Gough Whitlam’s visit to China in 1971 was a turning point in relations between the two countries. But luck played a part in this audacious mission The 1971 visit to China was not an exercise in political opportunism; it was a bold expression of Whitlam’s foreign policy vision, which prioritised regionalism and internationalism over ties...

It’s time to fundamentally rethink Australia’s approach to asylum seekers, free of narrow assumptions about what’s politically feasible.

A Labor think tank has given a timely warning about the seductive appeal of triumphs past Last month in London, Michael Cooney, executive director of the Labor Party’s main think tank, the Chifley Research Centre, called for an end to what he termed “nostalgia for the new.” In a speech called “ In the Shadow...

This article tries to test the assumption that asylum seeker policy is guided by public opinion. It analyses events in November and December 1977 during the final stages of the federal election campaign.

The ripples of an unlikely row over a parliamentary appointment reach from London to Canberra “ANYONE seeking colour in this bleached political environment might find it in an unlikely source: the appointment of a new chief executive (or clerk) to the United Kingdom’s House of Commons, a chamber best known for the televised weekly theatricals...