Changing voting patterns are no longer a reaction to short-term events, they are a rebellion against inequality, says Kos Samaris. (more…)
Category: Top 5
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A chance to re-create the NACC
The eventual departure (in six weeks’ time) of Paul Brereton from the position of Commissioner of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) provides the Albanese Government with the opportunity to review and reform a body that has failed to live up to the expectations of most people who wanted the Federal Government to establish the Commission. It is unlikely to do so, not least because the Government did not share the aspirations for the NACC of most of those who urged its creation. David Solomon reports. (more…)
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Why the criticisms of Labor’s tax changes are mostly wrong
Labor’s tax policies will improve intergenerational equity and ensure more equal tax treatment of income from labour and capital. (more…)
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Some further thoughts on the Federal Budget
The income tax reforms in the 2026 budget do deliver greater equity, despite the protests from those who think they will lose out. (more…)
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What the White House doesn’t understand about Iran
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard are ruthless, but they are not irrational, reports Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh. (more…)
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Death to News Ltd’s propaganda
Let’s not mince words, the “death tax” campaign begun by The Australian and the rest of News Ltd stable is a pack of lies and manipulative misinformation. It is best met with facts and reassurance. (more…)
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The chilling effect of recent legislation
Freedom of speech and assembly is being curbed by legislation designed to address hate speech. What does this mean for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement? (more…)
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It is time for a real liberal party
More than 20 years after he wrote that the Liberal Party has deserted it roots and become deeply conservative, Greg Barns argues it is well beyond time for a genuine liberal force to enter the fray. (more…)
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China on the way to being the first electro-state
China’s careful approach to ensuring its energy security is paying off, even as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz damages the global economy. (more…)
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Rehabilitation fails when prisons strip people of dignity
Overcrowding, poor mental health care and degrading prison conditions across Australia are undermining rehabilitation efforts and raising serious questions about how the correctional system treats human dignity. (more…)
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Angus Taylor may have just created half a million new Labor voters
The Coalition’s plan to strip welfare access from non-citizens could accelerate a surge in citizenship and voter enrolment across migrant-heavy suburban seats critical to the Liberal Party’s electoral future. (more…)
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Government CGT changes structurally sound
Paul Keating says the Howard-Costello capital gains tax discount distorted the tax system, inflated housing prices and entrenched inequality between wage earners and wealth holders.
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The aid budget ignored a deepening global crisis
Despite the economic and humanitarian shock triggered by the Iran war, Australia’s latest foreign aid budget failed to deliver the kind of substantial regional response the country mounted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The American mis-imagination of China
In a speech to a colloquium on John Hay’s Open Door Policy, former US diplomat Chas Freeman argues that America’s current approach to China is strategically self-defeating and increasingly detached from geopolitical reality. (more…)
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Why the next Trump-Xi summit could be in Australia’s backyard
As Washington and Beijing reshape the Indo-Pacific order through direct negotiation, Australia risks remaining strategically reactive instead of positioning itself as a trusted diplomatic bridge between the two powers. (more…)
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The Nakba did not end in 1948: how the bet on erasing Palestinian memory failed
The Nakba is not simply an historical event but an ongoing system of displacement, erasure and resistance that continues to shape Palestinian identity and political life generations later. (more…)
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How credible is the Liberal’s economic strategy?
Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech may appeal to One Nation supporters, but it doesn’t provide credible answers to the nation’s problems.
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The weaponisation of antisemitism by the Zionist lobby hides the genocide
In a personal submission to the Antisemitism Royal Commission, P&I founder John Menadue argues that it is impossible to separate increasing rates of antisemitism from the way Israel has conducted its genocide in Gaza. (more…)
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Labor has backed away from meaningful gambling reform
The government’s long-awaited response to the Murphy inquiry into online wagering falls short of the reforms needed to reduce gambling harm, particularly among young Australians.
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The battle for human attention is becoming a battle for democracy
After US courts found Meta and YouTube liable for deliberately addicting young users, attention is increasingly being recognised not as a private commodity, but as a strategic resource shaping democracy, public debate and social stability. (more…)
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The second-last budget reply – delivered by a Liberal MP
The Coalition’s plan to strip permanent residents of access to welfare payments risks detonating support across Australia’s outer-suburban migrant households, where families consisting of citizens and non-citizens live, work and vote together.
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Budget 2026: Responsible, reformist – but still too cautious
This is a responsible budget that responds sensibly to inflation and weak productivity, but it stops short of the deeper tax and climate reforms needed to reshape the economy.
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Budget 2026: Leadership means more than keeping campaign promises – Message from the Editor
The obsession with whether governments have broken campaign promises is shrinking political ambition and discouraging the kind of leadership needed to tackle Australia’s deep structural problems, P&I Editor Catriona Jackson writes. (more…)
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Budget 2026: Clean energy spending grows but gas giants still avoid reform
The federal budget increases investment in emissions reduction, batteries and clean energy infrastructure, but leaves major fossil fuel tax concessions and gas industry profits largely untouched. (more…)
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The rules-based order is breaking down before our eyes
In an edited version of a speech delivered at the Restoring Democracy launch in Melbourne, Gillian Triggs says that weakening respect for international law, human rights and democratic institutions is placing both global stability and Australian democracy under pressure. (more…)
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One Nation’s win in Farrer leaves Liberals on the brink
The Farrer by-election result marks a dramatic collapse in Liberal support and signals a broader shift in Australian politics as One Nation surges. (more…)
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Australia’s ISIS cases test law, politics and fairness
Three women repatriated from Syria have been charged with serious offences under Australian law, but the response from political leaders risks undermining the right to a fair trial. (more…)
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Trump raises voice – Vatican lowers heat
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Rome visit exposes the contrast between White House fury and papal diplomacy. (more…)
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Is the renewed push for a Human Rights Act worth the effort?
A Commonwealth Human Rights Act must do more than help courts identify breaches of human rights; it must enable them to strike down offending laws and give relief to wronged litigants. The groundwork for an act with teeth is still to be done. (more…)
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Looking for a home in a land of empty houses
Beneath the current political debates about housing demand lies an unavoidable reality. Empty dwellings sit alongside visible and hidden forms of homelessness, with many people attempting to create homes in inhospitable places rather than submit to overbearing regulation and continual intrusions into their personal lives. (more…)