I wrote “ The Preservation of Pure Learning ” — my summing up of the state of Australian universities for Inside Story after ...

Two new novels, one from Tasmania and the other from a South African writer, extend our understanding of empire and its consequences. Their settings are a century apart. Each is a hypothetical ...

This fourth and final volume of the Robert Menzies Institute’s examination of the record and legacy of Australia’s longest-serving prime minister is also its lengthiest. No fewer than twenty-two ...

Climate change scientists and activists have long harboured an uncomfortable secret: they don’t know how to achieve net zero emissions. That goal is imperative if the rise in global temperature is to ...

How’s this for a contract a journalist had to sign to grant screen rights for their work? “I understand you may desire to portray and/impersonate me in the Picture and use my name, likeness, and ...

Diplomats spend their careers writing “cables” that report, record, recommend and instruct. This lifetime habit of writing has fed a minor Australian tradition of foreign affairs books by retired ...

When a determined and resourceful young man from Punjab — I’ll call him Hari — was driving me home recently, our conversation turned to his experiences and aspirations in Australia. He’d finished a ...

With the rise and rise in support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, the polls have created one of the most extraordinary moments in Australian politics. In December, across seven polls, support for One ...

The proceedings of the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the International Maritime Organization don’t normally make headline news. (Except perhaps in Ocean Freight Times.) But the ...

Does Australia need more federal politicians? Special minister of state Don Farrell (and hence prime minister Anthony Albanese) seems to think so. Farrell included the idea in the terms of reference ...

Tasmania presents something of a political conundrum. Back in May 2023 its Liberal government fell into minority after the defection of two members, John Tucker and Lara Alexander. Premier Jeremy ...