It was meant to be a moment for the history books — the first time a U.S. president visited a Pacific Island country. Papua New Guinea, the host nation, scrambled to mobilize 1,000 security officers; the leaders of 17 other countries agreed to make the trip for just a few hours with President Biden, who was scheduled to go on […]

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. When it was first announced in 2017 that Australia’s oldest power station, Liddell, would close, the news set off a political firestorm. On the heels of the abrupt closure of another coal plant which caused energy prices to spike, the announcement sparked […]

In the years after World War II, as a new wave of migration scattered Italians abroad, tens of thousands made the long journey to Australia to escape the poverty and devastation in their defeated nation. Even as they built a new life in a new land, many held tight to the habits and customs of the old country. Thus a […]

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter in Melbourne. In her first speech to lawmakers in 2008, Jacinda Ardern, the former New Zealand prime minister, told her new colleagues a little about what they might expect from her. “Some […]

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter in Melbourne. Last year, my colleague Yan Zhuang reported on a group of men who had been abruptly relocated to a motel in Melbourne after almost a decade of being detained in […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — She seemed an ideal political candidate in a country that likes to call itself the world’s “most successful multicultural nation.” Tu Le, a young Australian lawyer who is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, was set to become the opposition Labor Party’s candidate for Parliament in one of Sydney’s most diverse districts. She grew up nearby, works as […]

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — For a year and a half, New Zealand has pursued a strategy of “Covid zero,” closing its borders and quickly enforcing lockdowns to keep the coronavirus in check, a policy it maintained even as other Asia-Pacific countries transitioned to coexisting with the viral threat. On Monday, New Zealand gave up the ghost. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern […]

Australia will lift its bans on international travel in November under a plan that Prime Minister Scott Morrison outlined on Friday. It is the second time in 10 days that officials have accelerated the country’s plans to ease travel restrictions. Until last month, Australia was poised to keep its borders closed into 2022. The tourism minister, Dan Tehan, then said […]

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. Recently, I’ve been reporting on the controversy over Labor’s pick to represent Fowler, where Tu Le, a young lawyer and the daughter of Vietnamese migrants, was passed over, with the party instead choosing Kristina Keneally, a party leader and white woman. I’ve […]

Construction workers in Melbourne, Australia, clashed violently with the police for the second day in a row on Tuesday in a dispute over mandatory vaccinations. Up to 2,000 protesters descended into the city’s central business district, the police said. Videos posted to social media showed workers hurling bottles at the police and setting off flares, while officers in riot gear […]