By Christo Moskosvsky I will start with a personal anecdote. Over a game of cards, an acquaintance (being aware that I was an academic by profession) declared that universities are a pointless institution, because ‘they produce nothing’. The absurdity of the remark stunned me into momentary silence, but I [...]

  By Sherry Sufi The lessons from the Voice referendum will be discussed for many years to come. The vote on 14 October 2023 was one of the most consequential in Australia’s history. Australians were asked to agree to overturn a fundamental principle of liberal democracy: that all citizens [...]

By Brianna McKee The outcome of the Voice referendum provides a unique insight into the attitudes and beliefs of young Australians. An analysis of how young people voted in the referendum reveals that contrary to perceptions, not all young people are ‘woke’ and ‘progressive’. The fact that nearly one-in-two [...]

By David Stevens In the aftermath of another poor federal election result in 2025, the centre-right in Australia, as represented by the Liberal/National Coalition, finds itself with the lowest primary vote since the Second World War. Does this mean that Australia is now permanently a left-of-centre nation? And if [...]

By Graham Young During the 2025 federal election campaign, the Liberal leader Peter Dutton referred to the election as a ‘sliding doors’ moment for Australia several times. He presented the poll as a stark choice between two visions for Australia. Dutton’s comment invites an inquiry not just into how [...]

When the new Labor government took office in May 2022 it rapturously endorsed the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. At the time, most voters were supportive of the measure. That support ebbed away, such that by the time of the referendum on 14 October 2023, the proposal [...]

By Andrew Kemp The old rule of thumb in Australian politics always was that Labor won elections by departing from its philosophy, and Liberals won elections by sticking with theirs. At least at the federal level, Australians tend to vote conservatively – in the literal meaning of the word; [...]

By Scott Hargreaves In Australia it seems that populism has failed, but it is in fact triumphant. This apparent paradox is the key to understanding both the outcome of the 2025 federal election and the objectives and tactics of the Albanese Government. What people have in mind is that [...]