As the Australian prime minister prepares for his visit to the UN in New York next week, Robert Macklin looks into what Anthony Albanese might be hoping for on the trilateral security deal. (more…)
Category: Top 5
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Best of 2025 – Genocide betrays the living and the dead
Genocide scholars Damir Mitric and Jill Klein have deep personal and professional experience in genocide and repercussions across generations. As the world watches in horror as the genocide in Gaza continues, they bring us their story. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – UN at 80 – Rome is burning, governments are fiddling and the UN is ailing – Part 1
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter. During these eight decades, much has been accomplished that calls for celebration. Yet, there is no denying that the United Nations is facing perhaps the greatest crisis of its 80-year history. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Flawed Hero, flawed decision: The War Memorial’s institutional cowardice
The Australian War Memorial remains one of Australia’s most cherished national institutions, attracting a million visitors, mainly tourists, to Canberra each year. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Blaming China won’t keep the lights on – or pay the power bill
Sky News is back on the beat with a familiar headline: “The $20,000-per-person climate tax: Cost of Australia’s green agenda to become astonishingly clear this week when new emissions targets are set.” (more…)
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Best of 2025 – A smart productivity play: Stop subsidising loss-making native forest logging
On 7 September 2025, NSW set the proposed 476,000-hectare boundary for the Great Koala National Park and halted native-forest logging within it (plantation harvesting continues), with formal gazettal slated for 2026. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – FOI changes big backward step for government transparency
There has been much commentary, most of it critical, about federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland’s recently introduced Bill that amends the Freedom of Information Act by restricting access through measures that will allow undermine a core democratic principles – accountability by government to the people it serves. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Vale Pat Power, a true minister
The Australian Catholic Church lost one of its genuine leaders on Monday morning with the death of 83-year-old Bishop Patrick Power, retired Auxiliary-Bishop of Canberra Goulburn. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Out of darkness comes a shaft of cheer
The news from Indonesia this month has been dispiriting – natural disaster flooding in Bali and Flores, man-made maladministration, political chicanery, perpetual graft and rioting in the cities. The headlines imply the country is crumpling. It’s not, and here’s why. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Australia needs to diplomatically disengage from our ‘dangerous ally’
It seems likely that our prime minister will meet Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly later this month. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Why key leaders attended China’s military parade – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Nations “must adapt” to new power politics. Plus: Raid “will hurt” South Korea’s US investments; Trump’s strategic shift towards Pakistan; What’s next after Nepal’s 8 September massacre; Thailand gets its first minority government; Why India has the world’s biggest diaspora. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything
A 9 September editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald, titled China and Australia in a high-speed race to win control of the Pacific, offered a vivid picture of the daily contest for influence in the region. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Rupert Murdoch’s greatest scoop
On Wednesday 25 February 1976, The Australian published a sensational front page story headlined “Iraq promises $US500,000 to pay Labor’s debts/Whitlam in secret Arab election deal”. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Climate change risk to our coastal cities
Confronting the nation’s coastal urban cities as it approaches 2055, 30 years on, will be both higher sea levels and air and water temperatures. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – The Liberal Party and Israel
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…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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.
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Best of 2025 – Dreyfus leaves little legacy
In his term as attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus failed to address many big issues. (more…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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…)
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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…)