Hedging our bets: the existential questions facing Australia’s next government in unpredictable times

The world is a more dangerous place. Global conflicts have doubled over the past five years, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (Acled). In 2024 alone, one person in eight across the world was exposed to conflict: political violence increased by a quarter, by factors worse in countries that held elections. Australian political leaders of all stripes couch it in shared aphorism: the most “challenging strategic circumstances since WWII”. Violence, of course, never went away. It ebbed in some periods, but the myth of the triumph of liberal…

Why Chinese Australian voters could be key in a close race between teals and Liberals

Bradfield in Sydney’s affluent north shore is shaping up as the scene of one of the federal election’s most fiercely fought teal v Liberal battles. Nicolette Boele, a community independent, is taking on the star Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian. It’s Boele’s second shot at winning the seat, having run against the Liberal MP, Paul Fletcher – who is now retiring – and reducing his margin to just 4.2%. In a contest this tight every vote matters. That’s why the decision by another independent, Andy Yin, a former Liberal party insider,…