- 4 mins
Could a Trump-style election campaign get the Liberals back off the ground in Australia? If it did, would the government hold it off? Or has an incremental approach to progress left Labor with no defining re-election narrative?
On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner joins Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss the federal election.
How can Australia balance its strategic relationships with its defence priorities?? What is the government doing to ensure it remains the partner of choice in the Pacific? And what does the NRL's deal with Papua New Guinea mean for national security? In this episode, Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy joins Professo Rory Medcalf to discuss Australia’s role in the Pacific and investment in modernising the ADF.
This week, the government made a foreign policy push to its north. In this episode of Australia in the World, Stephen Dziedzic of the ABC joins Darren Lim to talk about two significant deals the Australian Government struck with the governments of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. They discuss how the deals - which cover development, banking, and, yes, rugby league - take Australian foreign policy into relatively uncharted waters.
Young Australians are facing numerous challenges – from climate change to the cost-of-living crisis and increasing generational inequalities.
As someone so connected to his own home, ANU student activist Joshua Shaw says that young people are disproportionately affected by this crisis. He is deeply concerned by how dramatically our nation’s relationship with housing has changed in recent decades.
According to Professor Quentin Grafton from ANU Crawford School of Public Policy's Water Justice Hub, better water policy means moving from a ‘deficit’ mode of water planning to one of ‘abundance'.
"Retelling Australia’s water story is much more than a list of what has gone wrong. It is a wake-up call to fix what is broken, to listen to those voices that are seldom heard, and to begin a journey towards a just and sustainable water future for all."
Dr Mathew Trinca Talalin spent 10 years leading Australia’s national museum. Now at ANU, he reflects on the role of our national cultural institutions. Addressing cuts to funding, Trinca said institutions can still lay the foundations of national culture – if they respect every dollar.
“At some point, we have to be aware of the weight of responsibility for what we do have, not the weight of what we would like to have.”
"The Commission discusses the benefits of early education for preschoolers, especially children aged four, with some benefits for younger children. However, the report doesn't clarify optimal hours for various age groups. Currently, many preschools offer around 15 hours for four-year-olds, and fewer hours may be appropriate for younger children. Yet it recommends expanded access without specifying these distinctions."
Australian attitudes towards multiculturalism remain overwhelmingly positive, despite tapering off slightly from the peaks of recent years. According to ANU research, 85 per cent of Australians agree that multiculturalism has been good or very good for Australia.
This is down from 89 per cent in 2023, but still significantly higher than pre-COVID-19 levels of 80 per cent.
"A major cause of lower employer demand for seasonal workers appears to be the increasing availability of an alternative supply - backpackers.
From a pre-pandemic average of 140,000, the number of these visa holders has reached an average of 180,000 in September 2024. By the end of November 2024, the number had jumped to as many as 213,000."
ANU Policy Brief is for time-poor policymakers needing quick access to evidence-based research. It features actionable and digestible briefs drawn from the University’s full range of expertise across the campus.
