For 25 years, Australia’s international TV voice has been a political plaything and a broadcasting afterthought, constantly facing chops and changes. Australian governments have treated our international TV service more as a political game than …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Launching Australia’s international radio service in December 1939, Prime Minister Robert Menzies declared: ‘The time has come to speak for ourselves.’ World War II woke Australia to the need for its own, distinctive international voice. …
‘Fake news’ approaches the 100th anniversary of its creation moment. The 11th of November marks the centenary of the end of World War I, the exhausted crescendo of the catastrophe that produced the modern craft …
The old joke that it’s easy to have an open mind if you’ve got an empty mind has a Canberra version. The rejigged jibe judges that it’s simpler to run an inquiry if the policy …
The review of Australia’s media reach in the Asia–Pacific is an orphan inquiry that has the chance to do great work. The responsible adults didn’t want the orphan, but they really need it. The Coalition …
‘When the balance of power changes, it is not the power we lose, but the balance.’ Florence Parly, French Minister for the Armed Forces, Singapore, 3 June 2018 The power balance wobbles and lots of …
In the second decade of the modern age of terrorism, it’s a cliché to say that the struggle will last decades. But even if a cliché is stale, it can express a major truth. So …
When Australia adopted the term ‘Indo-Pacific’ five years ago—replacing ‘Asia–Pacific’—the aim was to widen Canberra’s understanding of ‘the region’. ‘Ho hum’, said the region. Now, the idea of the Indo-Pacific is humming. Japan’s Shinzō Abe …
A lot of ‘c’ words were tossed at China during the Shangri-La Dialogue—collaboration and competition, coercion and consequences, challenges and choices. The dangers of combativeness. Dark conclusions about China’s militarisation of the South China Sea. …
The joke of the week in Singapore: A Singapore man goes to bed in May 1988 and sleeps for three decades. In May 2018, he awakes to be astonished by the length of his beard and the …
Australia and New Zealand are reaching for fresh thoughts about the South Pacific. Canberra offers the Islands economic and security ‘integration’ and a ‘step-up’ in engagement. The new government in Wellington promises to ‘shift the …
Often, Australian policy in the South Pacific is aid policy. Our development assistance and aid dollars are always alive and active and about in the Islands, doing essential work even when Canberra’s attention is elsewhere. …