Every three years, the election cycle comes into full swing and we are once again told that it will be the ‘most important election of our lifetime’. But for the federal election earlier this month, maybe it was actually true. With two major conflicts, a U.S. President who has upended the global economy and a cost of living crisis plaguing our country, 2025 was potentially shaping up to be the…
On 17 October 1979, President Jimmy Carter established the United States Department of Education with the intent to “improve the quality of education” and “strengthen equal education opportunities for students” across the nation. In the years since, the Department of Education has been the subject of intense criticism from Republicans since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who proposed “to dismantle two Cabinet Departments, Energy and Education” in his 1981 Address…
On 17th November 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a historic speech to the joint Houses of Parliament, praising Australia-China relations as reaching “a new and higher starting point”. Since then, China’s bilateral relations with the West have declined by almost every possible metric, fuelled by Xi’s relentless pursuit of establishing his nation as a military, economic and political superpower that seeks to challenge the world order created by the…
Last Tuesday, 60 million viewers across the globe tuned in to watch former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris face off in the second presidential debate of 2024. Notably, this was the first time that the pair had ever met in person, and the debate marked the most significant event of the election since President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race in July. With Biden's…
In the years after the First World War, Germany faced countless social, political and economic challenges that brought it to the brink of complete collapse more than once. Civil unrest and crippling debt plagued the nation, while the severe terms of the Treaty of Versailles caused prices to increase by over one trillion times from 1918 to 1923. After the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the end of the…
Last Sunday, America’s political landscape was radically transformed as President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race in a written address to the nation. As the oldest sitting president in history, the public had frequently raised concerns about Biden’s capacity to run for re-election and serve another four years in office, given his age and declining cognitive function. However, it was not until the world saw his stuttering,…
In the early evening of 13 July 2024, the world would witness one of the most heinous acts of political extremism in decades. Just minutes into Donald Trump’s speech at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the sound of gunshots rang across the stage as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks opened fire on the podium, determined to assassinate the former president. Yet in a stroke of luck so remarkable that it seemed an…
“It was a cold bright day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”. George Orwell’s 1984 is a timeless work of dystopian fiction that has consistently resonated with readers and remained relevant through its deeply gripping storyline. The novel describes a totalitarian superstate in which an all-powerful dictator ‘Big Brother’ has embedded himself into every aspect of society and brainwashed the populace into unwavering obedience, monitoring their every move and…