Comment

The entire planet is paying a very high price for the abandonment of a world order that once constrained the powerful from actions that weaker nations would struggle to survive.

The strong rise in the poll standing of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party since last year’s federal election is surprising. She has contributed very little to the nation in the 30 years she has been on the political scene – other than to divide our country and undermine social cohesion.

This coming Tuesday, March 24, it will be a thousand days since the Murphy report into online gambling was delivered to government. In those thousand days, the Albanese government has failed to even respond to the report.

The governor of the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock, was a little too frank for the treasurer this week, when she mentioned the prospect of a recession after the RBA’s Monetary Policy Board raised interest rates for the second consecutive month.

Aged care in this country is a disgrace. The sector is at once rapacious and seemingly insolvent. It is bankrupt in every sense, especially morally. It grubs out money wherever it can. Care is cut. Food is cut.

More often than not, insight comes from outside the bubble. For me, in the forest of analysis of the war with Iran, the most penetrating came during a breakfast conversation with an acquaintance from Japan, a professor of Australian politics.

Protecting whistleblowers is not optional. It is foundational to democracy, and it begins with a simple truth. Without them, many of the most important public interest stories – and scandals exposed – in this country would never have been told.

My mother, Carla Zampatti, arrived in Australia from war-torn Europe with no money, no English and little education … My mum was an exceptional woman, but if you work hard, the opportunity to build a comfortable and secure life is something all Australians expect. It’s a covenant we offer to each new generation. Unfortunately, it’s a covenant we are failing to keep.

Not since Australian police snatched the Soviet defector Evdokia Petrov from the clutches of Russian agents at Darwin airport 72 years ago has Canberra so boldly interfered with the designs of a regime it sees as cruelly oppressive, particularly to its female compatriots.

Australia needs a mature, balanced debate on immigration and it needs it as an urgent priority. Unfortunately, it is a policy area too easily abused by political opportunism, misinformation and emotion. Recent public discourse has been riddled with exaggerated statements seeking to create fear and alarm.