Are Australians ready to embrace libertarianism?

How much influence does libertarianism have on Australian politics? The first thing to know is that the Australian political system has very few libertarians in it.

Deepening dictatorship bodes ill for China

The removal of the last effective checks on Supreme Leader Xi Jinping’s power serves as an important reminder about the nature of the Chinese Party-state.

Australia’s global rights carry global duties

Australia has long benefited from the post-war rules-based international order. But the danger of eroding international norms demands Canberra rethinks its foreign policies rather than put this at risk.

Australia’s anti-climactic ASEAN Summit

The ASEAN Summit in Sydney offered many words but little action. If Australia wants to make Southeast Asia the ‘strategic fulcrum’ of its Indo-Pacific strategy, it needs to look well beyond ASEAN as its means.

More competition could risk human service delivery

The Australian Council of Social Service argues that introducing further competition into human services provision carries significant risk, in response to the Productivity Commission’s report.

What is Australia’s strategic plan B?

Australian strategic policy has not accounted for a failure of the post-war international order, even as the threats to it grow. Now, as elements of that order crumble, Australia has no coherent alternative to simply hoping against hope that the past will persist into the future.

Finding the right balance between China and the USA

Former Prime Minster Paul Keating argues that the much maligned Donald Trump may have found the right approach to managing relations with China.

New paths or missteps at the ASEAN summit?

Anthony Milner charts the success and failures of the ASEAN summit in Sydney and argues that Australia must play the long game if we aren’t to face regional isolation as American dominance begins to fade.

How Oz politics works

A twenty year veteran of the Canberra Parliament reporting scene, Graeme Dobell takes a wry look at the cut throat world of Australian politics, a place where you’re always on your own and, in the end, you’ll let everyone down.

ASEAN and Australia peer from the summit

Southeast Asia is where Australia’s geography collides with our economic and perhaps political future. Australia has always thought ASEAN a good thing – the harder question for us is what to do with it.

Decoding the ASEAN declaration

As the ASEAN summit wraps up, the Sydney Declaration has subtly taken Australia’s relationship with its closest Asian neighbours into new territory after a diverse week of engagement from soccer to social entrepreneurs.

The mundane reality of ‘Think Tanks’

Think tanks are a source of both fascination and fear for the media. The reality of efforts to influence policy-making is far more prosaic and think tanks continue to evolve to survive in a changing political landscape.