Peter Bain

22 April 2026 6.1 MINS A turbulent flight over Bass Strait becomes a meditation on fate, fear, and providence — exploring what Christian faith offers when control disappears, and danger feels very real. The air over Bass Strait had that unsettled feel that resists description until you are already inside it. Late on a Sunday night, my two youngest daughters and I boarded a small plane out of Devonport, tired and ready to be home after a family break in Tasmania. The cabin felt ordinary enough.

Australia has been here before. Time and again, the country has stumbled upon extraordinary good fortune – gold in the 19th Century, wool, then iron ore, coal and gas in the 20th and 21st Centuries – and time and again it has struggled to turn those booms into lasting national strength. Wealth has arrived quickly, been spent freely, and then faded. The harder work of converting temporary bounty into enduring capability has too often been left undone.

Australia is right to be alarmed by the resurgence of antisemitism. Jewish Australians are facing harassment, intimidation, vandalism, and threats that strike at the heart of a pluralist society. Government action is necessary, but the form that action takes matters as much as its intent.