Fred Gale’s article, Tasmanian Forests Agreement: deeply flawed, worth backing, provides interesting insights into the views of one segment of the Tasmanian community that supports the Tasmanian Forest…
Young people have less and less electoral clout as our population ages.
AAP/Marianna Massey
An ageing population is a threat to not just the Australian economy, but also our political system.
In The Republic, Plato wrote: “it is for the elder man to rule and for the younger to submit”. This…
Yes, we need energy, but sometimes it’s OK to say “no”.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Fracking is utterly transforming the global energy industry. It has opened up new energy reserves by making it economically viable to extract natural gas from coal seams and shale formations. As a result…
Follow the money: the US may not be perfect, but Australian campaign finance laws need tightening.
EPA/Erik S. Lesser
In the run-up to today’s presidential election, President Barack Obama received just over $632 million in candidate contributions. Want to know who from? These direct, individual donations (known as “hard…
Debates can change a campaign, as the US experience has shown.
EPA/Rick Wilking
Only a month ago the outcome of the US presidential election was seen my most commentators as being a question of the margin of President Barack Obama’s victory. But then the television debates intervened…
Some young people aren’t as disinterested in others in politics. Why is that?
Flickr/Adam Scotti
History will be made when Scots vote in October 2014 on whether their country should take independence from the United Kingdom.
This has nothing to do with the outcome of the vote: the very fact that…
Across Australia tonight, thousands of Australians will aim their tweets at the ABC’s flagship forum Q&A in an attempt to get some brief screen-time on the program. Joining with their tweeps, they…
Leave “wicked” to the witches and let’s get on with the job of policy research.
Witches image from www.shutterstock.com
Wicked problems, so we are told, are everywhere. Climate change, conflict, an ageing population, obesity… the list goes on. The debate over asylum seekers, difficult and important and politically charged…
The flags of 204 nations were on display in London, but do “nations” even exist?
Christophe Karaba/EPA
As I sat there this morning watching the London 2012 closing ceremony, I was impressed by the artistry, choreography, stage-setting (an artistry unto itself), music and the sense of celebration in the…
What percentage of Londoners said they wanted the Olympics? No one knows.
Christopher Bevacqua
As the giant bureaucratic beast that is the IOC lumbers through London, locals can be heard saying, “I don’t remember voting for this”. The Olympics is a strangely undemocratic affair: locals of host cities…
Argentina, like many other Latin American economies, could learn much from Australia’s economic resilience.
Luis Fdez
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…
To solve sustainability problems, governments need to know what the people are thinking. Elections aren’t quick enough.
John Ager
Australia is currently unsustainable in many respects. Change is coming. Will that change be wisely managed? Or will it be forced upon us in potentially catastrophic ways?
Wise management will require…
Western Governments will be recklessly ignoring their human rights obligations if they continue to support Shell in its US supreme court case.
EPA/George Esiri
We all know corporations do bad things. Big corporates have been publicly named and shamed for their participation in causing harm to people and the planet, and they are not always held to account.
As…
On her recent visit to Thailand, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said her country had an urgent need for basic education.
EPA/Barbara Walton
On June 1, after decades of struggle to be a legitimate voice for the Burmese people, Aung San Suu Kyi addressed the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok. She did not raise a call to arms or popular…
The census has benefits for every Australian.
AAP/David Sproule
AUSTRALIA BY NUMBERS: Today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the first batch of its 2011 census data. We’ve asked some of the country’s top demographers and statisticians to crunch the…
Julia Gillard espouses “evidence-based” policy and Bob Hawke set up a Future Commission, but policy-making is necessarily subject to all manner of short-term pressures.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
In part five of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Scott Prasser questions easy sloganeering about the importance of “long-term” policy-making.
Global challenge 5: How can policymaking…
China’s citizens are catching up to the government-monitored web.
Mike Licht
In part four of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, John Keane takes a look at the Chinese regime’s troubled relationship with the cyber world.
Global challenge 4: How can genuine democracy…
Back, sperm, back: a human egg on the tip of a pin.
Flickr/wellcome images
Elephants in the room, part two
For all our schemes and mantras about making our lives environmentally “sustainable”, humanity’s assault on the planet not only continues but expands.
What are the deep…
Wayne Swan’s responsibility to the citizens of Lilley may conflict with his role of treasurer. So why don’t we separate them?
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australia is on the eve of receiving one of its most anticipated budget announcements.
Wayne Swan and the team within the Treasury have put together a pillar from which the Labor Party will draw strength…
Accusations against Peter Slipper have prompted him to step aside as speaker.
AAP Image/Penny Bradfield
Speaker of the House of Representatives Peter Slipper has stepped aside following allegations of sexual harassment and the misuse of cab-charge vouchers.
Slipper’s former adviser James Ashby accused the…
Aung San Suu Kyi has called her party’s landslide victory in Burma’s recent elections, a “triumph of the people.”
EPA/Barbara Walton
The by-elections held throughout Burma/Myanmar on 1 April initially look to have produced a stunning result for the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
It was stunning…
After vote rigging in Russia’s elections, Putin’s authority has been called into question.
EPA/Alexey Nikolsky/Ria Novosti/Government Press Service Pool
The Russian presidential elections, held on 4 March, gave a solid electoral win to the President-elect Vladimir Putin. But much of the Western press saw it as a tainted victory. With allegations of election…
Wayne Swan outlined his economic vision for Australia at the National Press Club today.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australians are in a unique place today – we are witnessing our democracy being called to account.
The nature of Australian democracy is being debated by on the one hand, its Treasurer and on the other…
Burma’s military junta has held on to power through violence and intimidation for 50 years.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
Today marks the 50th anniversary of military control over the Burmese state, marking half a century of the Junta’s tight, often brutal grip on power. But within the last year, there have been shifts towards…
Unimpressive: should our polticians be educated before they represent us?
AAP
If the current leadership tussle in the labor party has demonstrated anything, it’s that politics in Australia is not the most impressive affair.
And if we needed any further confirmation, we need only…
Mussolini made the trains run on time. But having a strong leader is risky.
Flickr/Galaxy FM
“If I Ruled The World” was a tune made famous decades ago by English comedian and singer Harry Secombe who sang of making every day the first day of spring as well as other miraculous improvements. It…
Mass social movements, like the one in East Germany in 1989-91, don’t usually start out with clear goals.
AAP
Those who call for the Occupy movement to have a coherent set of demands at its birth ignore the history of social and protest movements.
Often, the coherence to the programs of protest movements is only…
The first free elections borne from the Arab Spring were held in Tunisia. Over 90% of registered adults voted.
EPA/Zacarias Garcia
It has been a tumultuous week in the life and times of democracy in the Mediterranean. Seven days punctuated by joyous hope and its ugly opposite, sullen despair.
The promising news came from Tunisia…
Julia Gillard spoke to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa about allegations of human rights abuses at a pre-CHOGM summit.
AAP Image/Reuters/Daniel Munoz
CHOGM As the meeting between Commonwealth Heads of Government kicks off in Perth, a row is brewing over the idea for a new Commissioner on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Holly Cullen from…
It’s wrong to assume that China makes no effort to reform its political system because its culture does not support such change.
Flickr/Katherina
The skepticism of contemporary China’s multilayered and painful efforts to achieve legal and political reform makes many wonder if democracy can really grow in the Chinese soil. This is such a haunting…
Unhappy with politics in this country? You’re not the only one.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australians are more dissatisfied with the way democracy works now than they were after the Rudd government was elected, a poll has found.
According to the ANU poll of 2001 people, there has been a 13…
Barack Obama’s life may be fascinating, but he isn’t as powerful as we think.
AFP/Saul Loeb
Sarah Palin’s voice, both in sound and content, still has the power to stop me dead in my tracks with fear and bewilderment. Her game of will she/won’t she run for the US Presidency has ended, but not…
15-M started in Spain, but it has sparked protests around the globe.
EPA/Jesus Diges
This weekend Spain will see the return of its “revolution”. Those involved in the 15-M movement will once again take to the streets en masse to demand urgent reforms. Under the motto “united for a global…
The planet is struggling to survive democracy, but the only alternative is to improve it.
Truthout.org/Flickr
The carbon tax bills passed by the Australian House of Representatives on October 12 were a small vindication of climate science. But we should be concerned about the corpses of science, reason and expertise…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott are not doing Australian politics any favours.
AAP
Imagine a country in which politics is not a struggle among ambitious individuals for power, but the community’s way of resolving conflicts and advancing its common interests.
Voters are well-educated…
The ballot paper was an Australian innovation.
AAP
One hundred and fifty years ago, the South Australian House of Assembly handed down the report of its first committee into the running of elections.
Its main purpose was to find the causes of two troubling…
The State premiers and Prime Minister, Julia Gillard meet at the Council of Australian Governments (AAP/Alan Porritt)
There is an old joke in Canada, one that every university student is told early in the Introduction to Politics class. It goes like this: three students – one British, one French, and a Canadian – are…
Too much regulation of third parties like GetUp! will hurt democracy.
Paul Miller AAP
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: In the latest instalment of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our representatives develop policy, Andrew Norton says there’s no need to regulate…
Cate Blanchett is among the celebrities pressed into service to persuade us on political issues.
AAP/WWF
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: This afternoon, Andrew Hughes examines which recent political adverts have been a success, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our…
Kevin Rudd used to manage his brand well, but was toppled after an advertising campaign against him.
AAP/YouTube
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: Today, Andrew Hughes looks at how voters have become consumers of political marketing, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our representatives…
Defence policy in Australia will have undergone radical change by 2050.
AAP
AUSTRALIA 2050 – So let’s imagine it’s the midpoint of the 21st century and Australia is enjoying its third decade as a recognised innovator in democracy.
Australia routinely initiates global conversations…
Embattled Labor MP Craig Thomson may lose his seat, but this doesn’t necessarily mean Labor will lose government.
AAP
The Gillard Government relies on a wafer thin majority in the House of Representatives in order to pass legislation.
The Coalition opposition has already said it will not provide “pairs” for government…
Rob Oakeshott MP tells Professor John Warhurst why he decided to free himself from party constraints.
AAP
For the latest in our In Conversation series, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University, John Warhurst spoke with the Independent member for the NSW seat of Lyne, Rob…
Can social media temper growing public antipathy towards political parties?
Mandel Ngan/AFP
On Tuesday, the ACT government held Australia’s first virtual community cabinet using Twitter. Four ministers faced a barrage of tweets in an hour long question and answer session held with the electorate…
Many Greeks are ashamed by what has happened to their country.
EPA/Orestis Panagiotou
Athens is no longer considered by scholars as the birthplace of democracy but all of a sudden it has become the epicentre of a powerful political earthquake rocking the foundations of every democracy in…
Brown talking up the Green’s role in the new Senate AAP/Alan Porritt.
One hundred and ten years after Federation, the Senate today helps to ensure that the Australian Parliament more closely reflects the will of the people. But despite assurances by Bob Brown in his speech…
Politicians would do well to ask the people for their views on climate change.
AAP/Greg Wood
The conduct of the Australian climate change debate was probably not what John Maynard Keynes had in mind when he proclaimed “words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the…
Ancient Athens practically invented Western culture, but xenophobia led to the collapse of the Empire.
Flickr/SantiMB
Those debating Australia’s future, and its immigration policy would do well to consider a lesson from the past. Anybody can establish a successful state, the real difficulty is maintaining its success…
Revolutions encourage people to see the world through different eyes.
AFP/STR
The lives of millions of people in the Arab-speaking world are changing. Often for the first time, women and men have jumped, danced, kissed strangers and sung in the streets. There is talk of dignity…
