Month: October 2025

Editorial cartoon of Sussan Ley conducting beside a collapsing grand piano labelled “Coalition.” Sheet music titled “Murdoch Media” flies into the air and morphs into social media icons including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, symbolising the decline of the old media orchestra.

Whither the Coalition?

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Once “the natural party of government, the Liberal–National Coalition has become a federation of feuding tribes. Factional decay, Murdoch’s fading megaphone and an attention economy allergic to policy have left it stranded between yesterday’s media and tomorrow’s electorate.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaking, illustrating post-election government scrutiny and accountability concerns

The Government That Isn’t: Labor’s Masterclass in Looking Busy

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They gave him 94 seats and a mandate like no other. But barely five months after his landslide re-election, Anthony Albanese’s government is already disappointing voters. From FOI requests plunging to just 25% approval, to $1 million in climate travel in two months, to a housing policy that makes homes less affordable—the second-term complacency is real. As independent MPs note: “We couldn’t go any lower than Morrison, but we have.”

Photorealistic digital artwork depicting Australia’s environmental degradation with Tasmania silhouette overlay, corporate mining CEOs behind parliament wrapped in greenwash banners, a protester behind barbed wire labeled “Anti-Protest Laws,” and a looming super-sized SUV casting shadow over a smoky cityscape.

Australia’s Environmental Policy Crisis: A Closer Look

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Labor’s Eco Renaissance: Destroying the Joint, Sensitively As federal parliament resumes its familiar variety show of “Consensus or Catastrophe”, the Labor government unveils another environmental revolution; provided it doesn’t trouble its donors in hi-vis or hard hats. Gina Rinehart’s chequebook, Woodside’s lobbyists, and the captains … Continue reading Australia’s Environmental Policy Crisis: A Closer Look

Composite editorial image showing Australian leaders on a glossy stage beside a model submarine and US flag, with faded historical scenes of Gallipoli, Vietnam and Iraq in the background.

The Tyranny of Delusion: How Australia Keeps Fighting Yesterday’s Wars

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AUKUS is the culmination of our imperial hangover. It combines obsolete technology in an age of drones with geography that defeats its purpose, industrial bottlenecks that guarantee delay, and a strategic rationale contradicted by its authors. Political cowardice is dressed as resolve. We are spending a generation’s wealth on submarines we probably will not get, cannot crew, cannot fuel, to fight wars Washington has already priced out of its plans.

Alt text: *Cartoon illustration showing Donald Trump sitting at a desk using a laptop with the WordPress logo, while outside a drone launches a missile at a small Venezuelan fishing boat flying the national flag. The boat explodes amid smoke and flames on rough seas, symbolizing Trump’s aggressive foreign actions. The style is bold, satirical, and editorial.*

Trump’s Dirty War at Sea and Australia’s Silent Complicity

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When Donald Trump’s America goes fishing, it doesn’t bring a net — it brings a drone. His latest outburst over “illegal Venezuelan boats” turns the Caribbean into a stage set for bluster and bombast. A small fleet of working men in open skiffs become props in a tragicomic rerun of empire, complete with digital spin and patriotic sound effects. Another performance of power — and another warning of what happens when showmanship replaces statecraft.

Alt Text: "John Howard during Tampa crisis and Pauline Hanson in fish shop representing political appropriation of One Nation rhetoric"

Ask Not What You Can Do for One Nation—But What Has One Nation Ever Done for Anybody?

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If Helen of Troy had the face that launched a thousand ships, Pauline Hanson has the face that launched a thousand chips. But the real story isn’t about Hanson at all—it’s about Long John Howard, who stole her racism in the 1990s, laundered it through the language of sovereignty and security, and left both major parties trapped in a political theatre he built thirty years ago.
One Nation polls at 14% between elections but collapsed to 6.4% in May—the evergreen boost that never makes it to the ballot box. Yet even with Anthony Albanese’s historic landslide, Labor still governs within Howard’s frame, still talks tough on “border security,” still uses his language. The government changes. The script endures.
From Barnaby Joyce playing pantaloon to Hanson serving up warmed-over resentment with extra chicken salt, this is how we all ended up living in Howard’s Australia.