Australia may no longer ride on the sheep’s back, but our economic and cultural links with the land and agriculture remain strong. Arguably, Australia’s economy remains intrinsically linked to agricultural production. Deliberate or accidental biosecurity …
Amid the turmoil of the Liberal leadership spill, and its ripple effects, the government introduced its controversial draft laws to give police the power to demand identification from travellers at airports. In contrast to the …
The Talking Heads’ 1985 hit ‘Road to nowhere’ provided a rather entertaining, if somewhat bleak, perspective on the futility of life: we are born, we live and we die. While we don’t necessarily agree with …
For very good reasons, maritime security concerns, particularly those centred on the South China Sea, have featured prominently in ASEAN member states’ individual and collective agendas over the last decade. The 10 ASEAN nations face …
Earlier this month, I wrote in The Strategist that despite law enforcement’s operational successes in terms of the number and weight of drug seizures, little progress is being made in reducing the supply. The article …
On 23 June 1972, soul singer Johnny Nash released his most popular song: ‘I can see clearly now’. His upbeat classic wasn’t a Pollyanna vision of life, but an argument for changing your perspective by …
On last week’s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, most nations took the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to an international society free of illegal drugs. Police from London to Washington, Canberra to …
In February, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner, Andrew Colvin, told the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee that he faced a supply and demand challenge at a time of budget cuts. ‘The demand for …
In an earlier post, we argued that with the forging of the Turnbull government’s Home Affairs portfolio, the time was right to question the policy assumptions underpinning Australia’s domestic security strategies. And with that, we …
The government’s once-in-40-years reform of domestic security arrangements with the new Department of Home Affairs provides a rare opportunity for policymakers to question assumptions about policing and law enforcement. Let’s start with the differences between the …
Deep in our Australian collective psyche is a fundamental belief that we’re ‘the lucky country’. You can’t blame us because even our national anthem says ‘our land abounds in nature’s gifts, of beauty rich and …
Last week, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Andrew Colvin told a Senate Estimates committee that his 6,500-strong organisation faced a ‘supply and demand challenge’. The commissioner described a force experiencing greater demand for its services …
