Australia’s export mix is dangerously narrow. A mission-led industrial strategy is needed to build competitive advantage and lift productivity.
Blog
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Gory sausage making at the Labor knackery
“Social coherence” is being invoked everywhere, but public trust is fraying. Political panic, rushed laws and weak leadership are deepening division, not repairing it.
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Britain has banned junk food advertising to kids. There are big lessons for Australia
Britain has moved to limit junk food marketing to children, despite loopholes and lobbying. Australia still hasn’t acted.
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Best of 2025 – Words or action? Dreyfus and human rights at home
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…)
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Best of 2025 – Trump’s drug war on Venezuela reeks of hypocrisy
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.
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Best of 2025 – How media coverage helps normalise the far right
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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Best of 2025 – Australia’s immigration ‘debate’ is rhetoric, not policy
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.
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Best of 2025 – How the Albanese government kept “jobs for mates” alive
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.
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Best of 2025 – Charting Trump’s decline
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.
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Best of 2025 – Rising student visa refusals clash with plans to boost enrolments
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…)
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Best of 2025 – We’re not about to go full Trump no matter what the culture warriors say
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…)
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Best of 2025 – Australia’s strategic choices in a fragmenting global order
With Trump 2.0, the global order is changing and changing rapidly. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Why Labor can’t be bold without confronting tax reform
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…)
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Dangerously alive: summer, sharks and a ritual encounter with danger
A beach swim, a shark warning and a familiar summer ritual open up bigger questions about safety, fear, and what it means to feel alive.
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Protests and consequences: Gaza and Iran
Australians can condemn repression in Iran and still focus on Gaza, where our government’s leverage is real and our moral responsibility is direct.
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Best of 2025 – Why Medicare needs joint federal–state hospitals
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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Best of 2025 – The inflation myth propping up private school privilege
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…)
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Best of 2025 – Gaza’s economy has collapsed beyond recognition
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…)
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Best of 2025 – Why the trauma community must break its silence on Gaza
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…)
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Best of 2025 – Making First Nations prisoners visible in Labor politics
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…)
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Best of 2025 – Our politicians continue to fail us on immigration policy
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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Best of 2025 – Losing the democracy sausage vibe
The last federal election saw a sharp rise in harassment and aggression at polling places, according to submissions from around the country. From death threats to deception, the once-peaceful ritual of casting a vote is under threat – and Australia needs to act. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Axed AG tells how Labor really changes the Constitution
Despite Labor’s longstanding appetite for constitutional reform, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus now points to a different path: bold, nation-shaping change without the need for a referendum.
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Censorship doesn’t silence – it amplifies
Attempts to silence writers rarely erase them. More often, they expose insecurity, deepen division, and turn targets into symbols of resistance.
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“Go ahead – make my book list”: slings and arrows, and Eastwood
Shawn Levy’s Clint Eastwood biography captures the contradictions of a screen icon — and the craft behind a career still shaping popular cinema.
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Heatwaves, bushfires, and the words that save lives
As heatwaves and bushfire risks intensify, emergency language has shifted too. The challenge is to warn clearly without losing trust.
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Best of 2025 – My one hope – to meet my wife and daughters again
Hamed Al-Mansi is a physical education teacher and farmer from Gaza. He is now alone in Gaza and his dearest wish is to reunite with his family. He has allowed us to publish an extract of his diary. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Assessing the Liberal Party’s policy-making capacity
Good policy should be evidence-based. But this is not the case with the Liberals energy policy and seems unlikely with their migration policy. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Democracies good, China bad – and history not required
Japan and China both have legitimate security concerns. But an informed debate needs major media outlets to stop systematically erasing the historical context that shapes how the region understands current events. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Five reasons Trump’s economy stinks and 10 things the Dems should do about It
The Trump economy is truly awful for most Americans. Democrats need to show America that they can be better trusted to bring prices down and real wages up. (more…)