Dear Australia, from Hong Kong, China

Australia’s split right down the middle this week — half underwater, half celebrating. In the north, floodwaters are rising fast in the Northern Territory and Queensland, with the Katherine River peaking at 19 metres and locals spotting crocodiles in their streets. In the south, Melbourne just wrapped up a sun-soaked Labour Day long weekend that featured F1 fans, footy crowds, massive gigs by inte...

This week's episode begins with discussion of the some of the reasons Melbourne has so many magnificent bands with amazing brass sections - and some chit-chat about one of those bands, Jazzparty , who are in the process of delivering more quality Australian-made music on all your favourite listening platforms. Trump bombs Iran, Albanese gets on board as Canada's PM Mark Carney flies in for some mi...

The big low over the big red heart Australia is bracing for its biggest rains in decades as a massive monsoonal low over central Australia threatens to dump up to 30 centimetres of rain across the country’s red heart — cutting off roads and towns in South Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales. After one of the driest summers in a century and multiple major bushfires, the shift to autumn bring...

Australia starts the week in that rarest of states in February — not on fire that much. The major bushfires in Victoria are mostly out, with only a stubborn blaze in the Otways left smouldering. Elsewhere, a Category 3 cyclone hovers off northern West Australia, storms roll across the country, and Melbourne is enjoying a fleeting run of days in the “low‑to‑mid‑20s” — the local definition of paradi...

It (was) January 26 in Australia — that complicated national holiday where the nation commemorates a "national tradition" begun in 1994 by an elderly culture warrior Prime Minister with a black-armband view of the future, and arguing fiercely about what being Australian means in its remaining media by mostly Anglo Caucasians. There’s music to start (Christine Anu, the Warumpi Band, King Stingray),...

In Australia, January decided subtlety was overrated. Along the Great Ocean Road, tents, caravans, and the nation’s collective sense of normal weather were swept to sea by a “freak storm” — which, given the last few years, seems less “freak” and more “standard operating procedure.” Meanwhile, Sydney offered its own natural spectacle: a chain reaction beginning with torrential rain, followed by sew...

This episode swerves from tragedy and solidarity to weddings, wind farms and wickets.. Australia’s response to the Tai Po fires: messages of condolence from the prime minister and 51,000 Victorian volunteer firefighters, plus a special nod to the Hong Kong crews on the front line. Anthony Albanese makes history as the first Aussie PM to get married in office, complete with dog ring‑bearer, obsessi...

Melbourne shook again as AC/DC rattled the MCG at a skull‑cracking 127dB, but the real story starts with a cancelled punk gig, 35,000 dollars’ worth of apology beers, and the greatest PR move since “free T‑shirt night” at the footy. Amyl and the Sniffers’ free Fed Square show was pulled over crowd‑crush fears, so Amy and the band turned heartbreak into a city‑wide bar shout and accidentally became...

Nevermind the "Trump effect" on the 2025 Australian election: Australia now has more Australians with Chinese ancestry elected to Federal Parliament than ever before, and more women elected to Parliament as independents and for the Australian Labor Party than ever before. 2025 has seen the end of the two party system and the confirmation of the role of independents in the federal Parliament, with...

Australia's annual commemoration of its war dead on ANZAC Day interrupted by modern-day Nazis, and LNP leader Peter Dutton gets on board for a culture war in the last week of a disastrous election campaign; explaining why Welcome to Country ceremonies are a basic part of a living 60,000 year old culture in Australia; how Chinese-Australian voters are responding on WeChat to news Dutton's Liberal N...

With only 14 days left until early voting begins in the Australian Federal election, the reality of suburban and regional Australia going into the Easter break versus voter attention and campaign strategies - it’s all about junior sports tournaments for every ball and bat or otherwise athletic sporting codes, and camping or music festivals for those who don’t play sport, so who has time for l...

Talking about the ongoing situation of Cyclone Alfred, which is lingering over Queensland and has now morphed from a cyclone to a slow-moving heavy rain system. While some locals celebrated its fizzling out, others expressed frustration, likening it to a media-driven panic. With significant flooding and over 118,000 properties without power, the cyclone's impact is severe and continuing. Meanwhile...

Anthony Albanese's government finds itself with a lovely set of economic numbers but a media narrative in lock-step declaring his government on track to lose the coming national election. As Trump and his cronies shatter relationships with Europe and the US sides with Russia in the United Nations against Ukraine, some serious thinking has begun in Australia about the future of its military allianc...

A nation hangs on the words of a phone call… Aussie PM Anthony Albanese informs the nation he has called up Donald Trump to ask please, mate, alliance partner, international trading partner with trade surplus, maybe you could exempt Australia from a 25% tariff on all imports of steel and aluminum. Australian metal exports to the USA approx 240,000 tonnes of steel - HKD #2 billion worth - per year...

February is a turbulent time across Australia. Townsville hit with severe flooding after massive record-smashing rainfall, with power outages, no access to clean water and the problem of crocodiles now swimming along flooded streets. Meanwhile, a heatwave scorches the rest of the continent, with Melbourne aching after three consecutive days of extreme heat and multiple bushfires. Trump's tariff sc...

Reporting on the three great traditions of January 26 since John Howard named it a holiday in 1994 - a long weekend, Invasion Day protests and Murdoch media culture wars. Upon the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz a discussion of William Cooper, Aboriginal leader who led the only public protest against the Nazi Kristallnacht in 1938, supporting the Jewish people of Germany. He also w...

This week the Australian Federal government appointed two women as ministers and thus for the first time in Australian history its national government achieved gender parity in its Cabinet. Meanwhile in Washington, among the US tech broligarchy frotage there was West Australian billionaire mining oligarch Gina Rinehart, whose coal interests in Canada bely one of the reasons for her attendance and...

Talking about the East Donnie video which went viral involving an arsonist charred with crime, and enquiries about whether this put arson hospital; opposition leader Peter Dutton launches his Australian version of MAGA, although this one spells GABOT. Phil points out this is Tagalog language for “ripped out/weeded out/pulled out”.  Interestingly Peter Dutton launched his campaign in electorat...

Just days before Australians are implored to celebrate British soldiers marching up a beach and planting a Union Jack flag in 1788, the nation is arguing over how to share space on its beaches. Is it unAustralian to set-up a cabana on a beach early in the morning, go away and then come back when you're read to use it? Or is it the foundation of Australian identity to simply claim a bit of land as...

A year after a Federal Parliamentary inquiry into the impact and influence of gambling ads on Australian people, and having received 31 proposals for banning advertising and controlling its impact on young people, the Albanese government has decided to... spend three hours debating a social media ban for the under 16s after giving the public 24 hours notice of a 12 hour public submission period be...

Anthony Albanese has finally united Australia to one point of view: his plan for social media bans on under 16 year old is being panned at all levels of society while Albanese tries to tell Australian parents their kids should be riding bikes like the 1970s and not being educated about electronic media and responsibility. There's an important background to this policy idea, though: the deal forcin...

What really happened when a democratically elected Senator from Victoria with Aboriginal heritage shouted at the descendant of a European dynasty of Kings and Queens in Canberra? Hear how Senator Thorpe a) did not heckle and b) raised issues of fact in her short and loud serve delivered to King Charles III in the Great Hall of the Australian Parliament, including the tens of thousands of Aborigina...

The BBC, the British/Murdoch press are up in arms about Aussie humour in advance of 75 year old King Charles the Third making his brief visit to Australia on his way to Samoa for CHOGM; PM Albanese's republican and working class credentials in doubt after the last referendum and a multimillion dollar property purchase; Aussies don't care about royalty - it's climate change, cyclones and snakes the...

Protestors turn out in their tens of thousands in Sydney and Melbourne to call for ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, while Australian mining billionaire Twiggy Forrest sends hundreds of millions in aid to the people of Gaza and Peter Dutton's Opposition flatly rejects a Parliamentary motion in favour of humanity; meanwhile a pair of Aussie women have developed a new kind of brewed tea drink to sell t...

Looking back on the massive 10 goal victory in the AFL Grand Final, the French roots of the Lions' team song and wondering did the AFL management really pay HKD$20 million for each song Katy Perry performed in her pre-game set; Australian Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers comes back from a visit to Beijing unable to say when Aussie lobster exports will again resume, while reformed drunkard and clown...