David Pocock

Independent senator David Pocock condemns the Labor-Coalition agreement on gambling legislation as a betrayal of Australians seeking stronger protections from gambling advertising. Drawing on testimony from a family who lost a son to gambling-related suicide and other accounts of addiction, financial ruin and damaged relationships, he argues that the government ignored 31 unanimous reform recommendations and succumbed to pressure from the gambling industry, broadcasters and sporting organizations. Pocock says the compromise is a missed opportunity to protect children and will damage Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s legacy. He advocates minority government and negotiated lawmaking, pointing to Nordic countries and Australia’s recent experience with independents as models for more responsive politics.

Anthony Albanese outlines an ambitious AI strategy focused on protecting creatives and regulating datacentre impacts, but lacks detail on key issues including sovereign AI capability, workforce retraining, construction shortages, datacentre placement, and taxation. The government’s push to attract global hyperscalers raises contradictions with copyright protection goals, while insufficient planning risks exacerbating housing pressures and job displacement. Calls intensify for clearer standards, stronger long‑term benefits for Australia, and comprehensive policies to ensure AI development supports communities, workers and national interests.

Australia risks repeating the mistakes of the gas boom by allowing foreign technology companies to extract value from public land, energy and water without ensuring a fair return to Australians. Microsoft and Amazon Web Services have committed billions to Australian datacentres, but the infrastructure could consume electricity equivalent to all Victorian households, sharply increase water use, raise power prices and create relatively few permanent jobs. David Pocock argues that voluntary government expectations are inadequate and calls for stronger taxation, regulation and evidence that AI investment will benefit communities, workers and the national economy.

David Pocock argues that the Albanese government’s proposed gambling reforms are far too weak to address the public-health harms of pervasive gambling advertising, particularly among children and young men. He says the government has ignored the Murphy committee’s recommendations for a full advertising ban, a national regulator and a ban on inducements, while allowing unlimited advertising during live broadcasts after 8.30pm. Pocock welcomes bans on gambling advertising on jerseys and in stadiums and restrictions on celebrity endorsements, but says these measures will not sever the link between gambling and sport. He urges public pressure and parliamentary scrutiny to overcome lobbying by gambling companies and deliver comprehensive reform.

David Pocock argues that Australia’s condemnation of Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza must be matched by concrete action. He calls for targeted sanctions on Israeli officials and military personnel, an end to weapons and weapons-part exports that could harm civilians, emergency visas for relatives of Australians, increased needs-based aid, and diplomatic efforts to facilitate a deployable children’s hospital in Gaza. He says Australia can exercise meaningful middle-power leadership despite being unable to end the war alone, and urges Australians to recognize the shared humanity of Palestinians and Israelis while resisting division at home.

David Pocock argues that the Gaza crisis is a test of Australia's moral standing and diplomatic leadership. He calls on the government to condemn Hamas's attacks and hostage-taking while also addressing the extensive civilian deaths, hunger and malnutrition in Gaza. Pocock urges Australia to provide more humanitarian and consular assistance, offer temporary visas to people with family ties to Australia, and urgently reinstate the $6 million in aid withheld from UNRWA. He contrasts Australia's substantial response to the wars in Ukraine and Afghanistan with its more limited action on Gaza, arguing that Australia should use its influence as a middle power to support UNRWA, press for a ceasefire and help establish a path to peace.

David Pocock argues that JobSeeker and Youth Allowance payments are so inadequate that they trap unemployed Australians in poverty and make it harder for them to find work. He highlights the experience of a single mother, identified by the pseudonym Susan, who skips meals, cannot afford transport or prescriptions easily, and moves a single lightbulb between rooms to reduce expenses. Citing the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee’s recommendation to raise payment rates, Pocock says increased support would improve health and employment outcomes while making economic sense. He contrasts the government’s claimed budget constraints with spending on tax cuts, submarines, property concessions and fossil-fuel subsidies, and urges the government to act in the 2023 federal budget.

New gas projects across Australia are threatening Indigenous country, farmland, native vegetation and groundwater, while communities bear the environmental and social costs. The article argues that government subsidies for projects such as Beetaloo and Narrabri are economically questionable, incompatible with emissions-reduction targets and opposed by traditional owners, farmers and local groups. It calls for public investment to shift from gas and other failed fossil-fuel technologies toward renewable energy, jobs and long-term economic prosperity.

David Pocock argues that Tasmania’s takayna/Tarkine rainforest should be protected from logging for a proposed mining tailings dam, noting that alternative sites would avoid both forest destruction and job losses. He highlights the rainforest’s exceptional biodiversity, Aboriginal heritage and importance as a refuge for threatened species, including Tasmanian devils and tiger quolls. The piece criticizes Australia’s continued public support for native-forest destruction and calls for an economic transition that values forests for their carbon, biodiversity and tourism benefits.

David Pocock argues that Australia’s climate breakdown reflects a failure of moral and political leadership, using the impacts of Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek mine on farmers, Aboriginal sacred sites and local communities as an example. He criticizes alleged environmental breaches, fossil-fuel subsidies, political obstruction of climate action and bank financing of coal, oil and gas projects. Pocock calls for a stimulus-funded transition to a cleaner economy and urges Australians to move their superannuation and banking away from institutions that finance fossil fuels.

Australia’s environmental and climate crises require a fundamental shift in how land and food are managed, David Pocock argues. Regenerative agriculture can restore soil health, retain water, increase biodiversity, sequester carbon and reduce the hidden social costs of cheap food. Drawing on farmers such as Vince Heffernan, regenerative agriculture’s leading thinkers, and Indigenous land-management knowledge, Pocock presents the approach as a practical transformation rather than an idealistic utopia. Consumers, farmers and policymakers all have a role in changing a system that has contributed to land degradation, ecosystem collapse and climate instability.