Australia

Beijing has increased its covert activities in the country.

In 2001, Australia's governing coalition, led by John Howard's Liberal party (who are, in fact, the country's conservative party) looked set to lose its majority. The opposition, led by the Labor party, had been leading in the polls for most of the year.

Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, says her country would have opposed the recent United Nations resolution that condemned Israeli settlements. The United States abstained from voting on the resolution. Here's the Sydney Morning Herald:

The good news is that Australia is close to acknowledging the obvious: Digital currency should be treated as currency. The bad news is that this same thing hasn’t happened in the United States. Bitcoins can now be used to buy almost anything from coffee to surgery, but the government still doesn’t…

When President Obama attended the G-20 summit in Brisbane, Australia last November, the entire delegation required over 5,000 room nights at five different hotels over the course of the summit, costing $2.1 million. Transporting all those people around Brisbane was not cheap: the State Department…

This is how to interview a politician. Leigh Sales of Australia's ABC interview Prime Minister Tony Abbott after he barely survived the spill motion (61-39):

Tony Abbott, the prime minister of Ausralia, urged Australians to go about business as usual, despite the ongoing hostage situation at a cafe in Sydney:

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott says that "The National Security Committee of Cabine has ... convened for briefings on the situation" a "reported hostage taking incident in Martin Place in Sydney."

President Obama stayed only one night in Australia for the G-20 summit, but the entire presidential delegation required over 4,000 rooms costing in excess of $1.7 million for the entire stay. Rooms at three different hotels were reserved for the U.S. delegation, and due to the large number of…

President Obama appeared to criticize Australian prime minister Tony Abbott for closing borders to Austrlia due to concern over Ebola.

A foolish optimism about human nature can’t withstand even a nodding acquaintance with history. If you’re of a certain age you may well remember seeing this photo. It was published years ago in Life magazine, among other places. And once seen, it is not easily forgotten. The Scrapbook retrieved the…

I'm sitting at my desk, looking at a photograph of a gangrenous foot. It is a bloated thing in hues of phlegmatic gray rot, sanguine inflammation, melancholic black bile, and choleric open sores​—​exhibiting all the humors of a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Above the…

Canberra has joined Tokyo and other U.S. allies in Asia by electing a conservative government vowing less tax on business, robust defense, support for the United States, and guarded cooperation with China. A big victory in Australia’s national election on September 7 for Tony Abbott’s…

Sydney

The victory by hard-nosed conservative Tony Abbott and his Liberal party in Australia’s national election on Saturday may not have lessons for America.  But the center-right victory and ouster of the Labor party–it’s the liberal party–makes comparisons between what happened in Australia and…

Melbourne

In this episode of THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, executive editor Fred Barnes discusses his recent trip to Australia and New Zealand and the his piece on the Australian elections.

Fred Barnes, writing for the Spectator:

Julian Assange is planning a senate run in Australia as a member of the "WikiLeaks Party," he recently revealed in an interview.

A Washington tortured by Vietnam was flummoxed in 1972 when Australian voters made the Labor party’s antiwar Gough Whitlam prime minister after 23 years of conservative rule. Entering Henry Kissinger’s office at the White House on December 23 for a conversation about China relating to President…

Washington Post: No health care rationing here. Move along.

One of the most widely publicized controversies in Australia this week involves former Guantanamo detainee David Hicks. Hicks pled guilty to providing material support for terrorism before a military commission at Gitmo as part of a plea bargain and was repatriated to Australia shortly thereafter…

As the secretary of the extreme left-wing group Socialist Forum during her student days in the mid 1980s, Australian prime minister Julia Gillard put her name to pamphlets advocating the end of the ANZUS alliance with the United States and the scrapping of the U.S.-Australian Pine Gap military…

Australians went to the polls on Saturday to elect a new government, and as Monday morning dawns, they still have no idea who won. Instead, the two major parties fought to a tie, with both falling just shy of a 76-seat parliamentary majority.