In a democracy, everyone should have an equal say, supposedly. But that has rarely been the case throughout the history of democracies. Perhaps Australia came closest to it in the 1970s when everyone could vote and the wealth gap was narrower. Those were simpler times culturally, too. You might say…

In “Developer agenda slurs democratic resistance to subdivision,” Sheila Newman pens a stinging rebuttal to Awais Piracha and George Greiss’s pernicious accusations. …

The current global geopolitical climate is worse than it has been since the end of the Cold War. We are closer than ever to intentional or accidental nuclear war. What has brought us to this disastrous predicament? Quite simply, it’s geopolitical competition. Australia is foolishly buying into the root cause…

#6 Java, Indonesia A couple of months ago I met a Javanese content creator online who makes beautiful videos and images of nature spots and promos for hotel and resort websites. It was lovely to see Indonesia so well appreciated. He offered to be my guide.

#2 Warsaw… For the first few nights, I splashed out on a nice hotel in central Warsaw (Old Town) because I wanted to feel like I had arrived in Europe. Modern hotels look the same the world over. …

Alliance-building toward a better measure of national well-being. What is wrong with national GDP growth as a measure of success? It doesn’t capture everything that adds value to the economy. One example is that caring for children is not included in GDP if carried out by their parents. It doesn’t capture broader aspects of economic welfare of the nation’s population. For example, if GDP rose by 2 per cent one…

Gardens always change… The story of my time throughout the COVID pandemic as an urban backyard gardener and how it was such a valuable resource in so many ways; food, solace and beauty. Thanks to Mimi Tsai for helping to produce this video. The 2022 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Dr Mimi Tsai for her project, Vernacular Landscapes and Queensland Memories: Exploring Queensland’s resilience through narratives of therapeutic environments.

Of unsung heroes and strategies… EarthTrust was set up by DJ White back in 1976. You’ve probably never heard of DJ and his partner Susie. That’s because apart from being an introvert and using stand-ins as spokesperson, in his environment advocacy, he skips the “deadlock” phase of conflict and protest to where connectivity and constituencies…

Why even ask? In as much as minority groups have been oppressed (be they based on ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation), advocacy is a healthy thing — for them and the broader society they live in — because any one of those not in the minority group have the potential to become a…