Representing Jews Against the Occupation ’48 (JAO48), I would like to share our response to Jillian Segal’s “antisemitism action plan”. In short: we reject it. (more…)
Category: Politics
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Usman Khawaja: grace under pressure, faith underpinning it all
In Australian sport, few stories echo as deeply as that of Usman Khawaja. He is known for his calm presence at the crease, his graceful technique, and the quiet way he has built a legacy in a game that was not always welcoming. (more…)
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Why any strategy to combat antisemitism must also address Islamophobia
Australia’s newly released Plan to Combat Antisemitism has sparked strong debate and rightly so. (more…)
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Karmel, Gonski and the private school ascendancy
The 1973 Karmel report and the 2011 Gonski report helped drive Australia’s internationally exceptional private school ascendency. (more…)
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A warning from the past about the United States of today
The Trump administration’s actions at home and support for horrors abroad raise the question: is America becoming a fascist police state? (more…)
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Why the world needs renewable food
The future well-being and survival of civilisation rests upon a single, fragile assumption: that there will always be enough food. (more…)
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Message from the editor
Anthony Albanese left for China two days ago. If you relied solely on some parts of the Australian media, you’d think he was handing over the silverware and snuggling up with the People’s Liberation Army. (more…)
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Antisemitism Plan sparks fierce debate over free speech, racism, and political agendas
At a press conference in Sydney on Wednesday 10 July 2025, the Special Envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, together with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke launched the National Action Plan to Combat Antisemitism in order to address antisemitic hate, especially in the wake of intensified community tensions following the war in Gaza. (more…)
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Trump is single-handedly slaughtering America’s ‘exorbitant privilege’
The US president is systematically destroying faith in the dollar in global financial markets and among governments and central banks. (more…)
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Peter Russell-Clarke’s greatest gift was how he made you feel like one of the family
Throughout my teenage years, our lounge room sang “Come and get it, come and get it” and all in earshot would carol back, “with Peter. Russell. Clarke!” (more…)
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Localise relationships of care and responsibility
Continual crises in all the health, education and human services industries are no longer “exceptions”. They are continuous chronic symptoms of what’s wrong with our neoliberalised, marketised “care economy”. (more…)
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Australia cannot survive unless it switches to a no-growth economy
Big financial institutions have concluded that global warming will not be contained to the limits agreed more than a decade ago and are examining ways of maintaining their profits in such a world. (more…)
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APU Media Release: Macquarie University announces plans to axe Sociology
Macquarie University announces plans to axe Sociology and cut jobs and courses in other humanities and social science disciplines. (more…)
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Abandoning our fears: how Australia should respond to US-China regional confrontation
A presentation by Professor Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister, to the University of Melbourne Australian Peace and Security Forum Webinar Abandoning our Fears: Finding Peace and Security in our Region, 8 July 2025. (more…)
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As Trump flip-flops on tariffs, what’s the point of negotiating at all?
Are the tariffs a reality show aimed at Americans, a way to gain the upper hand on China, or just a distraction from sector-specific duties? (more…)
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Environment: Ocean acidification has left the safe zone for humans
Seven of the nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed. Civil society calls for major reform of COP meetings. Big banks fund Australian deforestation. China leaving USA behind in the energy transition. (more…)
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Kostakidis to go before court, after judiciary recognises anti-Zionism is not antisemitism
Mary Kostakidis should hold her head up high right now, because of all the Australian journalists who are honestly calling out the holocaust that Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians. (more…)
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Mahmoud Khalil to sue Trump admin for US$20m over ‘unconstitutional’ detention
“There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power,” said Khalil. “And I won’t stop here.” (more…)
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Albanese’s visit to China is a moment for statesmanship
Membership of the Chinese Communist Party has just exceeded 100 million. It has long been the largest political party in world history. (more…)
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The Texas flood, Australia and the psychology of evacuation
The Texas flood on the weekend of 4 July has produced a shocking toll – probably well over 200 people dead, including many children. (more…)
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Albanese’s China mission – managing a complex relationship in a world of shifting alliances
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leaves for China on Saturday, confident most Australians back the government’s handling of relations with our most important economic partner and the leading strategic power in Asia. (more…)
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Netanyahu leaves Washington without a Gaza ceasefire, just like he wanted
Benjamin Netanyahu is sabotaging talks, hoping Donald Trump will blame Hamas if negotiations fail. (more…)
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US, China and Australia – an open letter to the PM
Dear PM Albanese, on Monday 30 June, the Chinese Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, had a letter published in The Australian entitled “China and Australia are friends, not foes. This should never have been in question.” It’s best to read the full version on China’s Embassy website. (more…)
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The greatest irony in our contemporary history
I just read the Sunday Age articles by Chip Le Grand. The writer and The Age have been engaged in a vicious propaganda campaign against the increasing mass protests in Australia that have also involved large numbers of artists, writers, academics and students opposed to the Gazan genocide. (more…)
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Gaza: There comes a time when silence is betrayal
Last week I spent a day fasting, joining medical colleagues and other healthcare workers in a rolling hunger strike to protest what is happening in Gaza. Why are we doing this? (more…)
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Antisemitism envoy’s report ‘Trumpian’
The report of the Albanese Government’s antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, contains recommendations that will lead to erosion of freedom of expression and the right to protest. (more…)
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Not waving, drowning – Indonesia may lose warming battle
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a flooding: With apologies to T. S. Eliot (more…)
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Every day is a bad day to visit China, apparently
Meeting the Chinese president is apparently now treason. At least, that’s what you’d think if you followed some of our media’s coverage of Anthony Albanese’s latest diplomatic sin: talking to Beijing. (more…)
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‘It is not antisemitic to criticise Israel,’ says Federal Court judge – and the Executive Council of Jewry agrees!
In the light of the revelations in the Lattouf v ABC decision about the way in which the Israel lobby hounded the ABC, the judgment in the recently decided Federal Court case Wertheim & Goot v Haddad is both significant, “interesting” and certainly more than revelatory. (more…)
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The fanatic’s gaze: Louis Theroux and the West Bank settlers
He has made it his bread and butter for years: finding society’s kooky representatives, the marginal, the crazed and the touched. (more…)