Australia abandoned its AI regulation plan. Now citizens are filling the ethical vacuum government created. (more…)
Category: Politics
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The Prince and the Dismissal
Anthony Albanese recently told us with bated breath from Balmoral Castle that Charles “is someone who is very interested in Australia”. “Interested “would be an understatement. (more…)
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OFFICIAL – Israel’s proposed death-penalty law is a war crime
Not satisfied it seems with the continued genocide of Palestinians, Israel is now looking to execute Palestinian prisoners by introducing a death penalty law. (more…)
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‘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…)
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When in doubt, blame China (every News Corp headline needs a villain)
If you only skimmed the headlines from News Corp, you’d be forgiven for thinking China was launching a krill-powered naval strike from Antarctica, staging an electric vehicle blitzkrieg across the outback and forcing Hyundai into some humiliating act of surrender. (more…)
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The press and the Dismissal – Part III
Television had come to the fore in elections during the Whitlam campaign of 1972 when increased funds were spent on advertising with slogans (“It’s time” was backed by a catchy jingle) and mainly short television grabs for the news. (more…)
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When truth can no longer be silenced
In Australia, secretive and remote institutions armed with increasingly restrictive laws are seriously eroding civic freedoms. (more…)
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‘New York, this city belongs to you’: Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech
Thank you, my friends. The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, “I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.” (more…)
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The new political economy of innovation: Why Australian policymakers need better tools
When the Commonwealth Government reorganised its innovation responsibilities for the fourth time in a decade, public servants made jokes about updating their email signatures again. (more…)
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Focusing on the EPBC but dropping the ball on protection
While national environmental attention is fixed on EPBC Act reforms in Canberra, some Australian states have dropped the ball on forest protection – and this is seriously undermining Australia’s target of protecting 30% of the continent by 2030. (more…)
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Australia’s fragile multicultural consensus under threat
Anti-immigration rallies around Australia in late August and mid-October exposed public divides over migration, social cohesion and national identity. (more…)
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The Queen’s implausible denial
It beggars belief that the Queen did not know that John Kerr was planning to sack Gough Whitlam. She may not have known the detail of the coup in progress, but she knew the substance. But like Lord Nelson she pretended she did not see anything. Nonsense. (more…)
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Trump turns the tables on Taiwan
When the razzle dazzle of the prime minister’s first face-to-face meeting with the mercurial US president is forgotten and the huge sigh of relief that nothing went wrong subsides, questions will be asked about what all the puffery achieved. (more…)
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‘Stabilising’ relations with China while differences widen
The Albanese Government’s “stabilised” China policy faces the test of deepening ideological and strategic divides. (more…)
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New York, 1975: New York, 2025
Zoran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist Muslim, has won his bid to become Mayor of New York. David Rosen looks at how the city he will run has changed in 50 years. (more…)
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The press and the Dismissal – Part II
Following the Dismissal on 11 November 1975, the editors of the major newspapers understood the national mood was volatile. (more…)
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Lancet study shows more than 3m years of human life lost in Israeli assault on Gaza
“To speak of three million years of human life erased is to confront the true scale of this atrocity – generations of children, parents, and families wiped out,” said the head of a US advocacy group. (more…)
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Practical, equitable … cute? Labor’s free solar plan sparks call for more electrification and flexibility
The federal energy minister’s plan to make electricity free for three hours in the middle of each day for customers on the default market offer has made a big splash in the energy world, and sparked calls for more electrification and demand flexibility. (more…)
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Venezuela and Trump’s war to save the old order
“The past is not dead; it is not even past.” William Faulkner was right: past events continue to inform and shape our world. (more…)
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Palestine’s future: Australians are outraged
At an Australia-wide webinar on 31 October, David Spratt paid tribute to the late Ali Kazak, Palestine’s first ambassador to Australia. (more…)
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Israel, lies and videotape
We have heard a lot in the last two years and one month about Jewish Australians feeling unsafe or intimidated. (more…)
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The second Dismissal – the loans affair and meetings with Kerr
The second part in a series of first-hand accounts of the Dismissal, from the man who was there: John Menadue. (more…)
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In memoriam: The slow death of the Quad
Quietly, but surely, life is ebbing away from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad). (more…)
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Trump needs to stop weaponising hunger
“They have the authority to fully fund SNAP,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib. “It shouldn’t take a court order to get the president to stop starving families and release the funds.” (more…)
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The press and the Dismissal – Part I
On the morning of 15 October 1975, most major newspapers advocated in their editorials that the Labor Government should go. (more…)
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Gen Z uprisings in the Global South
Here are seven theses to begin to understand the protests that young people have led across the world and perhaps channel them in a progressive direction. (more…)
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Zombie multilateralism: The undead world of APEC
After 20 years, APEC returned to Korea, but it feels different. (more…)
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It’s hard to be an involved dad
Father’s Day was recently celebrated, bringing families together to thank their male progenitors for the support and (sometimes) caring love they give to their offspring. (more…)
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Moral inadequacy in national leadership
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do,” Voltaire (more…)
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108 years since the Balfour Declaration – a promise written in ink, fulfilled in blood
On 2 November 1917, Britain wrote with the ink of politics what it had no right to write with the ink of history. (more…)