AQ: Australian Quarterly

08/12/2025

If you're in Canberra in the next few months make sure that you visit for the always-excellent Behind the Lines exhibition of the best political cartoons of the year.

Should be mandatory viewing for everyone - a fun, yet incisive look at the year, stripped back to the real issues that made an impact this year.

https://moadoph.gov.au/visit/whats-on/exhibitions/behind-the-lines-2025

08/12/2025

Coles has signed a deal with Peter Thiel's Palantir Technologies - bringing opaque and unethical AI surveillance to 840 of their supermarkets.

Want milk with a side of staff and customer surveillance?

Very interesting article on the situation:

https://urbanwronski.com/2025/12/07/caught-in-the-crunch-the-surveillance-state-comes-to-your-local-supermarket/

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

25/11/2025

'Flow is not a metaphor—it is a memory.'

The Oct-Dec 2025 Flow Special Edition of AQ Magazine features a powerful exploration of Indigenous connection to Country. For peoples, flow represents the scent of river red gums, dancing dragonflies over still water, and the ancestral knowledge that binds us to land, water, and sky.

This thought-provoking piece reminds us that long before Western science conceptualised ecosystems, Indigenous cultures understood the reciprocal relationship between giving and receiving—care flows both ways.

Why not give this (and a year of AQ) to someone for only $28 a year - https://aq.magazine.com.au/

12/11/2025

What do you get the person with everything? How about a subscription to one of Australia's oldest and most respected publications? AQ has been around for almost 100 years - thought-provoking, inspiring, exploring. Find out what it's all about

Get a year of AQ delivered to your door for only $28! Nothing this good is this cheap any more - but it can't last!

Subscribe now or get a gift subscription for someone else: https://aq.magazine.com.au/

Science, Politics, Society and the spheres in which they collide. AQ brings you in-depth analysis of the debates shaping Australia.

01/11/2025

Dive into the currents of connection with Tessa Leon's "Flow" - now featured in the new AQ Special Edition.

In collaboration with Nature Festival SA, the latest AQ explores the multifaceted concept of flow - and Tessa Leon's powerful poem stands as its poetic cornerstone.

Leon's words weave environmental consciousness with cultural heritage, inviting readers to reconsider their relationship with the natural world.

Don't miss this thought-provoking edition that bridges scientific insights with profound artistic expression. Check out the edition preview: https://aips.org.au/aq-magazine/current-edition

30/10/2025

In the new AQ: Water is Australia's most precious resource, and our approach to managing it has positioned us as global leaders in formal water markets. As climate change reduces water availability and increases weather variability, these innovative market systems enable us to address current and future water challenges effectively.

Australia's water markets make it possible to finance water infrastructure and ensure that water allowances are used where they're needed most - creating economic efficiency while supporting environmental outcomes. The system allows stakeholders to trade water rights, adapting to changing conditions in real-time.

While these markets represent a significant achievement in resource management, challenges remain as we work to reconcile water supply and demand in the face of increasing extractions and worsening climate impacts.

How do you think water markets could evolve to better address sustainability challenges? What other resources might benefit from similar market-based approaches?

https://aips.org.au/aq-magazine/current-edition

29/10/2025

Have you ever been completely absorbed in an activity—crafting, listening to music, playing sports—where time seems to disappear? The latest AQ, explores the science of "flow states" and their profound impact on our wellbeing.

This fascinating article bridges neuroscience and everyday experience, revealing how these optimal states of consciousness contribute to our mental health and happiness. And how flow is intimately connected to how well our societies could function...

Only in AQ: https://aq.magazine.com.au/

26/10/2025

📚 The latest AQ brings you a special collaboration with Nature Festival SA!

This unique edition explores our connection with the natural world through diverse perspectives. As a community-driven movement shaped like a festival, Nature Festival invites South Australians to reconnect with nature in positive, inclusive, and meaningful ways. Discover how this festival brings together passionate hosts who share their unique nature stories each spring. What's your favourite way to connect with nature?



Grab a year's subscription for only $28: https://aq.magazine.com.au/

24/10/2025

Your Weekend Reading: We have arrived at the lip of a great unknown—systemic failure, techno feudalism, the pillage of natural resources. The way-as-usual is exhausted; we can’t use the same thinking that got us into this to get us out.

Fossilised thinking prioritises rigidity over sensing, urgency over patience, and can only design solutions that have worked before. Thinking about how we transform these systems, how to make way for creative flow to return, means reflecting on who we are in these systems.

How can creativity shape the lives that we lead, and how to find your flow. Only in the new AQ: https://aips.org.au/aq-magazine/current-edition

21/10/2025

"Flow is not a metaphor—it's a memory." In the latest AQ, First Nations woman, Tiahni Adamson explores how flow connects to identity and belonging through sensory experiences: the scent of river red gums, dragonflies dancing over still water, and songs that remember you.

This powerful piece explores Indigenous connection to Country and how flow shapes our understanding of self and place. Find out what lessons this might have for your life - Only in AQ: https://aips.org.au/aq-magazine

Nature Festival

14/10/2025

People talk about flow states - but how do you actually get there? What is the art of unlocking your creative brain? In the new AQ, Amy Milhinch talks about the ways (and the discipline) needed to find her flow and what it means for her life to be able to do so.

An practical guide to experimental creating! Only in AQ: https://aq.magazine.com.au/

Get a year of AQ delivered to your door for only $28 - this price won't last long!

14/10/2025

Everything is connected. Resources from the biosphere flow into our bodies, which then shape our society and values. This flow permeates our lives. In the new AQ, hashtag Director, Ryan Hubbard from Hinterland Lab follows this flow through a fascinating exploration of the theme.

Check out the preview and subscribe! https://aips.org.au/aq-magazine/current-edition