As China’s influence and economic strength grows, it is unlikely to give middle powers like Australia more latitude to manage their relations with both Beijing and Washington.
In the Howard government, there was near-consensus in Cabinet that an ETS was eventually likely. A spike in asylum-seeker arrivals stimulated the hard “deterrent’ strategy” that would morph into the “Pacific Solution” in 2001.
A collapse in political legitimacy means people think the normal rules don’t apply anymore, making the world a more difficult and even dangerous place for all of us.
From coronavirus to climate change and the Black Lives Matter movement, street artists expressed their views on the walls and in the parks and laneways of Australia in 2020.
A vaccine may be the magic bullet, but getting travellers back in the skies will require much more — including convincing people that travel is safe again.
Australians have always preferred to keep their faith private, and politics “out” of religion. But the two are intrinsically entwined, and always have been.
At a time when history is so contested, the gift of the Uluru Statement is that it provides a basis for redefining — and retelling the stories of — the nation.
The clever strategy by Premier Daniel Andrews to defer analysis of the failed hotel quarantine program until the virus had been suppressed makes the findings largely academic and historical.
Climate change will continue to be one of the world’s greatest challenges in 2021.
AAP/AP/David Goldman
Which countries emerge best from the pandemic, and how the world tackles the climate crisis, will be among the defining features of global politics in the coming year.
Jacinda Ardern after claiming victory on election night in October 2020.
Getty Images
The most important changes in Scott Morrison’s limited reshuffle are centred on two vital and controversial issues that will severely test the government in coming months.
The president-elect is also likely to be less tolerant of Israel’s settlement expansion and the inroads Russia and Turkey have made into the Middle East.
When he ended 2019 amid literal and political smoke, it would have seemed inconceivable Scott Morrison could finish 2020 on a high. Or that he’d have reached there on the back of Australia’s worst downturn…
Australians are highly engaged on the topic, yet don’t have strong opinions either way. Among potential migrants, only Indians showed a high degree of interest in Australia as a destination.
The protests, which have lasted for weeks, have become embroiled with deep anxieties in France about decolonisation, policing, the limits to secularism and the place of Muslims in French society.