Australia
Can we please have a real debate on nuclear submarines?
So it’s to be full speed ahead with nuclear-propelled submarines then? This is a momentous policy decision, but it looks like it will be taken with no real debate, despite the…
If you had 30 minutes with the PM, what would you ask?
“Right. So I’m going to pretend that you are the recently voted upon Prime Minister?”
Exactly, I reply, smiling across the screen to Dorcas Makgato, High Commissioner for…
Economic diplomacy: The Pacific reset needs real commercial investment
Betting on bula
Pacific relations may have been an expected conflict zone at the last federal election but once in office the new Albanese government has doubled down on a big…
Australia-China relations: Understanding how we arrived at this point
Australia’s China debate clearly cannot live with history alone, yet it also cannot live without it.
This is one of the conclusions reached in my forthcoming book, Australia’s…
Semut: Australia’s secret war against the Japanese in Borneo
Book review: Christine Helliwell, Semut: The Untold Story of a Secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo (Michael Joseph: Penguin Random House, 2021)
Few in Australia…
Economic diplomacy: The Pacific beats ASEAN for nervous investors
Sticky money
As the new Labor government oscillates between promoting investment in Southeast Asia to deepen security ties and trying to keep the Pacific family together in the…
France can help Albanese fix AUKUS
Recently-elected Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faces a dilemma on nuclear submarines. Having received only a single day’s notice, and wanting to avoid looking weak on…
Support Pacific neighbours by strengthening indigenous food systems
Across the island states of the Pacific, indigenous food systems have been shaped and refined over centuries to make the most of bountiful natural resources without exhausting…
Answering China’s South China Sea flying safety challenge
China continues to double down on its dangerous intercept of an Australian maritime surveillance aircraft flying in international air space in the South China Sea. China’s…
Australia and the Nuclear Ban Treaty
The first Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) took place in Vienna from 21 to 23 June. The new Australian government sent an …