COALITION TURMOIL, THE LIBERAL PARTY – AFTER THE MAY ELECTION – JOHN ROSKAM
The results of the May 2025 federal election have opened up serious challenges for the Liberal Party opposition - not least of all the end of the coalition arrangements with the National Party. The full impact of what has happened has not yet been fully realised and the way ahead will be full of rebuilding [...]
50 YEARS OF VIETNAMESE SETTLEMENT DOWN UNDER: A BETTER AUSTRALIA AND ASPIRATIONAL DEMOCRATIC VIETNAM – SYDNEY NGUYEN
On 30 April 1975, the democratic government of South Vietnam collapsed as the North Vietnamese army captured Saigon. Under North Vietnamese control, thousands of South Vietnamese citizens were arrested and put in re-education camps leading to a mass exodus of refugees. With the election of the Liberal/National government of Malcolm Fraser in December 1975, Australia agreed [...]
ELECTION 2025 – THE PARTIES, THE ISSUES, THE PROSPECTS – PRU GOWARD
With just three weeks of campaigning to go, The Sydney Institute invited The Hon Pru Goward, a director of Bespoken Consulting and former Minister for Housing and Darrin Barnett, media and government relations professional and former Labor ministerial advisor to lead a discussion on the issues and party prospects in the 2025 federal election. As [...]
REMEMBERING ELIZABETH HARROWER – HELEN TRINCA
After publishing four books that earned the admiration of Patrick White, Shirley Hazzard and Christina Stead, Elizabeth Harrower published no more novels. She faded from the literary landscape, until being rediscovered decades later to international acclaim. Helen Trinca has now written her story in Looking for Elizabeth – The Life of Elizabeth Harrower. On Monday [...]
REMEMBERING ELIZABETH HARROWER – GEOFFREY LEHMANN
After publishing four books that earned the admiration of Patrick White, Shirley Hazzard and Christina Stead, Elizabeth Harrower published no more novels. She faded from the literary landscape, until being rediscovered decades later to international acclaim. Helen Trinca has now written her story in Looking for Elizabeth – The Life of Elizabeth Harrower. On Monday [...]
TAX AND SUPERANNUATION – ROSS GREENWOOD
In 2025, Labor set about is about to change tax rates on superannuation savings. Labor’s proposal plans to double the earnings tax on superannuation balances above $3 million – from 15 per cent to 30 per cent. The plan, first announced in late 2023, affects only an estimated 80,000 people, and still leaves in place [...]
FROM OBLIVION TO RESURRECTION – GOLSTEIN LESSONS – TIM WILSON
The Hon Tim Wilson is the former Member for Goldstein who was swept out of office with a swathe of Liberal MPs at the 2022 election by the Teal tide. At the 2025 election, he was the only former Liberal MP to recontest a Teal-held seat. Wilson feared he might be the only candidate to [...]
CHINA’S CULTURAL REVOLUTION REVISTED – LINDA JAIVIN
In 1966, with the words “Bombard the Headquarters!” Mao Zedong unleashed the full, violent force of a movement that he called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. By the time he died ten years later, millions had perished, China's cultural heritage was in ruins, its economic state was perilous, its institutions of government were damaged and [...]
JOHN ROBERTSON: LIBERAL OF THE PEOPLE – WILLIAM COLEMAN
Australia’s development has so often been about land – acquiring it, stealing it, buying it, developing it, depending on its fundamental importance to life, revenue and identity. For the European colonisers, land was the basis for wealth. Enter John Robertson. London born, John Robertson served as NSW premier on five separate occasions and defeated the [...]