A hit to DFAT accountability

The abolition of DFAT’s Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) is a bad decision. This development is made worse by the non-transparent way the decision was made.

Vox Populi

Fergus Neilson analyses a snapshot of opinions on the condition of 21st century democracy and offers some ideas for reform.

Australia and the U.N.

As the UN’s second secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjöld, famously said, the UN ‘was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell’.

Increasing Australia’s investment in diplomacy

Australia is underinvesting in diplomacy given the type of world we are living in. But it’s wrongheaded to blame MPs and ministers for not simply understanding the intrinsic value of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and giving it more money.

Multilateralism after COVID-19

Australia has enormous opportunities to influence the world for good, in ways that advance our wellbeing, security and prosperity, but it will require some tough decisions and clear policy making on the domestic as well as international front.

Will the National Cabinet change Federal-State relations?

The much-heralded success of the national cabinet is more related to the extraordinary circumstance in which it operates than its revolutionary design.

Premiers facing elections play hardball with hard borders

That old adage “never get between a premier and a bucket of money” has become “never get between a premier and a COVID election”.

Why Australia needs new foreign relations law

The Morrison government is closing the door on a disastrous decade for Australia where our greed and naivety turned us wilfully blind to the predatory ambitions of China.

Morrison is closing the seams in our federation that China seeks to exploit

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s proposed foreign relations bill is all about closing the seams in our federation and giving practical effect to the Commonwealth’s constitutional power on foreign relations.

Why we need a new constitution

In a book to be launched this week by John Hewson, Bede Harris argues that the Commonwealth constitution is so defective that we need an entirely new one.

Valuing our Royal Commissions

Politicians of both parties often resort to Royal Commissions to damp down controversy or punt tough choices into the future, but these august committees can still play a role in encouraging genuine reform.

Is democracy a victim of COVID-19?

The sidelining of state and federal parliaments during the COVID-19 crisis, and the emergence of a dominant National Cabinet has raised few public concerns, but is it weakening our democracy?