Reforming the NDIS

The cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme has ballooned by almost 25% every year for the last five years as innumerable providers jump on the gravy train, but much needed reform shouldn’t deprive genuinely disabled people of the support they need.

Unpicking Australian sovereignty

Sovereignty will always be central to Australia’s national security debate. But invoking the word isn’t enough. We need to understand it, define it and defend it not as a relic of strategic nostalgia but as a living, evolving capacity to act in the national interest.

Death by a thousand cuts

Recent controversies over New Zealand’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunch program have offer a window into the wider debate about the politics of “fiscal responsibility” and austerity politics in democratic governments around the world.

Stop talking, start punching

Australia must stop talking about being a middle power that punches above its weight. Talking about it is far less interesting to the rest of the world than Australia actually doing it.

Goodnight and good luck

Is it time to rethinking Australia’s alliance with Trump’s America, given that Trump’s America thinks only about itself.

22 years after RAMSI

More than two decades after Australian intervention saved the Solomon Islands from chaos and collapse, the fractures that prompted ethnic conflict between Guadalcanal and Malaita communities remain deeply entrenched in the nation’s politics, society and governance.

Restoring faith in democracy

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his second term government is “focused on delivery” to improve Australians’ faith in democracy as well as the strength of the economy.

Jumping ship

Defections are fairly common in Australian politics. But history shows they are rarely a good career move.

What makes populism popular?

Populism offers easy answers to complicated problems, with charismatic leaders rather than innovative ideas, but whether its right wing attacks against the “elites”, or left wing bile aimed at big business, it’s proving an electoral success – encouraging more politicians to embrace it.

Say hello, wave goodbye

Trump’s abandonment of traditional allies and alliances should force Australia to rethink its priorities and cleave to long-established principles, rather than blindly follow the USA down a potentially disastrous path.

Policy outcomes from the Federal election

The dust has settled on Australia’s Federal election, and while the Liberal Party begins the long task of digging itself out of its electoral hole, bedrock problems such as productivity, tax reform and budget spending must be tackled by Labor.

Gluing the bench back together

The fall-out from the Liberals-Nationals split and potential reconciliation continues as David Littleproud and Sussan Ley jockey for supremacy and policy control.