If you normally vote for the Greens or you are a traditional ALP supporter in a blue-ribbon Liberal seat such as Goldstein, Wentworth, Kooyong, Mackellar or North Sydney, at this election you face a choice between voting for your preferred party candidate or removing the Morrison Government from power. The…

Social media and saturation coverage of politics has rendered leaders’ debates almost irrelevant. They rarely change the minds of voters en masse unless one of participants stuffs up badly. When this happens the mistake may go viral and capsize a campaign, but it is increasingly rare. Consequently, both leaders try…

(updated and expanded) Whether we are being directed to a news story by an editor or an algorithm, the task of filtering the dross from the insightful remains the most important challenge for those who ‘consume’ political information. This is a much more important concern than perennial angst about concentrated…

The Ukrainian Crisis: Three Perspectives It is sometimes said of the war in Syria that there aren’t even any bad ideas for resolving the conflict, let alone good ones. The war in Ukraine is quickly approaching a similarly intractable state. This is how it looks through Russian, Western and Ukrainian eyes. Russian perceptions From the…

A Moral Position on Ukraine? The Russian attacks on Ukraine are both immoral and illegal under international law. They should be unconditionally opposed, regardless of how they have been rationalised by the Kremlin. Ukraine is an independent state, its sovereignty has been violated, and there is no “self-defence” justification for…

In polities without fixed electoral terms, where the prime minister can manipulate the timing of elections to confer additional advantages on his government, guessing when the next vote will take place is as fraught as forecasting the result. Recent political manoeuvrings and a public health crisis may, however, provide us…

Is the tide turning against Israel? The history of Palestinian nationalism is strewn with false dawns and bitter disappointments. On the surface the recent evictions — more accurately ethnic cleansing — of civilians in Sheikh Jarrah, IDF attacks on worshippers at the Al-Aqsa mosque and yet another violent bombing campaign…

The ALP: how to be progressive again Scott Burchill Here is some gratuitous advice for the ALP as it struggles to understand why Scott Morrison and the LNP remain significantly more popular than them at the midpoint of this electoral cycle, despite the Government’s well-earned reputation for incompetence and corruption…

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s attempts to overthrow the result of last November’s election in the United States, what can we expect of Joe Biden and what will happen to the GOP (Republican Party)? Biden will only be a disappointment to those naive enough to think he isn’t Obama-light…