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Australia’s new hate speech laws are landing in a climate of deep mistrust and unequal public empathy. When grief, protest and solidarity are treated as threats, social cohesion becomes a hollow promise, Sawsan Madina writes.
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Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” is framed as a peace initiative, but it centralises authority, sidelines the vulnerable and rewards coercion. Australia should reject it rather than lend it legitimacy.
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Adelaide Festival Writers’ Week has helped shape South Australia’s cultural identity since 1960. Its cancellation is a major blow – financially, reputationally, and culturally.
A new film inspired by a real-life tribute act follows two working-class Midwesterners who build a life and a stage partnership through hardship, music and resilience. With Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson at its centre, it’s a reminder of how powerful a hopeful story can be.
A sweeping new bill to combat antisemitism, hate and extremism was rushed through federal parliament this week with minimal scrutiny and major rule-of-law flaws. Its vague definitions, retrospective reach and expanded executive powers risk undermining rights, due process and democratic accountability. (more…)
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Mark Carney argues the rules-based international order is in rupture, not transition – and that “middle powers” must stop performing compliance and start building shared resilience. His speech – reproduced here – calls for values-based realism, domestic strength and new coalitions to reduce coercion and preserve sovereignty.
Australia remains wealthy but structurally fragile – highly dependent on raw exports and poorly positioned for a more complex, decarbonising global economy. Economic complexity is a warning signal we can no longer ignore.
Australia’s push for a federal Human Rights Act is stalled by political caution and media hostility. The path forward may depend on Coalition support – and reframing the reform as consistent with Liberal tradition.
A capability review of WA’s Justice Department shows a system overwhelmed by rising demand, delays and overcrowding. The underlying problem is political – punitive law-and-order settings that expand pressure without building capacity or preventing harm.
Global ice is melting fast, with major sea level rise and extreme heat locked in unless emissions fall sharply. The window to act is closing.
Trump’s compulsion to mark territory is more than ego. It reflects a worldview where prestige matters more than truth, law, or restraint.
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Trump’s Washington runs on proximity, power and unpredictability. Australia’s next ambassador must be chosen for clarity, skill and seriousness.
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The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires in weeks. A simple extension could preserve limits on US and Russian nuclear arsenals and buy time for deeper cuts.
Australia’s export mix is dangerously narrow. A mission-led industrial strategy is needed to build competitive advantage and lift productivity.
Mark Dreyfus has been appointed Australia’s special envoy on human rights. Is the government prepared to match international advocacy with concrete action at home – by finally legislating a Human Rights Act? (more…)
Donald Trump’s campaign against Venezuela is less about drugs than power, exposing deep hypocrisy in US policy and raising uncomfortable questions for Australia about its alliance.
Media coverage does more than report on the far right. Through language choices, sensationalism and false balance, journalism can help shift racist politics into the mainstream.
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Australia is awash with immigration rhetoric, but little of it is grounded in evidence, clear definitions or serious policy alternatives. Rather than an informed public debate, Australians are being offered slogans, blame and ambiguity.
The Albanese government promised to end political patronage in statutory appointments, but has instead chosen a non-binding framework that preserves ministerial discretion and limits accountability.
New polling reveals a clear and sustained decline in public approval of Trump and his policies that is already reshaping US electoral prospects, with significant implications for Congress and beyond.
After encouraging universities to expand overseas enrolments, the government has overseen a sharp fall in student visa approval rates – leaving institutions uncertain and applicants frustrated. (more…)
Strains on social cohesion cannot be dismissed as the embrace of multiculturalism has made the task of defining what holds the community together more challenging. (more…)
With Trump 2.0, the global order is changing and changing rapidly. (more…)
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…)
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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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…)
Gaza’s economy, society and basic infrastructure have been almost entirely wiped out. With 90 per cent of people displaced, food systems destroyed and schools and hospitals in ruins, reconstruction is becoming harder by the day. (more…)
As Gaza reels from unimaginable physical and psychological harm, the global trauma healing community has remained largely silent. Breaking that silence is essential if therapeutic work is to remain honest, ethical and grounded in the reality clients bring into the room. (more…)
Despite Western Australian Labor’s rhetoric on equality and Closing the Gap, incarcerated First Nations people remain politically invisible. Without formal representation and lived-experience voices in party deliberations, meaningful reform is impossible. The 2027 State Labor Conference is the moment to change that. (more…)
As One Nation rises by recycling anti-immigration rhetoric, both major parties are fumbling their response – missing the chance to offer a clear, credible and principled long-term plan.
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