Mandy Williams
@mandywil1iams.bsky.social
Aus politics researcher, PhD
Reposted by Mandy Williams
Senior Liberals close to Ley believe voices on the “populist” right, which include Sky News, 2GB and News Corp, have effectively “poisoned” the term net zero in the political debate.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Toxic emissions: how net zero became a ‘poisoned’ policy for the Coalition
Liberal MPs convinced net zero commitment ‘dead’ at next week’s party meeting, saying populist right’s ‘pathological hatred of the environment’ dashed hopes of compromise
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Senior Liberals close to Ley believe voices on the “populist” right, which include Sky News, 2GB and News Corp, have effectively “poisoned” the term net zero in the political debate.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Modelling shows the cost of generating electricity would be as much as 50% higher today if Australia had relied solely on coal and gas instead of pursuing renewables
Electricity generation costs would be up to 50% higher if Australia stuck with coal and gas only
Griffith University experts reveal the 30% increase in consumer power bills since 2021 would have been worse under fossil fuel-only scenario
www.theguardian.com
September 25, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Modelling shows the cost of generating electricity would be as much as 50% higher today if Australia had relied solely on coal and gas instead of pursuing renewables
Reposted by Mandy Williams
In Sydney Tuesday night? Join us to talk about the future of Australian politics and social democracy.
5.30pm for 6pm start at @utsengage.bsky.social. RSVP below. Centrally located and fully accessible venue.
With thanks to @auspsa.bsky.social and @uts-sps.bsky.social for resourcing this event 👏
5.30pm for 6pm start at @utsengage.bsky.social. RSVP below. Centrally located and fully accessible venue.
With thanks to @auspsa.bsky.social and @uts-sps.bsky.social for resourcing this event 👏
Join us on Tuesday night at UTS to discuss: A New Australian Politics?
George Megalogenis @frankbongiorno.bsky.social @lizhumphrys.bsky.social Emily Foley and I discuss how the last two elections have changed Australian politics and what it means for the future
events.humanitix.com/a-new-austra...
George Megalogenis @frankbongiorno.bsky.social @lizhumphrys.bsky.social Emily Foley and I discuss how the last two elections have changed Australian politics and what it means for the future
events.humanitix.com/a-new-austra...
A New Australian Politics: Rupture or Realignment
We explore the outcomes of the 2025 Australian federal election and consider whether it signals a fundamental rupture or realignment in the political landscape
events.humanitix.com
September 21, 2025 at 2:54 AM
In Sydney Tuesday night? Join us to talk about the future of Australian politics and social democracy.
5.30pm for 6pm start at @utsengage.bsky.social. RSVP below. Centrally located and fully accessible venue.
With thanks to @auspsa.bsky.social and @uts-sps.bsky.social for resourcing this event 👏
5.30pm for 6pm start at @utsengage.bsky.social. RSVP below. Centrally located and fully accessible venue.
With thanks to @auspsa.bsky.social and @uts-sps.bsky.social for resourcing this event 👏
Reposted by Mandy Williams
New Open Access paper just dropped!
I trace the transformation of the Liberal Party of Australia from a party of choice for women to one that increasingly lost favour with them.
I find that this shift began under Howard in the 1980s, hence my favourite title inspired by Kath & Kim:
#AusPol
I trace the transformation of the Liberal Party of Australia from a party of choice for women to one that increasingly lost favour with them.
I find that this shift began under Howard in the 1980s, hence my favourite title inspired by Kath & Kim:
#AusPol
Bloody Howard! Gender, Leadership, and the Decline of the Liberal Party of Australia as the “Party for Women”
Women played a key role in the founding of the Liberal Party of Australia (LPA) in 1944 and in providing its branch structure. The newly established LPA also sought to encourage women to join the par...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 24, 2025 at 11:21 PM
New Open Access paper just dropped!
I trace the transformation of the Liberal Party of Australia from a party of choice for women to one that increasingly lost favour with them.
I find that this shift began under Howard in the 1980s, hence my favourite title inspired by Kath & Kim:
#AusPol
I trace the transformation of the Liberal Party of Australia from a party of choice for women to one that increasingly lost favour with them.
I find that this shift began under Howard in the 1980s, hence my favourite title inspired by Kath & Kim:
#AusPol
Great to have our article - More Choice for Women? The Howard Government’s Tax and Transfer Reforms’, published in the Austaxpolicy blog!
More Choice for Women? The Howard Government’s Tax and Transfer Reforms - Austaxpolicy: The Tax and Transfer Policy Blog
The Howard government, elected in 1996 on a socially conservative platform, integrated the tax and transfer systems through the Family Tax Benefit.
www.austaxpolicy.com
June 13, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Great to have our article - More Choice for Women? The Howard Government’s Tax and Transfer Reforms’, published in the Austaxpolicy blog!
"The people from the Namoi, who rely on the water system, all the way through to the Murray Darling Basin, it's going to be devastating for the country, the land. It's going to be devastating for our people.”
Tribunal rules NSW government can lease culturally significant land to Santos
Traditional landowner Polly Cutmore says a decision by the National Native Title Tribunal to allow the New South Wales government to lease land to Santos for gas extraction is devastating.
www.abc.net.au
May 20, 2025 at 8:31 PM
"The people from the Namoi, who rely on the water system, all the way through to the Murray Darling Basin, it's going to be devastating for the country, the land. It's going to be devastating for our people.”
Authoritarians view universities—vital centers of critical thought and free expression—as an innate threat to their desire for complete subservience. In 1931, for example, Italy’s Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, forced university professors to take loyalty oaths
Why Authoritarians Attack Universities First
A Yale professor and expert on fascism talks about why he’s leaving the United States under Trump.
foreignpolicy.com
April 19, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Authoritarians view universities—vital centers of critical thought and free expression—as an innate threat to their desire for complete subservience. In 1931, for example, Italy’s Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, forced university professors to take loyalty oaths
Great to see this out - an exciting bit of research on exploring Howard’s use of choice for women and the way it shaped women roles in Aus. Paper written in collaboration with the great Dr @vanessarose.bsky.social
More choice for women? A discursive formation of the Howard government’s tax and transfer reforms
When former Prime Minister John Howard introduced the new tax system, he declared it would enable ‘more choice for women’. Yet the reform, grounded in the regressive integration of the tax and tran...
www.tandfonline.com
March 14, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Great to see this out - an exciting bit of research on exploring Howard’s use of choice for women and the way it shaped women roles in Aus. Paper written in collaboration with the great Dr @vanessarose.bsky.social
The sadistic glee at issue here is not just his; it's a communal, contagious celebration of cruelty. The media attention it garners feeds the sadistic spree. It has to be known, seen, and heard—this parade of reactionary outrage and defiance—that’s why it’s no longer a matter of exposing hypocrisy
Trump is unleashing sadism upon the world. But we cannot get overwhelmed | Judith Butler
Those who celebrate his defiance and sadism are as claimed by his logic as those who are paralyzed with outrage
www.theguardian.com
February 7, 2025 at 7:25 AM
The sadistic glee at issue here is not just his; it's a communal, contagious celebration of cruelty. The media attention it garners feeds the sadistic spree. It has to be known, seen, and heard—this parade of reactionary outrage and defiance—that’s why it’s no longer a matter of exposing hypocrisy
The takeaway for individuals, is that public scrutiny, awareness, and attitudes matter now more than ever. Wettstein, argues that, of shifts the commodity industry has made toward more compliant business practices over the past decade, “most, if not all, have to do with civil society movements.”
The Dirty Business That’s Stopping Climate Change
Commodity traders are among the financial world’s most ruthless actors—and now they’re at the center of climate policy.
foreignpolicy.com
February 2, 2025 at 3:12 AM
The takeaway for individuals, is that public scrutiny, awareness, and attitudes matter now more than ever. Wettstein, argues that, of shifts the commodity industry has made toward more compliant business practices over the past decade, “most, if not all, have to do with civil society movements.”
Records and accounts of authoritarian regimes have been crucial tools in helping society understand and judge these regimes.
Don’t Let Autocrats Erase the Internet
Preserving digital archives is a crucial weapon in discrediting and defeating authoritarian regimes.
foreignpolicy.com
January 28, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Records and accounts of authoritarian regimes have been crucial tools in helping society understand and judge these regimes.
‘We know the reef is under increasing pressure from climate change and its world heritage status is under increasing pressure.’
‘Catastrophic’: Great Barrier Reef hit by its most widespread coral bleaching, study finds
More than 40% of individual corals monitored around One Tree Island reef bleached by heat stress and damaged by flesh-eating disease
www.theguardian.com
January 21, 2025 at 8:38 PM
‘We know the reef is under increasing pressure from climate change and its world heritage status is under increasing pressure.’
U.S. presidents often fall short on their human rights commitments. When the United States selectively applies internationally accepted rules, it undermines its credibility and loses influence in the rest of the world
How Biden Failed on Human Rights
The Moral and Strategic Costs of Abandoning an Ideal
reader.foreignaffairs.com
January 18, 2025 at 10:17 PM
U.S. presidents often fall short on their human rights commitments. When the United States selectively applies internationally accepted rules, it undermines its credibility and loses influence in the rest of the world
When did climate change become political? That inflection point began in the 1990s. When climate change moved from a comfortably future issue to an issue that we had to do something about now, that is when the political polarization began. @katharinehayhoe.com
Prominent climate scientist argues it's time to ditch the 'myth of neutrality' | CBC Radio
Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe talks to Bob McDonald about the polarization of science and why she thinks scientists should stop pretending to be neutral when it's our planet at risk.
www.cbc.ca
January 17, 2025 at 9:46 PM
When did climate change become political? That inflection point began in the 1990s. When climate change moved from a comfortably future issue to an issue that we had to do something about now, that is when the political polarization began. @katharinehayhoe.com
The “populist genie”, once out of the bottle, is difficult to moderate and to control. It tends to magnify over time, and I think the last 25 years bears that out, we’ve seen a ratcheting up. Peter Dutton is the face of a more aggressive conservative populism in Australian politics - Prof. Strangio
Can Australia’s political centre hold off the populist embers being set ablaze by Trump?
Donald Trump is unlike any politician Australia has ever seen. But could a demagogue in his image emerge?
www.theguardian.com
January 17, 2025 at 7:26 PM
The “populist genie”, once out of the bottle, is difficult to moderate and to control. It tends to magnify over time, and I think the last 25 years bears that out, we’ve seen a ratcheting up. Peter Dutton is the face of a more aggressive conservative populism in Australian politics - Prof. Strangio
I have been prepared for evil, for greed, for cruelty, for injustice – but I did not anticipate that the people in power would also be such huge losers -
@brocklesnitch.bsky.social
@brocklesnitch.bsky.social
I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers | Rebecca Shaw
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s desperation to be cool as they suck up to Donald Trump is so cringe it makes my skin crawl
www.theguardian.com
January 16, 2025 at 8:58 PM
I have been prepared for evil, for greed, for cruelty, for injustice – but I did not anticipate that the people in power would also be such huge losers -
@brocklesnitch.bsky.social
@brocklesnitch.bsky.social
As we have seen in others democracies, autocracy is not built out of the whims of a leader but only becomes entrenched when it has been certified by legalism — exploiting legal means to serve autocratic ends.
Opinion | Are We Sleepwalking Into Autocracy?
What we can learn from countries that have pushed back on threats to democracy.
www.nytimes.com
January 15, 2025 at 7:48 PM
As we have seen in others democracies, autocracy is not built out of the whims of a leader but only becomes entrenched when it has been certified by legalism — exploiting legal means to serve autocratic ends.
In a hotter world, the risk of more common, more extreme weather is part of the prudent economic case for climate action.
LA burning a reminder that climate action matters to Australia
In a hotter world, the risk of more common, more extreme weather is part of the prudent economic case for improving the environment.
www.afr.com
January 12, 2025 at 10:20 PM
In a hotter world, the risk of more common, more extreme weather is part of the prudent economic case for climate action.
Reposted by Mandy Williams
“In one of the most astonishing political transformations in the history of democracy,” Hitler destroyed “a constitutional republic through constitutional means,” writes Timothy W. Ryback. Read about how Hitler overcame democracy in just 53 days:
How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days
He used the constitution to shatter the constitution.
www.theatlantic.com
January 11, 2025 at 6:45 PM
“In one of the most astonishing political transformations in the history of democracy,” Hitler destroyed “a constitutional republic through constitutional means,” writes Timothy W. Ryback. Read about how Hitler overcame democracy in just 53 days:
When he returns to the White House, President-elect Trump is widely expected to slash funding for women’s health organizations around the world
Opinion | Reproductive Health Is More Than Abortions
Trump is likely to slash funding for women’s health organizations in the name of “protecting life” — but the result will be death.
www.nytimes.com
January 11, 2025 at 10:15 PM
When he returns to the White House, President-elect Trump is widely expected to slash funding for women’s health organizations around the world
Survivors of wildfires like those burning across Los Angeles can experience mental health issues long after a blaze is out.
The Lasting Mental Health Toll of the California Wildfires
Survivors of wildfires like those burning across Los Angeles can experience mental health issues long after a blaze is out.
www.nytimes.com
January 9, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Survivors of wildfires like those burning across Los Angeles can experience mental health issues long after a blaze is out.
A UN committee has found that Australia violated a human rights treaty by detaining a group of asylum seekers, including minors, on Nauru even after they were granted refugee status.
Australia violated human rights treaty with Nauru detainees, UN finds
A UN committee finds Australia violated a human rights treaty by detaining a group of asylum seekers, including minors, on Nauru even after they were granted refugee status.
www.abc.net.au
January 9, 2025 at 9:37 PM
A UN committee has found that Australia violated a human rights treaty by detaining a group of asylum seekers, including minors, on Nauru even after they were granted refugee status.
Trump and his acolytes are poised to commit a string of unforced foreign policy errors driven by ideological opposition to a system—the liberal order—whose nature and value they clearly do not understand.
Trump’s Antiliberal Order
How America first undercuts America’s advantage.
www.foreignaffairs.com
January 8, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Trump and his acolytes are poised to commit a string of unforced foreign policy errors driven by ideological opposition to a system—the liberal order—whose nature and value they clearly do not understand.
Scientists are clear that oil and gas production must be radically cut to avoid disastrous climate impacts. The ban does not have an end date and could be legally – and politically – tricky for Trump to overturn.
Biden bans new drilling in US coastal waters weeks before Trump handover
Ban includes entire Atlantic coast, eastern Gulf of Mexico, Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington, and part of Bering Sea
www.theguardian.com
January 7, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Scientists are clear that oil and gas production must be radically cut to avoid disastrous climate impacts. The ban does not have an end date and could be legally – and politically – tricky for Trump to overturn.
Magistrate Robert Young found the company breached the WA Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1982, handing Santos a $10,000 fine and ordering it to pay court costs of $9,700.
It is the first time a company has been fined under section 97(4) of the act,
It is the first time a company has been fined under section 97(4) of the act,
Gas giant Santos fined $10,000 for 25,000-litre oil spill off Pilbara coast
The energy giant has pleaded guilty to causing an oil spill in 2022, that leaked 25,000 litres of oil off WA's north-west coast. Santos will pay a $10,000 fine and $9,700 in court costs for failing to...
www.abc.net.au
January 6, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Magistrate Robert Young found the company breached the WA Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1982, handing Santos a $10,000 fine and ordering it to pay court costs of $9,700.
It is the first time a company has been fined under section 97(4) of the act,
It is the first time a company has been fined under section 97(4) of the act,