The government hates protests because they give a glimpse of the pedestrianised city

Judge Proposes Restricting Deportation of Scores of Noncitizen Academics

"Talking straight here, the big problem in this case is that the cabinet secretaries and, ostensibly, the president of the United States are not honoring the First Amendment,” Judge William G. Young said.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...

“We regret that our transparently racist act created division. And also that it predictably destroyed the thing it is our one job to protect.”

Reflecting serenely on a national newspaper which, after commissioning and publishing a piece from me, advised that it would pay in exposure

Why would anyone write when they can Administrate

Dare I ask why the Adelaide Festival Board, which oversees Adelaide Writers Week, featured zero writers?

Here is what I wrote them:

Here is what I wrote them:

Hard to see the Adelaide Writers Week decision as anything other than appallingly racist, grotesquely illiberal.

What a day of cricket

In fear, Australia turns to repression I signed this petition today from the Jewish Council. Some of you might like to, too.

open.substack.com/pub/alistair...

I was detained and deported for opinions Trump’s America didn’t like The message for visitors to the US is clear from Donald Trump’s new social media rule: self-censorship is your ticket to ride.

Trump's new travel policies send a clear message. For visitors to the US, self-censorship is your ticket to ride.

My piece in the Fin.

www.afr.com/world/north-...

Man I know so many people who should quit their jobs and go do this instead

Belittled Magazine | Bruce Robbins Thirty years after the Sokal affair, whither the little magazine?

Great essay here thebaffler.com/salvos/belit...

the amendment clearly does seek to codify the two term norm. Will it have that effect? we’ll see

Not to be obtuse but if an abuse of constitutional language allows Trump a third term then the constitution literally does allow third terms

Mr Opinion Matt Yglesias and his discontents

Indeed www.kitchencounter.blog/p/mr-opinion...

I for one think it’s good Tame Impala now sounds like Enya

Confronting the superannuation gender gap Advocates say more needs to be done as the tweaks made to superannuation tax offsets for low-income earners will barely help the quarter of women who retire in poverty.

I have a piece in the @thesaturdaypaper.com.au today about how superannuation disadvantages women www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy...

Love Krasz but this is unfortunately the Guns Don’t Kill People of books

Imagine kicking the former national rugby captain out of your sports club instead of the gambling lobby.

To paraphrase Groucho Marx, who'd want to belong to a club that would accept Responsible Wagering Australia as one of its sponsors?

When you first heard me speak against this genocide, you heard my words as betrayal. But they were meant as love | Sarah Schwartz Not speaking would go against everything I was taught to honour: the righteous among the nations – those who refused to be bystanders to injustice

Read @sarahschwartz.bsky.social personal letter in The Guardian today | When you first heard me speak against this genocide, you heard my words as betrayal. But they were meant as love

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Albanese’s speech to UK Labour wasn’t partisan — it was factional Why has Albanese stuck his neck out for the incumbent? Because Starmer has, in many, ways emulated Albanese.

In today’s @crikey.com.au, I wrote about the furore over Albanese’s appearance at the UK Labour conference.

The problem wasn’t that it was partisan, but that he intervened in the internal politics of UK Labour, backing Starmer against a rising chorus of critics.
www.crikey.com.au/2025/10/06/a...

I was the Archives Editor at Meanjin – its closure is baffling As Archives Editor, Emma Sutherland had ‘read everything’ in Meanjin's past, but was unprepared for its troubled present.

"It took more than an hour after the story broke, and was covered by several mastheads, to receive official notice from MUP; a group email confirming Meanjin’s immediate closure." ~Emma Sutherland, Archives Editor at Meanjin in @artshub.bsky.social this weekend.
www.artshub.com.au/news/opinion...

As stipulated 🙂‍↕️

I’m actually well-regarded and successful.

h/t @maxread.info

Mr Opinion Matt Yglesias and his discontents

I wrote about the man everyone loves to hate, @mattyglesias.bsky.social . www.kitchencounter.blog/p/mr-opinion

On the deportation of dissent When I, an international student in the US, began writing dispatches from the protests at Columbia last year I felt as though good things were once again possible.

Wrote this the day Mahmoud Khalil was arrested. I was later deported for it.

Today a US federal judge confirmed what I wrote. open.substack.com/pub/alistair...

Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Targeted Noncitizens Over Pro-Palestinian Speech

Very proud of my colleagues right now--especially @ramyakrishnan.bsky.social and @alexabdo.bsky.social. But we could not have got this far without the superb trial lawyers at Sher Tremonte. Grateful to them for all of the time and energy they put into this case. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/u...