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The post What does an Unfair Trading Prohibition mean for Australia? appeared first on CPRC.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

The United States, in its recent war on Iran, has completely misread the Iranian people and failed to recognize the deep revolutionary spirit that pervades Iranian culture. Rather than inciting Iranian people against their government, the US-Israeli war on Iran has united the population. Rather than promoting democracy in Iran and empowering the people, US economic punishment and aggression have accomplished the opposite and have made life more difficult for most Iranians. Like Cuba, Iran is being targeted because it will not relinquish its sovereignty. As Chris Hedges explains, Iran is being punished for “its refusal to become a client state aligned with American interests in the region.”

The post What is unfair trading? appeared first on CPRC.

If George Washington and John Quincy Adams were in the Oval Office advising President Trump on whether to go to war with Iran, what would they have said? They would likely have argued that any American war in the Middle East—whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, or Iran, or in partnership with any ally that commits American money, armaments, or troops—is pure folly.

Both in theory and practice, early American political leaders unequivocally rejected the claim that America was an empire or world hegemon like those established by Alexander the Great, Imperial Rome, the Mongols, or Napoleon. Instead, America was a new kind of regime unseen in world history: a republican empire of liberty, limited in constitutional scope and political geography but unlimited in the power of her political spirit and her example to the world.

Equal Nations

The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence includes a curious phrase often overlooked by commentators: “and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.” What did the founders mean by a “separate and equal station,” and what does this phrase tell us about their conception of America’s political regime?

New Democratic Party members selected Avi Lewis as the new party leader, with a majority of votes on the first-round ballot. Now, the complex task of rebuilding the movement continues. With a House of Commons NDP caucus of 5 MPs as of the time of writing, Lewis and his new team will need to continue the organizing that took place during the leadership campaign, uniting over 100,000 existing and new party members that participated in voting for a new party leader.

The 2026 NDP Convention and leadership vote, held in Winnipeg, Manitoba from March 27 to 29, also saw the election of a new party executive; some have already voiced concern about the lack of equity among the new executive team. I would like to see Lewis’ leadership team and the new federal executive act swiftly and take a different approach from the previous leadership, to ensure equity is at the forefront of the party in all aspects from governance. This means strengthening Electoral District Association (EDA) organizing, as promised during Lewis’ campaign. It also means stronger equity and earlier candidate searches, as well as turning NDP equity values into effective, intersectional, and tangible policy proposals.

The American Mind’s ‘Editorial Roundtable’ podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.

The Piker Pill | The Roundtable Ep. 315

National housing campaign Everybody’s Home said the federal government must prioritise building social housing and ending investor tax breaks in this year’s Budget, as new analysis reveals virtually no affordable rentals exist for people on the lowest incomes.

This year’s Rental Affordability Snapshot, released by Anglicare Australia, found that nationally, 0% of private rentals were affordable for people on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance, just 0.2% for someone on the Age Pension, and only 0.5% for a full-time minimum wage worker.

Everybody’s Home spokesperson Chantal Caruso said the Federal Budget must deliver tax reform and redirect those savings into homes people can afford.

“It’s staggering that there are virtually no affordable rentals in the private market for people on the lowest incomes. Even full-time workers on the minimum wage are being completely priced out,” Ms Caruso said.

“The system is failing, but it can be fixed if the federal government steps up now with meaningful reform and investment.

“This Budget presents a critical opportunity to deliver meaningful reform by ending unfair investor tax breaks that are making the housing crisis worse, and reinvesting those savings into building more public and community housing.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Senator Larissa Waters, leader of the Australian Greens, joins Ebony Bennett to discuss the causes of Australia’s housing crisis, making gas exporters pay their fair share, and the Greens’ new ‘tax the 1%’ campaign.

The latest Vantage Point essay, Rich Kid Poor Kid: The Battle for Public Education by Jane Caro, is available now for $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

Guest: Larissa Waters, Australian Greens leader and Senator for Queensland // @larissawaters

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett

Show notes:

The case for a gas export tax, explained by Richard Denniss, The Point (March 2026)

The footage was grainy and imprecise, the black-and-white nighttime combat visuals to which Americans have become accustomed over the past generation. Still there they were: American aircraft and American soldiers in action, another strike in defense of a nation at war. Yet this combat operation was not part of the American war with Iran, then only four days old: the announcement on March 3, followed by another on March 6, concerned American forces in Ecuador.

With the cooperation of Ecuadorian authorities, the United States attacked narco-terrorists who were reportedly a splinter faction of FARC, a guerrilla force that once sought leftist revolution in Colombia. Now having devolved into a cartel with socialist characteristics, its successors find themselves on the receiving end of American violence. The two military actions received relatively little attention in U.S. media: an air-assault infantry raid in the Andean region isn’t as telegenic as B-2s flying over Isfahan. But they just might be as portentous.

In 2014, Noel Pearson delivered an eulogy for Gough Whitlam. Professor Tom Clark wrote about it for The Conversation and said “Pearson came to praise Caesar on Wednesday, certainly not to bury him” as he listed the achievements of one of Australia’s greatest reformers.

Pearson said he was speaking to “this old man’s legacy with no partisan brief” but named the Racial Discrimination Act as one of the most important acts of Whitlam’s prime ministership, saying “without this old man the land and human rights of our people would never have seen the light of day”.

“Only those who have known discrimination truly know its evil,” Pearson said on that day.

He later described the Whitlam government as the “textbook case of reform trumping management”.

Prices for groceries, rent, insurance, gas bills are up and the cost of petrol is through the roof, and wages aren’t keeping up with rising prices. While many Australians are finding it harder to make ends meet, there has been an explosion in the wealth of the super-rich. Australia taxes wealth very lightly, it’s time that changed.

“Billionaires have the lowest effective tax rate of all social groups everywhere”, according to French economist Gabriel Zucman.

“There is a legitimate debate to have about the proper degree of tax progressivity … But nobody should accept a situation where the super-rich can pay less than the middle class. It’s a basic violation of the fundamental principle of equality before the law, which stands at the heart of our social contract.”

Taxing wealth fairly is not just important for the economy, it’s important for our democracy. As the federal budget approaches, we’re about to hear a lot about what Australia ‘can’t afford’. We can’t afford for so many people to access the National Disability Insurance Scheme, for example. We ‘can’t afford’ to increase the unemployment benefit above the poverty line. But somehow we can afford $368 billion for nuclear submarines we may never receive, and we can afford to give away half of our liquid natural gas royalty-free.