Australia’s official unemployment rate hit 7.1 % in May, our highest since 2001. It’s almost inevitable that as the federal government eases its Covid-19-related stimulus measures, like the JobKeeper payment, the figure will rise further. …
Articles by: "John Coyne"
National security agencies can be surprisingly risk-averse organisations and have been historically slow to adopt new technologies outside times of crisis. Within these agencies, chief information and technology officers may be less effective champions of …
Most Australians have no idea how quickly they’ll be running on empty if our fuel supplies from overseas are cut in a crisis. For decades, the nation has relied on risky, just-in-time deliveries of the …
The Australian government has been quick to defend its record on energy security by arguing ‘supply chain resilience has meant that during Covid-19 pandemic, we have not faced shortages’. Despite these claims, the government has …
In the years leading up to the global Covid-19 crisis, Australia, like many countries, failed to heed health specialists’ warnings on the likelihood and consequences of a global pandemic. Critical pandemic readiness was an insurance …
Around the globe, transnational serious and organised crime groups’ traditional business models are being disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of these groups are in uncharted waters. Gareth Rice’s recent Strategist post, ‘Narcos in the …
In their prophetic 2018 book, The end of epidemics, authors Jonathan Quick and Bronwyn Fryer warned that ‘a severe worldwide pandemic could cost the global economy up to [US]$2.5 trillion.’ They also warned of the …
ASPI’s Counterterrorism yearbook 2020, released today, was drafted at a time of upheaval in the global system. Like now, interstate tensions were on the rise and the global system was going through a drastic change. …
In October 1942, Edward Ward, the minister for labour and national services, accused the Australian government of having planned to abandon the country’s north in the event of a Japanese invasion. While the ‘Brisbane Line’ …
The Chinese government was likely well aware of Australia’s plans to significantly enhance the Royal Australian Air Force base at Tindal in the Northern Territory before it was announced last month. Nonetheless, the government’s decision …
While Australians are often hawkish about community safety and border security, they’re far less accepting of their security agencies being given new domestic surveillance powers without government making a strong case for their use. You …
This week, Shadow Home Affairs Minister Kristina Keneally raised concerns that there are now around 50,000 people awaiting deportation from Australia. All of them arrived by plane and applied for asylum in Australia, but their …