Elaine Stead’s 2025 wrap – the good, the bad, the banned and the menopausal

It’s almost too daunting a task to summarise a year that could be best represented by this…..

If there is an image that can truly sum up this year full of chaos, violence, war and fragile peace, technological advances and the associated existential threats, where democracy is under threat and the divide seems to grow wider between the haves and have nots, between those in power and those and those they are supposed to represent; it is this image of thousands lining up to donate blood that illustrates our shared sense of humanity and that the selfless acts of many will prevail to those who wish to chip away at our freedom, our peace and our cvilisation.

That despite it all, we choose optimism over defeatism.

But alas, we must summarise the year, because documenting it feels like a requirement to process it and recover from it. So, as a teacher once said to me, the only way to eat the elephant is one bite at a time (and yes, I did question why we were eating elephants), I’m going to break it down into a few categories of note.

Worst Of Australian Politics

• The continued legal pursuit of Brittany Higgins by Linda Reynolds. Honestly, now that a workplace rape victim, and her now husband, have been forced into financial bankruptcy, have we reached the end? Can she now be left to finally get on with her life?

• The consequence free zone of Robodebt — where literally no-one except the victims of this traumatic scheme have ever faced any consequences. This year the government paid a $475m class action compensation package which averaged out to just over $1000 per victim. It should be one of the greatest stains on the Liberal government of the day the presided over the scheme, that while the utter cruelty was laid open for all to witness its fetid wound and people lost their lives as a result, there has been no actual consequences for those who perpetrated it. I thoroughly recommend watching the SBS documentary into the whole affair, which will make you angry, devastated and angry again.

Best Of Australian Politics

• The 2025 election, where the Australian people voted out the fossilised Liberals (see above) and Labor won more seats than they ever expected.
• Albanese managed to appease Trump with his dignity intact (something that can’t be said for some others if you continue reading), although we still don’t really know what the critical minerals deal involves and whether this will put future generations sovereign wealth at risk.

• Frankly, this year has reminded me that, the fact Australia has compulsory voting and preferential voting, remains the greatest possible defence against authoritariansim.

Worst Of International Politics

This is a tough category to keep to the lowlights, but I like a challenge so I’ll give it a go…

• The removal of USAID — a small but remarkably efficient aid program that saved 92 million lives globally between 2001 and 2025, creating significant political goodwill for the United States, by an entrepreneur with no experience or understanding of international aid or diplomacy, while mainlining ketamine, impregnating women en masse, directing a team of teenagers including one who referred to himself as ‘bigballs’ and performatively operating chainsaws on a stage to gain adulation from his adolescent fanbois.

• The militarisation of U.S. cities for no reason whatsoever except as a likely trojan horse to install federal ‘police’ for a future insurrection/refusing to concede a peaceful transition of power. The persistent images and reports of ICE agents disappearing people — in the supermajority people who have never committed a crime — and extrajudicial murders of people on boats with no due process has inspired a special type of disgust reflex I never knew I had in me.

• The continued war in Ukraine — with the truly marathon effort of a very tired Ukraine military and government, and the lack of actual ceasfire in Gaza by Israel.

Ukrainian soldier Iryna, prepares an FPV drone to fire towards Russian positions in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photo: AP/Iryna Rybakova/Ukrainian 93rd Mechanized brigade

• The obvious and contemptable cover-up of the Epstein Files, being perpetrated by the current US administration. The world found out years ago with the Sandy Hook massacre and the country’s inability to introduce rational gun regulation that American government doesnt really care about its children and their safety. This whole saga has put an excalamation point at the end of that sentence.

Best Of International Politics

• The election of Mark Carney to the Prime Ministership of Canada. With approval ratings a couple weeks ago that Trump could only dream about, as we say in Australia, you love to see it.
• The continued David and Goliath defence by Ukraine against Russia and the stepping up of Europe as a cohesive force to protect democracy in the West. Anyone who made a passing study of WW2 must understand the reasons for and the consequences of this war and the alliance.

Worst Of Personal Life

• As a general umbrella term, health has been a shitshow this year— from family illnesses and existential threats to my beloved dog passing away, I also had a breast cancer and a lung cancer scare. All while sleeping about half the hours a human normally needs this year due to menopause kicking my ass.

Best Of Personal Life

• Firstly, despite the scares above, I am still alive. So there’s that. As I tell the companies I invest in, the first rule of startups is ………‘survive’. And so I am grateful to be here.

Best of Australian Tech

• Australia’s world first introduction of social media regulation for children under 16 will be an important precedent globally. Firstly, it recognises, formally, the harm that social media imposes and amplifies on children. Second, I hope this will be the beginning of a reckoning of sorts for social media giants who have not just been indifferent to child safety, but have encouraged child harm by actively refusing to regulate their product, and suppressing evidence that shows the harm they cause. I know the kids will always find a way around bans like this, but if this does anything to start the conversation about the real effects of social media — either between kids, between kids and their parents — or puts pressure on companies to actually be better, then it will not be in vain.

Worst of Australian Tech

• AI being used to dial-in deliverables rather than supercharge them. The Deloitte report fiasco shows that when given literal magic — “any sufficiently advanced technology should be indistinguisable from magic” — humans will not by and large use it to create more magic but rather, use it to cheat on their homework. Imagine what will happen when there are better applications of AI than asking it to make it look like something you can charge half a million bucks for…..
• The Cut Through Venture report showed that female founder only and mixed founder teams raise only 11% of capital this most recent quarter. Said another way, this means 89% of capital is going to all male entrepreneurs and founder teans. The exclamation point on this dataset was Aussie company Culture Amp explaining its changing product thusly: “Two years ago, a lot of people were coming to Culture Amp to do more progressive things. Now they’re saying, ‘I don’t care about DEI — I need to focus on the performance of my people. I need a culture of accountability.” The take home message of this of course, is that there is still a pervasive view from the broader market that the current status quo is a meritocracy.

Worst Of International Tech

• The genuflection of tech titans in exchange for proximity to Presidential power including the funding of the ‘ballroom’ and other exchanges for Dog-knows-what. It is worth stating here that the Whitehouse was originally built in an intentionally modest fashion precisely as a rebuke to Kings and the grand palaces of European monarchs, reflecting the values of the new American republic which prized citizenship over aristocracy. The Founding Fathers wanted the building to command respect but avoid the opulent, gilded styles associated with royalty.

• While some may argue obtaining favourable outcomes for their shareholders, by whatever means possible, is their fiduciary duty, I would argue executives who put monetary shareholder value above everything else the company, its employees, its customers and its shareholders might value, shows a stunning absence of vetebral structure and the intellectual laziness of a goldfish.

But maybe that’s just me.

Best Of International Tech

• Look, I know it’s almost impossible to nominate anything except AI or AI related technologies…..but despite its indisputable potential, I still don’t think the killer use case has been realised yet. It will happen though.
• So, I’m going to go with the potential cure of genetic diseases with technologies like CRISPR…….showing that genetic mistakes have the potential to be cured, forever. If the early trials show the offending genes (like those that cause Huntingtons) have indeed been fixed, my friends this will be game changing for all sorts of diseases.

Worst of Australian Culture

• The mass murder of beautiful, ordinary people trying to celebrate Chanukah and enjoy their families and friends. While I don’t think this is generally reflective of Australia’s culture or what we want it to be, we cannot deny it is now part of it. Scott Galloway said on his podcast recently that its been 27 years since Australia’s last mass shooting, while in contrast America has one every 27 hours. The fact that it is such an anomaly is why it is so traumatic, because we aren’t numb to it yet. We haven’t made peace with it as a daily occurence. Radicalisation and hate is not new, but in Australia, we refuse to make it easy for those people to infict harm on multiples of others. Instead what the last week has shown is we will use it to come together, not divide us further.

Best of Australian Culture

• The remarkable heroism of those at Bondi beach a week ago which has been covered at length here, here and here.

The picture above I find remarkable, not just because of the sheer bravery. But from a visual storytelling perspective, the gunman and the wonderful hero Ahmed Al Ahmed are wearing the same basic clothing — T shirt and trackpants in the same colours — we are all just humans with the capacity for both good and evil within us. Yet one is fighting for evil (black over his heart), and one for good (white over his heart).

• The subsequent paddle out onto Bondi beach to memorialise the victims and the mass mourning on Sunday where thousands gathered.

Bondi a week later: Photo: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

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Happy holidays to all, may you have a peaceful and reflective break and see you all next year, where I hope 2026 will see a little less of the curse of “may you live in interesting times” and a little more of Winston Churchill’s “Civilisation will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them”.