Inside Story contributing editor Peter Mares is an adjunct senior research fellow at Monash University’s School of Media, Film and Journalism and a moderator at Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership. He is the author of No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia’s Housing Crisis (Text, 2018), Not Quite Australian: How Temporary Migration Is Changing the Nation (Text, 2016) and Borderline (UNSW Press 2001), an analysis of Australia’s refugee policies.
National affairs
Scott Morrison’s unfinished business
Peter Mares
4 February 2015
As immigration minister, Scott Morrison set in train three major legislative amendments that increase ministerial discretion and reduce transparency and accountability, writes…
National affairs
Beyond deterrence: reframing the asylum seeker debate
Anne McNevin, Damir Mitric, Klaus Neumann & Savitri Taylor & Peter Mares
13 October 2014
It’s time to fundamentally rethink Australia’s approach to asylum seekers, free of narrow assumptions about what’s politically feasible, write Anne …
Essays & reportage
“Every law not based on wisdom is a menace to the state”
Peter Mares
11 March 2014
The number of people imprisoned in the United States has fallen every year for the past three years, yet the land of the free still has a far higher incarceration rate than any…
Aboard New Zealand’s cabbage boat: cheques, spooks and politics
Peter Mares
7 November 2013
With the next general election just a year away, New Zealand’s political landscape is subject to unpredictable tremors, writes Peter Mares from Wellington
Essays & reportage
Is Common Ground a commonsense response to homelessness?
Peter Mares
30 July 2013
In his first stint as prime minister, Kevin Rudd set a target of halving homelessness by 2020. If he is still committed to that goal, then the Common Ground approach might chart a…
National affairs
We know about the 457. What about the 485?
Peter Mares
28 March 2013
A different visa category could be the subject of future debates about temporary migration, writes Peter Mares
Essays & reportage
A death in the rain
Peter Mares
24 September 2010
FROM THE ARCHIVE | This week Fijian fruit-picker Josefa Rauluni died in the Villawood detention centre. Peter Mares describes a similar case nearly ten years ago, and how…
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