There are just two Liberal MPs in the Chamber as Anne Aly delivers a Ministerial Statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
While there has been a drum beat of op eds heralding the end of long form reading in the face of increasing AI adoption and decreasing attention spans this year, I’ve found the opposite in my own reading life in 2025. I’ve read more - and in more depth - this year than in a long time.
Highlights:
Tragically I polished off “Bedtime Stories for Cricket Tragics” in a session this weekend. Felt like a ten year old again obsessing about test cricketers from a century ago.
Thankfully there are plenty more stories to come… starting the clock on Vol 2 now @finalwordcricket.bsky.social
Moral victory #Ashes
So happy to see Race Around the World coming back. An iconic Australian TV Series. Well done ABC!
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...
It’s always a pleasure to share a conversation over a meal with Shashi Tharoor - but particularly when he comes bearing books!
It was wonderful to be able to welcome Shashi back to Melbourne and to talk cricket, books and international affairs (I promise that I only mentioned Alyssa Healy once).
“Our Asia capability is going backwards in our schools, universities and workplaces,” writes Tim Watts in The Interpreter.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/complacent-nation-australia-asian-century
You can follow this conversation on social media and subscribe to the newsletter: www.ChooseAsia.net
Unless we choose to make developing Asia capability a priority as a nation, we’re choosing to leave our future security and prosperity to be determined by others.
As a nation, we must Choose Asia and develop this sovereign capability, or risk watching regional changes from the sidelines.
Forty years of reports to government have warned that if Australia wants to shape our own future, we need to build a greater knowledge of the languages, cultures and history of our neighbours.
Despite this, our Asia capability has been in decline for decades. We’re now reaching a crisis point.
Today the House Education Committee launched a new inquiry into Australia’s Asia Capability: lnkd.in/gzadKje9
Australians have long known that our future security and prosperity will be determined in our region, the Indo-Pacific.
“Their combination of democratic faith with political scepticism, and their willingness to switch votes based on policy considerations, makes them an important and discerning segment of the Australian electorate.”
Some inconvenient research for the conspiracy theorists:
“The voting behaviour of Indian Australians reveals a sophisticated and pragmatic approach to electoral participation.”
www.dfat.gov.au/sites/defaul...
Ok ABC Radio National, you know how to get me to bite!📚
Voting opened today in RN’s Top 100 Books of the past 25 years and I couldn’t help voting early.
What's your favourite book of this century so far?
Vote now: bit.ly/45rGkgE
#RadioNational #Top100Books
It was wonderful seeing MPs, school groups & members of the public captivated by the public performance.
I’m just thankful that they chose a performance from their new production of R&J rather than their recently concluded production of Coriolanus. It would have made for quite the different vibe!
All the world’s a stage - including Australian Parliament House!
A lovely change of pace this morning when Bell Shakespeare gave a pop up performance of scenes from Romeo and Juliet in the Marble Foyer this morning.
Hopefully see you in an hour or so for a live @therestpolitics.bsky.social LEADING special with Aussie PM Anthony Albanese mid election campaign www.youtube.com/live/Z_6BFOt...
Peter Dutton's speech today, like his approach to foreign policy, was reckless and arrogant.
It didn't even try to do the basics of what is required from Australian foreign policy at this moment and was gratuitously insulting along the way.
He's a risk Australia can't afford.
It's extraordinary that nearly sixty years later, Peter Dutton gave a foreign policy vision speech in which understanding Asia was effectively absent.
No mention of Indonesia, ASEAN or India.
It's no exaggeration to say that Asian engagement just isn't part of his world view.
The great historian of Australia's relationship with Asia, David Walker, once recounted how in 1966, a newly elected Andrew Peacock burnished his leadership credentials by taking up the cause of Asian engagement - 'a proven topic for earnest statements with visionary appeal' even then.
Australia's economic, strategic and community connections with India have never been stronger or more important.
Which makes it all the more extraordinary that Peter Dutton didn't mention India once in his Foreign Policy "vision speech" today.
Honourable mention for this strikingly unique auto-biography...
Not much new fiction this year as I've found myself re-reading old favourites for comfort...
Since it's that time of the year, a selection of books that I've particularly enjoyed throughout 2024...
Most unlikely debut test innings since Ashton Agar #ausvind
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
#Books
#BookSky
📚📚📚
#BookChallenge
19/20
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
#Books
#BookSky
📚📚📚
#BookChallenge
18/20
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
#Books
#BookSky
📚📚📚
#BookChallenge
17/20
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
#Books
#BookSky
📚📚📚
#BookChallenge
16/20
