Global Issues
Review: Australia, real and imagined
Review: Tim Watts, The Golden Country: Australia’s Changing Identity (Text Publishing 2019)
Summer reading bins have been well stocked with memoirs by retired Australian…
Beijing’s cryptic blockchain gambit
China is going berserk for blockchain these days, and doing so with oh-so-very Chinese characteristics.
The recent hype is certainly not without cause. After years of cautious…
The Rohingya Football Club
I’ve worked a lot in development areas, but I have never run a charity before. So, when I decided to set up a locally based international aid and development not-for-profit, it…
Out of sight, out of mind? Irregular people movement on the doorstep
Earlier this year, French authorities intercepted a boat from Sri Lanka heading to Réunion Island, a journey of more than 4000 kilometres in the direction of Madagascar. Reports…
See you in court? A rising tide of international climate litigation
There has been a surge in climate litigation in national courts over the past few years, especially in the United States. Accompanying this has been growing interest in litigating…
With a UN Human Rights Council seat, Indonesia has a choice
Indonesia won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council this month, elected for a 2020–22 term, having received the backing of 174 countries in a secret ballot, the most…
The worrying precedent of Turkey’s “safe zone”
There is a reason the Kurds say they have “no friend but the mountains”. Time and again human rights atrocities have been perpetrated against them, and they are not strategically…
Antarctica and the China test
At the current meeting in Hobart for CCAMLR, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, Australia is once again moving to establish marine…
Are free trade deals expanding a digital divide?
E-bills, e-signature, the electronic transfer of funds – advancements in technology are bringing about remarkable changes in the business landscape, domestically and…
China’s carbon emissions trading scheme: Smoke and mirrors
Chinese officials have recently given some important indications about the design of China’s much-anticipated – and much-hyped – national carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS),…