(2026) The Hawke Government as the Gold Standard
Review Article: Frank Bongiorno, Carolyn Holbrook & Joshua Black, editors, Gold Standard? Remembering the Hawke Government, New South, Sydney, 2026. Published as slightly edited in
Review Article: Frank Bongiorno, Carolyn Holbrook & Joshua Black, editors, Gold Standard? Remembering the Hawke Government, New South, Sydney, 2026. Published as slightly edited in
Article published in J-Wire Australia on 6 July 2026: https://www.jwire.com.au/a-different-labor-conference-for-nsw The NSW ALP Conference closed at 5.30pm on Sunday afternoon. For us, mindful supporters of
Published on-line in the Australian Financial Review on 6 July 2026 in edited format under the heading ‘Can the CFMEU kill off its gangster culture?’;
The death of Steve Harker, aged 70, begs the question of what Australia missed out on when his life steered in the direction of business instead of politics.
Harker was the longest serving CEO of a major investment bank in the country, leading Morgan Stanley Australia for 18 years up to 2016. The ten years thereafter saw a dramatic change in his fortunes. Already recruited in 2012 for a five-year term as a Guardian of the Future Fund, Harker also served on the Board of Westpac from 2019 before illness in 2021 cut short heavy business commitments. By any standards, his was a stellar, commercial career. Just as this was becoming even more diversified and interesting, he was diagnosed with scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disorder that involved hardening of the skin and trouble for internal organs. Winding back still had him actively chairing the investment committee of Future Now Capital, investing in global-potential businesses.
Published in slightly edited form in The Australian Financial Review under the heading ‘If nationalised electricity is the Tomago solution, what is the question?’ on
The Spanish Civil War has troubled me since I was 19. I read George Orwell then, appreciated his critique of the war, his 1937 essay
Who is he, the only man involved in the 2026 Adelaide Writers Week (AWW) imbroglio not turned to custard?
Article published on-line in the Australian Financial Review on 15 December and inprint on 17 December 2025, p. 31, https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/what-australia-must-do-now-to-confront-antisemitism-20251215-p5nnpb Australians are proud of our social cohesion, respect
Welcome to Afternoon Light, the podcast of the Robert Menzies Institute by Georgina Downer.
Very little has appeared concerning the cultured Scots suffragist and socialist activist Elizabeth or Eliza, as she liked to be called, Anderson (1863-1942).
No one looks great, fifty years after the dismissal of the Whitlam Government.