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).
Xi cements his power at Chinese Communist Party congress
Oct 24, 2022 17:29 pm UTC| Politics
Xi Jinpings clean sweep in elevating trusted allies to the commanding heights of the Chinese Communist Party is a political outcome that has implications beyond Chinas borders. Xi sits virtually unchallenged, for the...
Women-led protests in Iran gather momentum - but will they be enough to bring about change?
Oct 13, 2022 11:45 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
As protests in Iran drag on into their fourth week over the violent death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, there are two central questions. The first is whether these protests involving women and girls...
Xi Jinping sends message to US on China's rising power in Boao address
Apr 23, 2021 12:11 pm UTC| Insights & Views
Chinese President Xi Jinpings muscular speech to the Boao Forum Asia annual conference was clearly designed to send a signal to the United States that China regarded the change of administration as an opportunity for a...
Dan Tehan's daunting new role: restoring trade with China in a hostile political environment
Jan 19, 2021 04:42 am UTC| Politics
The new trade minister, Dan Tehan, has been handed one of the Morrison governments most demanding roles. Despite a lot of chest-thumping in government circles about the need to stand up to Chinese bullying, Tehans task...
Israel's proposed annexation of the West Bank could bring a 'diplomatic tsunami'
Jul 02, 2020 15:56 pm UTC| Politics
In a deadly game of Middle East cat and mouse, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing to weigh his options in pushing ahead with plans to extend Israeli sovereignty over territories occupied by Israel in...
Beware the 'cauldron of paranoia' as China and the US slide towards a new kind of cold war
May 26, 2020 08:47 am UTC| Insights & Views
In September 2005, before an audience of some of the most powerful business figures in the United States, then US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick unveiled his responsible stakeholder formula for Chinas global...
Netanyahu set to survive another knife-edge Israeli election
Mar 04, 2020 03:46 am UTC| Politics
Benjamin Netanyahu may well have survived to fight another day as Israels prime minister after a third knife-edge election in less than a year. However, it could be days, or even weeks, before a new Israeli government...