Comment

Peter Hartcher

Peter Hartcher is the political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a Gold Walkley award winner, a former foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Washington, and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. His latest book is The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made its Own Luck and Could Now Throw it All Away. His 2005 book, Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing Seven Trillion Dollars, foresaw the collapse of the US housing market and the economic slump that followed.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Indonesian President Joko Widodo in September in Laos.

Turnbull should look north to get out of his funk

When Malcolm Turnbull grasps Joko Widodo's hand to welcome him to Australia on Sunday, it will crystallise a remarkable contrast of political fortunes since they two leaders met in Jakarta year ago.

Chinese businessman Wang Jianlin.

How a Chinese businessman is buying Hollywood

On Friday, China's richest man bought part-ownership of Sony Pictures, one of the Big Six movie studios that dominate Hollywood. He's the same man who last year bought Hoyts with its 450 screens in Australia.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson

Australia is on the cusp of a dangerous crisis

The Western world this week crossed a threshold into a new intolerance. Australia, which has been spared the worst of the economic and social disarray of the US and Europe in the last decade, nonetheless seems to have crossed the ugly threshold too.