carefully, help sustain public-interest journalism at the community level.
(more…) -
Prabowo’s first year: all power, no accountability
A year after Prabowo Subianto’s election, Indonesia’s democracy is under strain as power centralises, dissent is curtailed and the military’s influence grows. (more…)
-
AUKUS meets reality – UK ‘all in’ a mess (Part 2)
Australia is betting on a British program plagued by delays, underinvestment and workforce shortages – a gamble that risks leaving the country without any sovereign submarine capability. (more…)
-
The market lie at the heart of public education policy
Treating public schools as competitors in an education marketplace shifts blame downward, obscures chronic underfunding and corrodes the very purpose of public education. (more…)
-
Blame, grief and responsibility after Bondi
In the aftermath of a devastating attack on Sydney’s Jewish community, political leaders must resist the urge to weaponise grief or assign blame. (more…)
-
Australia’s teachers – undervalued and overburdened
As ATAR scores dominate headlines, the work of teachers remains largely invisible. They are central to education and social cohesion, yet underpaid, overworked and routinely taken for granted.
-
2025 in Review: ageing, policy failure and a year of misplaced priorities
Looking back on 2025, a year marked by global turmoil, timid reform at home, policy failure on ageing and a rushed social media ban that mistakes gesture for solution.
-
How Sofronoff became a foot soldier in a war against woke
Judicial findings have significantly undermined the credibility of Walter Sofronoff’s inquiry into the Lehrmann trial, raising serious questions about bias, process and the influence of media on judicial conduct.
(more…) -
Font of all knowledge? Of Rubio, Rupert and playing to type
A curious US culture-war memo about typefaces becomes a sharp lesson in readability, newspaper craft, and how badly those lessons have been forgotten in Australian journalism.
-
A just transition can remake Australia if we choose to think bigger
Australia’s shift to renewable energy is a rare chance to redesign our economy and improve wellbeing, equity and social cohesion. A truly just transition would reshape much more than the energy system. (more…)
-
One UK journalist’s close access to Hitler carries a warning about Trump’s media restrictions
A notorious episode from the 1930s shows how access, proximity to power and the lure of influence can quietly corrode journalistic judgement – a warning that resonates uncomfortably today. (more…)
-
AUKUS meets reality – what’s not in the AUSMIN Media Release (Part 1)
Despite official assurances, the US submarine program is falling well short of its own targets, raising serious doubts about whether Australia will ever receive the Virginia class submarines promised under AUKUS. (more…)
-
It’s never too late to help students learn to read – even in high school
Many students with reading difficulties are missed after the early years. New evidence shows targeted, evidence-based support can still make a real difference well into high school.
(more…) -
A beginners guide to Australian aged care policy in 2025
Stereotypes about wealthy baby boomers are skewing aged care policy. New fees, the shift to Support at Home, and pressures on community services risk leaving many older Australians without affordable, safe support. The consequences will be felt across families, hospitals and future generations. (more…)
-
Message from the Editor
As we hurtle towards the chaos of Christmas, we are taking a moment to reflect on the high and lows of 2025, and what it all means for 2026.
-
Conflicts, corrections and confusion: pressure mounts on the NACC Commissioner
The Inspector of the NACC has received 90 complaints since 1 July. Most of these complaints concern the NACC Commissioner’s conflict of interests with Defence. (more…)
-
Trump’s empire of hubris and thuggery
Donald Trump’s latest National Security Strategy memorandum treats the freedom to coerce others as the essence of US sovereignty. It is an ominous document that will – if allowed to stand – come back to haunt the United States.
(more…)