Chinese democracy

Chinese diaspora voters in Australia and the United States are an increasingly important voting demographic and have tended to lean left in recent elections.

Shaking up capital gains

A new McKell Institute paper, co-authored by Professor Richard Holden and McKell CEO Edward Cavanough, is calling for a major shake up of capital gains tax via a ‘circuit breaker’ proposal to the stalled national housing debate.

Welcome to Parliament

Anthony Albanese hasn’t been in any rush to convene the new parliament, which Governor-General Sam Mostyn will open on Tuesday, but much of the attention in its first few days will focus on the opposition.

Towards “kinder” public services

Australian public institutions have received a strong cue from the prime minister that kindness should also be a core business value when serving clients, especially those in need.

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.