Australia

The Pacific islands are becoming a key factor for nations with strategic interests in Asia. Australia needs to step up its game.

More than two weeks after election day, Australia finally elects its first female prime minister. But it’s a tough road ahead.

The Australian prime minister’s vision of a Pacific community has been given a chilly Asian reception. Is it just bad timing?

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard received widespread criticism from human rights groups for his ‘Pacific Solution’ to an influx of refugees. But is Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s ‘Indonesian Solution’ any better? Joe Cochrane meets the refugees of West Java who fear that they are simply being forgotten.

What happens if Australia's property market goes in a similar direction to that of the United States and, increasingly, the United Kingdom? The implications for the American and British banking systems have been far reaching with both economies in, or teetering on the edge of, recession. Will similar problems start to beset the Australian banking system and, by extension, the Australian economy?

The Australian Defence Force’s operational experiences have produced lessons that can be adapted and exported to other security stakeholders as Australia moves through a challenging world, argues Nick Floyd, Chief of Army Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.