Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University
The Australian Financial Review: International Editor (2010-2016), Washington correspondent (2004-2010), Political Editor (2000-2004), Financial Times: Middle East correspondent (1984-1993), Beijing bureau chief (1993-1998), North American correspondent 1998-2000. Publications include Arafat: The Biography (Virgin Books 2004) and The Thomson Five: A golfing legend's greatest triumphs (Melbourne University Press 2016). Graduate Australian National University BA.(1968) Dual Walkley award winner for commentary (2003 and 2007). Paul Lyneham Award Excellence Press Gallery journalism (2003).
Malcolm Fraser's political manifesto would make good reading for the Morrison government
Aug 28, 2018 12:57 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Malcolm Fraser died on March 20, 2015, just a little more than three years ago. One can only speculate what he would have made of a three-year Malcolm Turnbull interregnum, but it is a fair assumption he would have been...
Memo Scott Morrison: don't chase the 'base'
Aug 25, 2018 07:50 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
John Howard was fond of referring to the Liberal Party as a broad church. This included its conservative base. But what has eluded those seeking to define this amorphous group of electors is exactly what is meant by...
Why the world should be worried about the rise of strongman politics
Jul 24, 2018 16:25 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Back in 2016, The Financial Times Gideon Rachman advanced the view in a commentary for The Economist that the strongman style of leadership was gravitating from east to west, and growing stronger. Across the world from...
Government needs to slow down on changes to spying and foreign interference laws
Jun 08, 2018 05:32 am UTC| Insights & Views Law
Whats the rush? If you believe Commonwealth Attorney-General Christian Porter, unless two pieces of security legislation are in place in the remaining two weeks of parliament before the winter recess, the country will be...
Aug 29, 2017 14:22 pm UTC| Insights & Views
Heres the script accompanied by a lot of bombast, signifying not much. North Korea launches another missile its 18th for the year and 80th since Kim Jong-un assumed power in 2011. This time it travels over Japan...
Trump changes his mind on Afghanistan, but will upping the ante win the war?
Aug 22, 2017 14:55 pm UTC| Insights & Views
President Donald Trump has upped the ante in Americas longest-running war, but it is not clear whether an all-guns-blazing strategy will bring the long-running conflict any nearer to a conclusion. In a clear departure...
After Islamic State falls, we should expect aftershocks
Jun 30, 2017 17:47 pm UTC| Insights & Views
US-backed forces in Iraq and in Syria are in the process of rooting Islamic State (IS) fighters out of their strongholds in northern Iraq and eastern Syria. In the case of Mosul in Iraq, the removal of diehard IS...
Putin’s Russia: first arrests under new anti-LGBT laws mark new era of repression
Canada needs a national strategy for homeless refugee claimants