Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s early popularity rests on speculative public expectations, a fragile LDP–Ishin arrangement and her dependence on party heavyweight Taro Aso, leaving her authority vulnerable despite high initial approval ratings. (more…)
Category: Politics
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How one death in Papua should shame a republic into action
A pregnant woman’s preventable death after being refused treatment exposes the deadly gap between health coverage and real access to care in Indonesia’s most marginalised regions. (more…)
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The great failure of the property industry
In every era, certain industries become so large, so politically embedded, and so culturally unexamined that their performance ceases to matter. (more…)
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New architecture, old assumptions: Australia and the China question
Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks of balance, equality and a new regional order – yet Australia’s China policy still carries Cold War assumptions that risk strategy, prosperity and peace.
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Faith that costs something: the Pope’s challenge to comfortable Christianity
A new Vatican document challenges wealthy Catholics to move beyond charity toward justice, solidarity and real encounters with the poor.
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Environment: It’s official – we aren’t winning the climate fight
The latest UN climate summit avoided even naming fossil fuels, while mounting evidence shows climate damage accelerating – from melting glaciers to declining ocean life.
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Led Zeppelin, my band that never ‘made it’, and the lost art of failure
Our culture treats success as virtue and failure as personal flaw. Older traditions – from Greek tragedy to Christian thought – saw failure as meaningful. Recovering that wisdom may be essential to living with dignity in an age of burnout. (more…)
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Indigenous businesses are driving jobs and economic success
A new report shows Indigenous businesses are major employers, highly competitive, and delivering strong outcomes – often without reliance on government procurement. (more…)
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A long-overdue update to Australia’s broken environment laws
After years of delay, Australia will reform its broken environment laws. The deal brings real improvements, but key risks remain.
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How the social media ban could harm African diaspora youth
New research shows Australia’s under-16 social media ban risks harming African diaspora young people by cutting off vital spaces for identity, belonging and connection.
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Gaza’s true death toll could be 126,000 or even higher
New research suggests Gaza’s death toll may be far higher than widely reported, with devastating implications for life expectancy, poverty and accountability. (more…)
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Hong Kong tower fire – contractor for fire-hit Tai Po project has record of safety offences
The contractor behind renovation work at the site of Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades had previously breached safety requirements for construction projects on multiple occasions. (more…)
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Why false beliefs feel safer than the truth
People clinging to falsehoods is not a failure of intelligence, but a deeply human attempt to protect emotional stability in an overwhelming world. (more…)
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A Chinese visit, a security panic, and a silent media
The visit of China’s third-ranking leader should have prompted serious discussion about diplomacy and economic relations. Instead, Australia’s media fixated on security theatrics and fed a familiar cycle of fear. (more…)
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Silencing Starlink over Taiwan would be a massive military challenge
Chinese scientists have modelled how Starlink could be jammed over an area the size of Taiwan – and found it would take an unprecedented scale of coordinated electronic warfare. (more…)
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Why Australia should build AI to amplify human capability
Debates about artificial intelligence miss a crucial point: the real issue is not whether AI is powerful, but whether we use it to replace human judgment or strengthen it. (more…)
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You can’t regulate your way to quality early childhood education
Recent safety failures have triggered tighter regulation in early childhood education and care. But compliance alone cannot deliver quality. Real reform begins with professionalising the workforce. (more…)
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Why Labor can’t be bold without confronting tax reform
If the Albanese government wants to deliver lasting reform – in education, healthcare, housing and climate – it will have to confront the hardest political question of all: how to raise the revenue to pay for it. (more…)
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Why Medicare needs joint federal–state hospitals
Medicare’s founding promise is failing millions as jurisdictional division leaves patients stuck on waiting lists and priced out of specialist care. A shared federal–state hospital system is the missing reform.
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How ‘deep links’ journalism fuels pointless China panic
A former MP takes on a routine lobbying role, a Chinese university is named, and suddenly we are in national security territory. This is framing doing the work that facts do not. (more…)
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Trump is melting down: Is this the beginning of the end?
Mental health professionals are warning that Donald Trump’s behaviour poses serious risks to democratic governance and international security – yet the media largely looks away.
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ASIO’s $12.5 billion espionage bill doesn’t add up
ASIO says espionage cost Australia $12.5 billion last year. But that figure relies on assumptions, speculative scenarios and opaque data that raise serious questions about credibility. (more…)
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Trying teenagers as adults won’t fix youth crime
Victoria’s proposal to send 14–17 year olds into adult courts ignores international law, expert evidence and decades of failed policy. Rehabilitation, not punishment, is what reduces future harm. (more…)
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What does Labor actually stand for in the Albanese era?
Sean Kelly’s Quarterly Essay The Good Fight asks a harder question than whether Labor is governing competently – it asks whether it still knows what it believes, and whether belief is translating into action.
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Why Australia needs a political party for the under-40s
With most Australians increasingly voting outside the major parties, Ian Bowrey argues it’s time for a new political force that genuinely represents under-40s and plans for the country’s long-term future. (more…)
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Welcome to BunkerWorld – home of the rich and fearful
From luxury bunkers to billionaire boltholes, the world’s richest are planning for collapse rather than preventing it. Julian Cribb argues this fear reveals a deeper failure of our economic system – and a stark choice for humanity’s future. (more…)
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When evidence stops leading policy-making
The Coalition has walked away from evidence. Labor still listens – but only up to the point where action becomes politically uncomfortable. That may prove just as dangerous. (more…)
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The inflation myth propping up private school privilege
Private schools regularly blame inflation for rising fees, yet funding arrangements mean they are largely compensated for cost increases. Their fee-setting power widens the resource gap while feeding back into inflation itself. (more…)
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Independent media is essential – and we urgently need your help
We urgently need your financial support. We have raised only $78,000 towards our goal of $250,000 by mid-December. (more…)
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The Dismissal at 50: Albanese condemns the past but avoids real reform
Anthony Albanese condemned the 1975 Dismissal as a partisan ambush. Yet he refuses to pursue the constitutional reforms needed to prevent another vice-regal intervention. Australia remains exposed, and neither government nor public sentiment seems ready for the changes required. (more…)