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Articles by Bob Carr
Author talk: Bring Back Yesterday by Bob Carr
Join Canberra Writers Festival and author Bob Carr for a special In Conversation event focused on his new memoir, Bring Back Yesterday. A powerful love story and grief memoir from one of Australia’s most respected public figures. Former New South Wales premier Bob Carr speaks candidly about love, loss and the partnership that shaped his life. Written with honesty and emotional clarity, Carr’s memoir chronicles one of the darkest periods of his life following the death of his wife, Helena.
Things to do in Canberra this week (20 to 26 March)
19 March 2026 Start the conversation Canberra’s long-awaited Beer and Cider Festival is here. Photo: Canberra Beer and Cider Festival. Summer may well be behind us but Canberra comes alive to get the most out of the closing days of warmth. This week is packed with plenty of exciting events, with the much-loved Beer and Cider Festival, Majura Farm’s Sunflower Maze, the final days of the Canberra Comedy Festival, round 6 of the Super Rugby Pacific Season and much more.
The ultimate guide to what’s on in Canberra this week
If your social calendar is looking a little empty, consider this your fix. From colourful skies during the Balloon Spectacular to comedy gigs, markets and festivals across the city, there’s plenty happening around Canberra this week. Here’s where to head if you’re keen to get out and about. Looking for even more to do in Canberra? Check out our What’s On section to find hundreds of events happening around town.
Things to do in Canberra this week (6 to 12 March)
5 March 2026 Start the conversation There’s plenty of live music and excitement across the capital this week. Photo: Enlighten Festival. Canberra is buzzing this week and not just because it’s a long weekend! Enlighten Festival is still going strong. Head to Exhibition Park on Saturday to see Ocean Alley perform live alongside a full schedule of Australian bands.
200+ events spread over 31 days? March madness has hit Canberra
Yes, our fingers hurt from typing. We always say that March is Canberra’s biggest month, and this year is no different, proving that ‘March madness’ in Canberra is very, very real. And with over 200 events spread across 31 days, you’d better buckle up. From the Canberra Balloon Spectacular to illuminations, live performances, blockbuster exhibitions, and more, the city will be brought to life in a month-long celebration of all things Canberra. Don’t believe us?
What's On in March 2026 at the National Library
Our March event program brings science, history, biography and art to the Library, along with a healthy sprinkle of Shakespeare. “When groundbreaking cancer treatments save 50% of patients, what happens to the other half?” “Does history have a future in Canberra?” “How do biographers unlock the secrets behind a public life?” “What does Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar tell us about our past, present and future?” These questions and more will be explored through this month’s lectures and author talks.
Author talk: Bring Back Yesterday by Bob Carr - Event Information – ArtsHub Australia
Join Canberra Writers Festival and author Bob Carr for a special In Conversation event focused on his new memoir, Bring Back Yesterday. A powerful love story and grief memoir from one of Australia’s most respected public figures. Former New South Wales premier Bob Carr speaks candidly about love, loss and the partnership that shaped his life. Written with honesty and emotional clarity, Carr’s memoir chronicles one of the darkest periods of his life following the death of his wife, Helena.
On Mediocrity
I am a New Zealand Anglican. In both politics and religion, one of our strengths is mediocrity. New Zealand politicians are usually mediocre to the point of being indistinguishable from each other. Now and again there is an exception, such as Robert Muldoon, but on the whole they are boring. They do a reasonable job with moderate efficiency, which is all that we expect from them. The two main parties are indistinguishable from each other.
For casting light on the savage lobbying the Australian media and politicians receive from the Israel lobby, John Lyons should be congratulated. The former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald John Lyons has done democracy a service by publishing a small book exposing the most concerted and best funded foreign influence operation in Australia: the Israel lobby and in particular its dogged attempts to shape media coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. He provides a strong evidentiary base.
Where are the grown-ups? The talk about China and war is dangerous
So whats the plan? asked an investor after I had spoken at the Lonsec Symposium about Australia-China relations. Days earlier, Defence Minister Peter Dutton talked war over the Taiwan Strait. His former department head said our warriors were ready to go fight. The Foreign Affairs Minister announced she was tearing up two anodyne memorandums of understanding between Victoria and China over the Belt and Road instead of letting them gather mould in Daniel Andrews cabinet.
Australias leaders are playing with climate policy, pitching a nationalist and populist message to their base. Australia ends the year as one of the only developedcountries not committed to net zero emissions by 2050. To this, prime minister Scott Morrison is adding another distinction. Australia is about to become the only developed country witha parliamentary committee charged with persuading corporates not to move beyond carbon. The work will be steady, not to say unrelenting.
In 2021, Australian journalist John Lyons published Dateline Jerusalem: Journalisms Toughest Assignment. It examined the pro-Israel lobby in Australia which I have described as the most powerful foreign influence operation in our country. Lyons quoted Chris Mitchell, the long time editor of The Australian, saying that the Israel lobby became more right-wing after the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. Yet the lobby is moving further to the right. The recent Federal election confirms it.
That the mob always gets it right is cornerstone wisdom of Australian politics, often confirmed by polling that shows the public’s deeply rooted common sense. Thus it is with one of the big debates in Australia: do we engage pragmatically with China? Or do we beat a retreat to an adversarial position with the starting point that China is Australia’s enemy –the assumption of retired Swinburne academic John Fitzgerald in The Australian Financial Review on Friday.
November 13, 2024 Former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr joins Steve Cannane to discuss: is the country’s key strategic military agreement with the US under threat from a Trump presidency? https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/is-aukus-safe-under-trump/104588540?utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared Republished from ABC Radio National Breakfast, 12 November 2024
Is AUKUS safe under Trump?
Former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr joins Steve Cannane discuss: is the country’s key strategic military agreement with the US under threat from a Trump presidency? Republished from ABC Radio National Breakfast, 12 November 2024
Pearls and Irritations
I don’t want to appall the diplomats present by using a vulgarism, but Pillar two [of AUKUS] is fragrant methane-wrapped bullshit. Australia and New Zealand are beautifully placed to nurture and defend a different model of relationships between the prevailing power [the US] and the rising power [China]: A different approach from the one that says war is inevitable, says former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr.
June 4, 1998 - A New South Wales premier signs a carbon credit trade…
Twenty five years ago, on this day, June 4, 1998, NSW premier Bob Carr puts pen to paper. As per Hansard – The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 368ppm. As of 2023 it is 423ppm, but check for daily measures. The context was that Bob Carr as New South Wales Prime Minister premier was wanting to put New South Wales on the map for carbon trading.
Mangroves keep carbon in the soil for 5,000 years
On top of all the other dazzling biology, mangrove forests are massive carbon sinks. In fact, according to new research on a Mexican mangrove forest, they can keep carbon out of the atmosphere for millennia. A study published in Marine Ecology Progress Series has found that the carbon stored in peat under the mangrove forest is over 5,000 years old.
The Israeli lobby and Labor
In 2021, Australian journalist John Lyons published Dateline Jerusalem: Journalism’s Toughest Assignment. It examined the pro-Israel lobby in Australia which I have described as the most powerful foreign influence operation in our country. Lyons quoted Chris Mitchell, the long time editor of The Australian, saying that the Israel lobby became more right-wing after the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. Yet the lobby is moving further to the right. The recent Federal election confirms it.
One Word to Stop War Over Taiwan
Bob Carr Sydney Morning Herald November 17, 2021 “Restraint.” This should be the one-word diplomatic mantra for Australia about Taiwan. It should be the opening and closing of every statement an Australian prime minister utters because a descent into war between the world’s superpowers over a neuralgic issue that diplomacy has constrained for 70 years – this is the last thing our battered and bruised planet wants. Read Full Article »
Bob Carr: Israel lobby's overreach far exceeded any other diaspora community
(Image: Unsplash) For casting light on the savage lobbying the Australian media — and politicians — receive from the Israel lobby, John Lyons should be congratulated. The former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald John Lyons has done democracy a service by publishing a small book exposing the most concerted and best funded foreign influence operation in Australia: the Israel lobby and in particular its dogged attempts to shape media coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Anti-China Threat Production in Australia: A redundant, out-of-control industry
Australia cannot lay claim to being the sole, or even senior author of its defence strategies and policies. For many years now, Australia has seemingly dispensed with its own rigorous analysis of who, if any, its enemies might be: the ambiguities and uncertainties of such a process have been jettisoned in favour of a quintessentially neoliberal outsourcing arrangement whereby they are manufactured, prepackaged, and annotated for it within the United States.
Where are the grown-ups? The talk about China and war is dangerous
“So what’s the plan?” asked an investor after I had spoken at the Lonsec Symposium about Australia-China relations. Days earlier, Defence Minister Peter Dutton talked war over the Taiwan Strait. His former department head said our “warriors” were ready to go fight. The Foreign Affairs Minister announced she was tearing up two anodyne memorandums of understanding between Victoria and China over the Belt and Road instead of letting them gather mould in Daniel Andrews’ cabinet.
Don Dunstan: The visionary politician who changed Australia
Biography Reviewed by Christina Slade • Don Dunstan: The visionary politician who changed Australia by Angela Woollacott Allen & Unwin, $32.99 pb, 344 pp, 9781760631819 Biography Reviewed by Christina Slade • Don Dunstan tended to divide those around him, even his parents. His father, Viv, moved from Adelaide to become a company man in Fiji.
BOB CARR. Real diplomacy could have avoided China's coal revenge (Australian Financial Review, 3 April 2019)
The ban on Huawei itself isn’t the problem, but the way that some arms of the government rubbed China’s face in it. Opinion has firmed that Beijing’s restrictions on Australian coal are intended to send a message. Imposed in December the restrictions are seeing coking coal from Australia fall 21 per cent while imports of Mongolian coal rose 47 per cent. It’s wiped billions of dollars off mining stocks.
Premiers, Population and the Politics of Fear
TONY JONES: Good evening and welcome to Q&A. Answering your questions tonight, the longest serving Labor premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr; Israeli-born communication consultant Shimrit Nothman; the national director of GetUp, Simon Sheikh; the Shadow Minister for Immigration, Scott Morrison; and the chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, Heather Ridout. Please welcome our panel.
Poem by Bob Carr
Opioid By Bob Carr A top shelf bourbon a fused stack of spine the Vicodin sticks in my throat going down on my back I listen for that sparkler sizzle a bloom at the center of my chest lit from inside I walk the room for seconds thirds a sticking swallow of gold chrysanthemum as I settle in a boom the bedsheets float sleep through echos of a throbbing hangnail Bob Carr is the author of Amaranth, published by Indolent Books.
Get-tough rhetoric has denied us any sway with Beijing
By Bob Carr Note: This article appeared in The Australian Financial Review on July 10 2018. As foreign minister I recall an irritating flare-up in our relations with one of the Pacific states. There had been a ‘misunderstanding’ at Sydney airport that upset the island state’s prime minister. The anger ran strong and the state contemplated a big anti-Australian gesture: terminating an arrangement under which we trained their police. And, here’s the rub, inviting China to fill the gap.
The Neville Wran I knew
He gave a lot away in a talk when I was stumbling in my first years as Premier. We stood in the sun at Greenwich to witness harbourside land being handed over for public park, one of his pet enthusiasms. He looked at the crowd and gave me advice: “They’re all happy … that’s the secret. Just give them what they want – it’s easy.” Later he said “Think about that day at Greenwich. Sure they’re never satisfied but who cares?
Seven steps to tame fears over China
Sooner or later Canberra is going to decide to reset its relationship with Beijing. In one year, or in five. Here are seven things that can make it possible. One, drop the stridency. Joe Hockey referred last week to China threatening what Australians 'fought and died for'. In truth, China’s resistance to Japanese invasion from 1937 stands with the Russian resistance to the Nazis as the biggest narrative out of World War II.
Costello and the Future Fund
It was Carr, not Costello who was the daddy of the future funds —by Michael Egan* Penny Wong’s claim that Peter Costello had “many qualities” had me scratching my head until I remembered that not all qualities are positive. I dealt with Mr Costello many times during the ten years I was Treasurer of New South Wales.
BOC to collaborate with CSIRO on revolutionary $3.4m hydrogen project
Sydney, 22 August 2017: BOC, a member of The Linde Group, one of the world’s leading gases and engineering companies, will support CSIRO during its $3.4 million ammonia to hydrogen cracking and membrane purification project that is set to revolutionise the global supply chain for hydrogen.
The genius of the UN’s resolution on Israeli settlements
In 1967 Israel won control of the West Bank as a result of its success in the Six Day War. Its then prime minister Levi Eshkol wanted to consolidate control by planting settlements on the occupied territory. He asked Theodor Meron , his chief legal adviser, whether this would be legal. No, said Meron. The Geneva Convention says no nation may settle its own population on land it wins in war. Meron is alive today, an eminent international jurist. He says he was right then and is right now.
No nostalgia for Mao in the Australian-Chinese community
No sweeter duty for a Premier. A convention centre packed with families, their youngsters being praised as the highest achievers in the end-of-school exams. A happy annual ritual. Looking back, one thing stands out about the annual awards for young scholars: the steady rise, in my years, in the number of students with Chinese names (and those with Indian and Vietnamese names). According to the latest ABS data there are 481,800 Australians born in China, plus their sons and daughters.
Expulsion of Syrian Chargé d’Affaires
June 2, 2012 11:19 pm Dear Mr Carr, Your responses to points made to critics above display a lack of knowledge of the complexity of the situation in Syria and the lengths the ‘enemies’ of Syria will go to in order to destroy what they see as a ‘heretical regime’. What has been missing in the Australian media (and your comments) is a thorough discussion of many elements contributing to the crisis. For example: 1. The role of Saudi Arabia. Why does it want to destroy Syria?
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