At a time when the Reserve Bank’s interest rate rise is adding to cost of living pressures and increasing the chances of a recession, Albanese is finding it hard to justify the staggering $368 billion cost of AUKUS nuclear submarines. Anthony Albanese says it only took him 24 hours to decide to back the AUKUS Continue reading »
politics
Peter Dutton’s number two (for now) Sussan Ley has condemned Labor for delivering a budget surplus instead of a budget ssurplus. ”Mr Albanese needs to have a good hard look at himself and apologise to the Australian people,” said Susssan... Read More ›
The Saudi-Iranian normalisation deal brokered by China has sent shockwaves throughout the region. Regional actors had not expected China to suddenly desire a political role in the Persian Gulf. Others were skeptical of Beijing’s diplomatic capacity and skills. Few, however, were as surprised as foreign policy hands in Washington – even though it is the Continue reading »
As 2022 closed, WA’s main juvenile detention centre, Banksia Hill, grabbed national attention when one of its buildings was burned to the ground by rioting inmates, who scaled the fences in a stand-off with the riot squad. As 2023 unfolds, it’s still getting headlines as the state’s Commissioner for Children and Young People declares that Continue reading »
For someone who is experiencing gambling harm, either due to their own gambling or someone else’s gambling, finding a quality service is often difficult. People with lived experience regularly tell us they struggle to find independent and quality information about what is on offer and the likely outcomes of any referral. The harms from gambling Continue reading »
The French Government’s Research Minister, Silvie Retailleau, has announced a plan to shake up the country’s scientific research including investing an extra Euro 26 billion (equivalent to A$42.5 billion.) It is in stark contrast to the Australian situation where we spend $11.9 billion on research. To put that in perspective the French spend 2.3 % Continue reading »
India as the Chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) hosted the SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting on 28 April. Largely unreported in Western media, the meeting underlined important divergences in the narrative promoted by US-centric media that suggests India and China have irreconcilable differences. The first striking illustration of this spirit of cooperation between India and Continue reading »
What the general told me about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in the early days of the Obama administration. During the first year of the Obama administration, I spent months in the summer and fall of 2009 reporting about the Pakistani nuclear arsenal from here in Washington; from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital; from New Delhi, the Indian Continue reading »
It’s not just the Australian senate that cannot know whether such missiles are conventional or nuclear, it’s also the receiving country. This uncertainty increases risks of nuclear war. At Senate Estimates in February, Greens senators sought clarity from the foreign minister and secretary of defence on whether US B52s to be based in the Northern Continue reading »