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Alexander Downer

Columnist

Alexander Downer was Australia's longest serving foreign minister, from 1996 to 2007, and most recently Australian High Commissioner to the UK.

Alexander Downer

March

AUKMIN gathering: Penny Wong, David Cameron, Anthony Albanese, Grant Shapps, Richard Marles

A British friend with important lessons for Australia

The UK is a good strategic partner for us. It is also a public policy laboratory for what works – and what does not.

Why is it that for all the engagement with ASEAN at the political and strategic level, our economic engagement is so limited?

Australia’s under-investment in ASEAN is about them, not us

South-East Asian nations need to become attractive to foreign investors through deregulation and establishing independent and incorruptible legal systems.

February

Paul Keating at 80: never really understood the Indo-Pacific region.

Keating’s quaint defence of Australia doesn’t grasp regional power politics

Labor has put aside two absurd features of the Keating era: a defence policy designed to deal with direct invasion and the diminution of our US alliance

Victorian Greens MPs Gabrielle de Vietri, Ellen Sandell, Tim Read and Sam Hibbins pose with a slogan.

One Nation pales in comparison with vicious and evil Greens

Never has a political party so racist, confrontational and divisive been elected to the Australian parliament.

January

Geert Wilders and other populists are now drawing major support from the young.

Voters want visionary leaders, not managers with a plan

Populists are thriving in the huge gulf between what the masses want for their countries, and what elites think they should have.

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Xi Jinping’s stimulus efforts and Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will continue to have a big influence on coal prices.

Taiwan’s vote is a crack in the new axis of autocracy

Jiang Zemin told me that liberal democracy is not for China’s people. Taiwan has once again shown this to be nonsense.

  • Updated
From left: Joe Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin are all facing elections this year.

The unknown unknowns of a global year of elections

There will be more than 70 elections worldwide. Given that several of those elections will be in significant countries and the results are unpredictable, 2024 will be a year of uncertainty.

  • Updated

December 2023

From left: Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, and Pamela Nadell, professor of history and Jewish studies at American University, during the US House education and the workforce committee hearing last week.

Israel-Hamas tangled up in Ivy League identity politics row

The war in Gaza has exposed the splits within Western societies between those who believe in critical theory and those who still believe in the egalitarian genius of liberal democracy.

The one single takeout from Henry Kissinger’s advice was that every good government needs a clear, simple, foreign policy strategy.

What Kissinger would have advised on Israel-Hamas

The Australian government has been trying to balance domestic opinion, rather than articulate clear and simple objectives.

November 2023

There is great resistance on the Arab street to any agreement with Israel.

Activists should know they are marching to destroy Israel

No Palestinian leader would survive conceding to a two-state solution. Most Palestinians want Israel eliminated.

The best example of wasteful expenditure is Snowy 2.0.

Economic irrationalism would have Bert Kelly turning in his grave

As our productivity declines and living standards stagnate, we need to find a path back to the formula that helped to transform our economic debate.

October 2023

President Joe Biden’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the slaughter of Jews by Hamas has been exemplary.

Is the planet staggering towards global conflict?

The best way to stop war spreading is to make it clear to our adversaries the incalculable price they would pay for their bellicose behaviour.

The rest of the world will barely notice the referendum.

Yes or No won’t affect Australia’s standing on the world stage

But like Brexit, after the Voice referendum it will take many years for the country to come back together again regardless of the outcome.

September 2023

The Tories may not do as badly as many commentators hope at the next British election. The reason is Rishi Sunak.

Blowtorch of reality is conservatives’ greatest ally

The Liberal Party should study UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rather than tacking like a yacht to accommodate trends, fashions and fads.

While the public were complaining about late flights, high air fares and poor service, Qantas decided to invest in the Voice Yes case.

Australian establishment should learn a lesson from Qantas

If corporate elites want to prosper, they need to get back to their core business of providing quality goods and services to the punters and get out of the virtue signalling game.

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August 2023

Union workers celebrate Peronist Loyalty Day in Buenos Aires in 2021.

Political class has settled for the new Peronism

China and post-war Argentina tell us what happens when politics trumps economic policy. Now we’ve been warned by the Intergenerational Report.

His apparent refusal to accept the legitimacy of the last presidential election result was shameful. But whatever Trump wanted, he failed

America’s starting to look a lot like South America

It will take the wisdom of Solomon to steer the US back on to the path of stability and normality.

July 2023

Corporate leaders would be best advised to listen to common sense rather than a few “virtuous” HR managers and political consultants.

Business should keep right out of the divisive Voice

Managers backing the Yes side ought to reflect on how they would feel if the board insisted the company go out and advocate a No vote.

An image of what Rolls-Royce envisions its small modular reactor will look like.

Follow Rolls-Royce and power up nuclear energy

There is a compelling argument for why we should be investing in nuclear technology right away. There’s only one argument against this: populism.

Chinese strategists are clear-eyed, too, about Russia’s unpredictable politics and dismal economic prospects. Arming it would expose China to severe sanctions from America and the European Union, its two biggest trading partners, hobbling efforts to revive its economy.

Xi Jinping’s Putin play has shackled China to a corpse

The Russian disaster in Ukraine is one of the factors that has brought about a subtle change in Beijing’s foreign policy over the past year.

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Rich List

Cettire’s shares slumped on Tuesday, on the first day of trade after the Bell Potter note was published.

Cettire shares slide 16pc on Bell Potter downgrade

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