Opinion Pieces | Page 4 | Australian Policy and History Network

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 […]

Why do Tamil asylum seekers need protection — and why does the Australian government say they don’t?

Niro Kandasamy, recipient of the Contemporary Histories Policy and History Award, writes about Tamil asylum seekers in this piece, originally published in The Conversation. Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has announced the Murugappans will be moved from detention on Christmas Island, to community detention in Perth. This follows mounting public concern for the Tamil family, particularly […]

Why Chauvin’s conviction shouldn’t change calls to abolish police

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. The unprecedented conviction of police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder and manslaughter of George Floyd is testament to the hard work of Black Lives Matter organisers and protesters. It might seem as though someone who spent nine minutes and 29 seconds […]

Australia Awards, where to now?

Like the rest of the international education sector in Australia, the Australian government development scholarships program, the Australia Awards, have been thrown into chaos by Covid-19. Does this moment of uncertainty offer an opportunity for the scholarships to reset? Background The Australian government has been offering scholarships to international students in the region since 1948. […]

Australia in the Indian Ocean: Why More Needs to be Done

In our first opinion piece of 2021, Dr Niro Kandasamy considers Australia’s relationship with Sri Lanka and argues that we need to take a more active and engaged role in the strategically vital Indian Ocean region. By Niro Kandasamy Earlier this year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison committed to strengthening Australia’s ties to states in the […]

Leading America and Biden’s new/old foreign policy: The exclusive new democracy club, trade-bloc or alliance?

By Digby Wren Australia faces unprecedented regional trade and security challenges in the aftermath of the Trump presidency and a continuing pandemic calamity. The Morrison government has been in lockstep with the Trump administration’s ‘Strategic Adversary’ approach to China. How will President-elect Joe Biden’s approach differ from his predecessor’s and how can the Morrison government’s […]

The Anzac legend has blinded Australia to its war atrocities. It’s time for a reckoning.

Martin Crotty, The University of Queensland and Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University For years, Australians have faced a steady stream of investigative media reports about atrocities allegedly committed by the country’s most elite soldiers in Afghanistan. Yet, nothing could have prepared the nation for the breathtaking contents of the landmark report by Major General Paul […]