Australian politicians rarely admit to thwarted ambitions, but Pat Conroy came close in a speech at Newcastle University about the government’s performance in the Pacific. “Things...
Given the torrential rainstorms that battered the Brazilian city of Belém as COP30 concluded a couple of weeks ago, it wouldn’t be strictly accurate to say...
The vengeful, divisive streak in contemporary American politics has prompted a stream of books scrutinising the social disruption and thwarted expectations associated with the rise of...
In late 2022 the director of the Adelaide Festival Louise Adler made an unexpected suggestion. She recalled my writing about politics in the plays of Tom...
Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto’s first state visit to Australia earlier this month had two major results, the first of which would once have been considered security-related...
In November 1975 the Dismissal seemed the biggest of big deals in Australian political history. For years after, you could still, without great difficulty, find the...
People who attend UN climate conferences are loathe to describe any of them as a failure. They are too invested in the principles of the global...
Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You begins with the tightest of closeups of one of Rose Byrne’s eyeballs. And that relentless sense of...
Under Donald Trump, the United States no longer operates as a serious nation. Being serious about power and interests should be the simple first step of...
Throughout my career as a general practitioner and therapist, the doctor–patient relationship has been a source of both anxiety and immense satisfaction. And when I forayed...