Keywords: Australian Government
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AUSTRALIA
- David Hayward
- 28 March 2025
Covid offered a rare chance to reimagine the role of the state. What might have become a pivot to care and collective responsibility became a bonanza for entrenched interests. The crisis passed. Inequality returned. And the deeper reckoning that beckoned was quietly deferred, perhaps indefinitely.
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AUSTRALIA
- David James
- 27 March 2025
Australia’s Federal Budget offers a mix of tax cuts, spending increases, and modest relief for households, but fails to address the seismic shifts in global economics. With rising defense spending and minimal solutions for mounting debt, it remains unclear whether this budget can navigate the country’s economic vulnerabilities in an unpredictable world.
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AUSTRALIA
When Cyclone Alfred swept through Queensland, the damage was swift, but its most enduring effects are harder to see. As the clean-up began, a quieter crisis emerged: disrupted care, rising health risks, and a fragile health system ill-equipped to cope.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 24 March 2025
With America's reliability in question, Australia is rethinking what security really means. Should it double down on military self-reliance, or reconsider the cost of placing defence above all else? As alliances fray and power shifts, the country faces a deeper reckoning: whom can it trust—and at what price?
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AUSTRALIA
- Barry Gittins
- 13 March 2025
Australia’s political class might make grand promises, but for those on the margins — homeless, underemployed, struggling with addiction — these pledges mean little. The people who have been left behind know the game is rigged. As elections approach, they watch from the outside, knowing their vote was never meant to count.
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RELIGION
- Jim McDermott
- 13 March 2025
Frank Brennan wears his prominence lightly. A priest, lawyer, and tireless advocate for Indigenous rights and refugees, he is as at home in political corridors as he is at the dinner table, welcoming friends with stories and good cheer. Now, celebrating 50 years as a Jesuit, he reflects on faith, justice, and a life of service.
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AUSTRALIA
- Sarah Klenbort
- 12 March 2025
As Australia heads towards another federal election, the influence of big money in politics looms larger. In the U.S., billionaires and corporate interests have eroded trust in government. Campaigns there cost billions of dollars, while ours, for now, do not. But can we keep it that way?
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ENVIRONMENT
- Michele Gierck
- 28 February 2025
Dr. Paul Hardisty has spent years chronicling the Great Barrier Reef—not just its breathtaking beauty, but its battles for survival. In In Hot Water, he traces a century of near-misses and looming catastrophe, from oil drilling threats to climate-driven bleaching, revealing the fragile, high-stakes fight to save the world’s largest coral ecosystem.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Gillian Bouras
- 27 February 2025
Europe faces a moment of strategic recalibration as shifting U.S. priorities put transatlantic ties under strain, raising concerns about Europe’s defence standing. With war on its borders and internal divisions mounting, the European Union must rethink its role in an increasingly uncertain world.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Cameron Hill
- 26 February 2025
With cuts to USAID, international aid programs confront mounting challenges. Amid evolving power dynamics and strategic realignment, humanitarian assistance now faces fundamental questions about its future.
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AUSTRALIA
- Mark Gaetani
- 26 February 2025
As cash fades from everyday transactions, its decline underscores a growing divide in access. With digital payments dominating and cash use dropping sharply, questions loom over the future of currency in an increasingly cashless society, and who might be left behind.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Andrew Hamilton
- 19 February 2025
The shockwaves of the Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli military’s response in Gaza have ignited protests, inflamed divisions, and prompted a reckoning with rising antisemitism. As hostilities pause, how should societies distinguish between legitimate criticism and rhetoric that fuels hate?
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