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This blog is an edited version of the author’s Talbot Oration, delivered at the Australian Museum on 5 June 2024. I’m honoured and grateful to be given this invitation to tell my story, our story and our journey towards achieving the future we want for ourselves and for our children. Before I start at the […]
Australian aid As conflict in the Middle East widens and the toll on civilians worsens, the Australian Council For International Development’s members have launched a consolidated appeal to help address the humanitarian situation in Lebanon. Australia has allocated $12 million to the humanitarian response in Lebanon since September 2024 and $82.5 million to the Gaza […]
The nations of the world remain divided over which countries should provide financial support for climate action to developing countries. This is in addition to debate about how much support should be provided by countries that have the capacity to do so. The 2009 Copenhagen United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting promised […]
High levels of tax evasion are considered one of the main reasons Indonesia only collects just over 10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in taxes, around half of the regional average. However, to date, it has been challenging to accurately estimate the pervasiveness of tax evasion and identify the types of taxpayers more likely to […]
In a new policy brief published by the Evacuations Research Hub at the University of New South Wales, Regina Jefferies and I call on the Australian government to create an emergency framework for a more streamlined, equitable, predictable and effective response to humanitarian crises abroad — including a new emergency visa. Australia’s protection response to […]
Australian aid PNG’s Minister for National Planning Ano Pala called for improved impact, coherence and value from Australia’s aid at the launch of the new bilateral development strategy in Port Moresby, criticising “funds being switched, withheld in Canberra and absorbed by Australian management contractors and consultants…”. Pala also called for an urgent review of the […]
In the first week of August, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Bangladesh ending her 15 years in power, we had just completed a draft report on the state of civil society, ready to submit to a funding partner. Our interviews and discussions painted a bleak picture. Against the backdrop of the demise of democratic […]