Will national cabinet survive the COVID ‘opening up’?

Carolyn Holbrook and James Walter look at the future of the federation and the national cabinet. For a brief moment in 2020, it appeared the COVID pandemic might be the catalyst for a new era in Australian federal relations. The national cabinet, comprising the prime minister and state and territory leaders, was established in March […]

Is Expertise A Dirty Word?

Richard Trembath argues that as higher education grapples with cutbacks, constraints and remote learning, it also has to counter anti-intellectualism. ‘Plato is credited with offering the first account of what we mean by knowledge, which was in three parts: you know something, he thought, if you hold it to be true, if it is true […]

Recalling ANZUS, 1951 – lessons?

Professor David Lowe marks the 70th Anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty, asking what we can learn from the treaty for building and sustaining strong co-operative relationships with near neighbours, including Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and countries of the South Pacific. September 1 marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the ANZUS Treaty in 1951. […]

We Must Support, Not Alienate, Our Vulnerable Refugee Communities During Lockdown

Dr Jessica Stroja argues that Australian governments need to be doing more to support refugee communities during lockdown. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact life around the world, Greater Sydney finds itself in the midst of an extended lockdown that was promoted by an outbreak of the COVID Delta strain that was first reported […]

Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Mushroom Cloud over Japan

“For Coronavirus to occur like this at the 75th juncture of the [remembrance of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki] should be ringing alarm bells” SH, Peace Baton Member, Nagasaki, 2020. Recently the world observed the closing ceremony of the ‘2020’ Olympics. The Olympics occurred despite many calls from within and without Japan to […]

The forgotten Australian veterans who opposed National Service and the Vietnam War

On the 50th anniversary of the decision to withdraw troops from Vietnam, Jon Piccini, from Australian Catholic University writes about veterans who opposed National Service and the Vietnam War. This piece was originally published in The Conversation. On July 26 1971, a top secret cabinet meeting ended what was then Australia’s longest conflict. The public […]

Is the COVID vaccine rollout the greatest public policy failure in recent Australian history?

Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University; James Walter, Monash University, and Paul Strangio, Monash University look at the public policy problems of the COVID Vaccine rollout, in an article originally published in The Conversation. Is the Morrison government’s COVID vaccination rollout program one of Australia’s biggest ever public policy failures? As COVID-19 infection numbers in locked-down Sydney […]

Aide memoire: Swine flu in Australia, 2009-2010

Remember the swine flu? It’s the pandemic that Australia forgot, arguably to our detriment when it came to wrangling COVID-19. In this article, Dr Richard Trembath looks back on the H1N1 swine flu outbreak, and the impact on Australia, and his own family. During these times, there was a pestilence[i] Procopius On 8 May 2009 […]

Remembering Janet Malcolm: her intellectual courage shaped journalism, biographies and Helen Garner

Prof. Matthew Ricketson, looks back on the legacy of journalist Janet Malcolm. Journalism has rarely had a fiercer critic, nor a finer practitioner than the longtime writer for The New Yorker, Janet Malcolm, who died last week aged 86. Some might quibble with the description of Malcolm as a journalist, but journalism is a far […]

‘Refugee resettlement: why religion must be considered’ by Jessica Stroja

Dr Jessica Stroja from Griffith University argues that churches and faith-based organisations have played an important and under-recognised role in refugee resettlement. The world is currently facing a mass refugee crisis, and over the past decade, the number of refugees seeking assistance has drastically increased. While distanced from overseas sites of displacement, Australia is […]

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