In 2009, I launched a book titled Drifting Apart: The Diverging Development Paths of Argentina and Australia, which I co-authored with Fernando Tohmé from Universidad Nacional del Sur in Argentina. We…
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Julia Gillard are at loggerheads over the investment chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
AAP
This week, San Diego is hosting the latest round of talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Australia and New Zealand are at loggerheads over this secretive new trade treaty spanning the Pacific Rim…
Familiar territory: Australia’s tourism pitch to China was well received, but it could have been more adventurous.
AAP
In a symbolic move, Tourism Australia chose Shanghai to launch its new “There’s Nothing Like Australia” campaign. The classic advertising imagery returns us to the pre-Hogan era, before Paul invited prospective…
If Australia had been founded according to the Eurozone model, our current economic situation would look very different.
adam79
Suppose that in 1901 Australia’s founding fathers had designed the Commonwealth differently. The states were to retain all powers to tax and had to finance themselves (including health, education and social…
David Herbert Lawrence dived deep into the psychology of the Australian landscape in Kangaroo.
Flickr/Duncan~
Welcome to the first essay in our series on how the Australian landscape has been described in literature. We start with an internationally recognised D. H. Lawrence scholar, Christopher Pollnitz, writing…
Who would emerge better under a trans-Tasman currency regime: New Zealand or Australia?
AAP
The idea of a shared currency between Australia and New Zealand is not new and has engendered discussion over the past two decades. It has recently come to the forefront as a result of our Prime Ministers…
The Convergence review’s final recommendations have fallen short when it comes to Australian content.
AAP/Dean Lewins
The Convergence Review Final Report released yesterday appears at first blush to promise major changes to the Australian media landscape. The report flags the creation of a new communications regulator…
Local history has an important place in Australia. The academic world should get involved.
Flickr/Kate's Photo Diary
Local history is one of the most popular forms of history in Australia. Yet there is a yawning gap between the enthusiastic amateur and the academic historian. While some academic historians engage with…
The Australian film Any Questions for Ben? has begged another question – what makes a film Australian?
AAP Image/Marianna Massey
What makes an Australian film truly Australian? Do there need to be Aussie characters? Aussie actors? Aussie subject matter? Australian humour? Australians are good at obsessing about what makes them different…
The Diprotodon optatum, a marsupial mega-herbivore sometimes known as the Giant Wombat or the Rhinoceros Wombat, grew to three metres in length and two metres in height. Its closest surviving relatives are the wombat and the koala.
Peter Murray
The first Australians hunted giant kangaroos, rhinoceros-sized marsupials, huge goannas and other megafauna to extinction shortly after arriving in the country more than 40,000 years ago, new research…
Kevin Rudd will only give a smug smile when asked about his designs on Julia Gillard’s job.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Watching Kevin Rudd in his almost daily struggle to avoid giving a straight answer to questions about whether he’ll challenge Julia Gillard is as painful as listening to a smoker justify why they won’t…
Queen Elizabeth II has many supporters. But are they getting value for money?
EPA/Chris Radburn
To some, the Queen and her royal family are dear to the heart. To others, there is nothing sillier than following the lives of individuals that parade themselves as royalty. And for many – if not most…
How and why has Australia Day become so important?
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Some 224 years ago on January 26, the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove. Just 1500 people disembarked with nearly 800 of them convicts. The date saw the beginning of the British penal colony, then known…
Australia’s demographic make-up is changing rapidly.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
One of the sharpest divides in attitudes to Australia Day celebrations is between those who think of Australia as a nation of migrants and those who regard Australians as a unique people and culture. For…
You may want to start hoarding supplies and making your end of world plans now – before it’s too late.
Flickr/Necromundo
If you believe the doomsayers, the human race is not long for this earth. By the end of this year, our number will be up: the four horseman of the apocalypse will be upon us, fire will rain from the skies…
Many Aboriginal people, like boxer Anthony Mundine, look to Islam as a way of re-connecting with their roots.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Muslim conversion is growing in Indigenous communities. In the 2001 national census, 641 Indigenous people identified as Muslim. By the 2006 census the number had climbed by more than 60% to 1014 people…
It’s December 15th, 1983. Around 13,000 people, a capacity crowd, are packed into the Sydney Entertainment Centre. This is the last of five Cold Chisel shows there. Fans had queued for blocks, some had…
2500 US Marines will be deployed near Darwin in coming years, but we could also see an expanded American military presence elsewhere in northern Australia.
AAP/Malone
Negotiations are underway that could see some the US military’s most advanced drone aircraft based on the Australian Indian Ocean territory of the Cocos Islands. Combined with discussions around having…
The less Australia reaches outwards, the less it will reap the rewards.
Sean MacEntee
Have you used your mobile phone, taken medicine or banked online today? As consumers, we benefit directly from the increasing pace of innovation. But ten years into the Asian century, the source of innovation…
‘Generation’ is a slippery concept. More research is needed to tell real people’s stories.
Flickr/Mickey van der Stap
Generational difference is one of the major issues of our time. Game shows like Talkin’‘bout Your Generation assume that Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y contestants have very different attitudes and knowledge…
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University
Faculty Member, Asian Studies Program, Georgetown University; Visiting Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University., Georgetown University