Australia’s election 2019
Australia’s presidential politics
Watch enough sport in Australia and the so-called “Americanisation” of culture is readily apparent. In Australian rules football, where contract arrangements increasingly follow…
Australia’s election: what the hell just happened?
Not everyone who was hoping for a Labor victory took the loss well. But if, as the sore losers claimed, the unexpected return of the centre-right Morrison Government shows that…
What’s on offer? Pacific policy and Australia’s election
The Pacific has undergone a foreign policy renaissance of sorts, with politicians and policymakers falling over themselves to proclaim their commitment to the region and its vital…
Time to reverse the Indonesian language disaster on our shores
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong’s efforts to set out a vision for Australia’s foreign policy on Asia, embodied in Labor’s “FutureAsia” plans, are admirable. The…
Charting 50 years of turning tides in Australian politics
Australians will choose a new national government on 18 May in the context of two underlying trends: a record number of independents already now in office across the country and a…
What the world thinks is at stake in Australia’s election campaign
Former prime minister Paul Keating pinched a moment in the international spotlight this week after calling for a clean out of “nutters” in Australia’s intelligence agencies. But…
After the Australian election: the China test
Governments in Australia are judged, in part, by their handling of the relationship with China. And while foreign policy has barely featured in Australia’s election campaign, the…
Trafficking in old anxieties
Are the boats back? Once again a reliable fear of “uncontrolled” immigration has been invoked in an Australian federal election. This time current Prime Minister Scott Morrison…
A bugle for bigotry: does hate speech in Australia resonate in Asia?
Racism and hate speech have certainly been much discussed in Australia and the area seems to have become a grey area for many politicians who see it as too prominent and…
Adapting to climate change: the priority for Australia
Adaptation to climate change was for a long time considered as an abstract issue for the future, something that would need to be worked out later by someone else. Adaptation, in…