The knee-jerk response to the Turnbull Government’s proposed federalism reform is to complain that if the states controlled funding to their own schools, this could result in differences between the states, which is bad and unfair. On the contrary, Australia should be celebrating the prospect of difference, as it is through difference that...

In this election year, there will be much focus on the performance of the prime minister and opposition leader respectively, as Australian election campaigns have tended to become increasingly presidential. This deflects attention from the important role that members of the cabinet and shadow cabinet play in the running of the...

Kim Beazley was Australian ambassador to the United States from 2010 until January 2016, and a former leader of the federal Labor Party. He is now a senior fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre. This is the first of an occasional...