Commentary Budgets set priorities. Be it a household, or business enterprise a budget will not only tell you about the source of anticipated income but also where the expenditure and investment for futureproofing is directed. Budgets provide a window into the thinking and aspirations of those involved. Government budgets are no different except for one…

Commentary Following the successful 1967 referendum, which empowered the Australian Parliament to make laws for “the people of any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws,” there was a general expectation that we would finally become a colour-blind society. A society where the distribution of societal burdens and benefits would not…

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has admitted that he should have promised Australians that Labor had no plans to change or touch the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) exemption on the family home.  The CGT is the tax paid when Australians sell their investments, such as stocks, bonds, or real estate. Homeowners in Australia, however, are exempted…

Beijing’s top envoy to Australia has attempted to drive a wedge into Australia’s growing ties with Japan by criticising his Japanese counterpart in Canberra and warning Australians against trusting their former World War Two enemy lest Japan launch another military attack on the country in the future. Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian made the comments during a…

Wang Liqiang, who publicly defected from Beijing on Australian national television, has been denied asylum. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) said Wang could not be granted refugee status despite having “well-founded” concerns about returning to China because he committed fraud before entering Australia on a tourist visa, The Daily Telegraph reported. The AAT also doubted…

Foreign policy experts say a diplomatic thaw with Beijing should not be the end goal of U.S. and Australian leaders, instead, the focus should be on compelling the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to uphold human rights and international rules around trade. John Lee, the former senior advisor to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, said recent…

Like their U.S. counterparts, Australian senators from both sides of the aisle have jointly rejected Amnesty International’s recent report accusing Israel of engaging in “apartheid.” “Our report reveals the true extent of Israel’s apartheid regime. Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated…

An Australian senator is pushing back on Beijing’s claim that it allegedly does not care whether foreign representatives attend its upcoming Winter Olympic Games while denying concerns about its human rights records. Countries including the United States, Australia, Canada, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom are to stage a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics,…

A voluntary assisted dying (VAD) bill in Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) will go through parliamentary inquiries. The NSW Legislative Council has begun the first out of three hearings from Wednesday, after a four-day long debate saw the proposed legislation, NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021, passed the lower house 52-32 on Nov….

Australian lawmakers are calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics over human rights abuses after the United States announced it would stage a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics on Monday. White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the United States won’t send an official delegation to the 2022 Beijing Winter…