SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

Posted on 18 January 2020

What people in other forums are saying about public policy Continue reading →

Posted in Economy, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

CHRIS DENNIS. A burning country.

Posted on 17 January 2020

Our country hangs its head in shame. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

DAVID SOLOMON.- Morrison’s scary words on deployment of troops..

Posted on 17 January 2020

Although you can no longer believe everything Scott Morrison says, its necessary to take everything he says seriously and examine his utterances carefully – just in case in a particular instance he will follow through on what he has said. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 4 Comments

IAN WEBSTER.- Advocacy is hard going against the alcohol lobby.

Posted on 17 January 2020

It is a loss powerfully felt,but subdued. Not by politicians or the alcohol industry, but by doctors and nurses in the clinics and rehab. centres. The highly respected Michael Thorn has departed from the Foundation for Alcohol  Research and Education(FARE) as the CEO. What is the real story? Continue reading →

Posted in Health | 1 Comment

JOHN TAN. Zuckerberg is right, isn’t he?

Posted on 17 January 2020

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly under intense pressure in the US to curb political advertisements on its pages. Who might be running such a campaign and for what reasons? Perhaps the answer lies in the gap between rhetoric and reality. Continue reading →

Posted in Media, Politics | Leave a comment

KEVIN TOLHURST.- We have already had countless bushfire inquiries (The Conversation 16.1.2020)

Posted on 17 January 2020

As our country battles the most extensive fires of our lifetime, there are increasing calls for a royal commission into the states and territories’ preparedness and the federal government’s response to the disaster. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

GHADA KARMI.- Palestinian Rights.(LRB 5.12.2019)

Posted on 17 January 2020

A Palestinian State-Constantly Dangled, Endlessly Receding

Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs | Leave a comment

RAMESH THAKUR. The half-century miracle of Asian resurgence (Japan Times 6-1-20)

Posted on 17 January 2020

Is Japan Asian? Geographically, this is a silly question. Yet in an age in which identity politics have become increasingly critical, by economic logic, political orientation and geopolitical alliance, Japan is Western. Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, International Affairs | 1 Comment

NOEL TURNBULL. – This is how you do it to appear genuine.

Posted on 17 January 2020

While Scott Morrison was saying it was fortunate no-one had died on Kangaroo Island and forcing people to shake his hand another PM quietly, and without seeking publicity, showed him how he should be behaving. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

PATRICK COCKBURN.-Blundering into War(LRB 2.1.2020)

Posted on 17 January 2020

 What Trump doesn’t know about Iran Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs | 2 Comments

DAVID BENTLEY HART. ‘The Enchantments of Mammon’ (A book review)

Posted on 17 January 2020

Capitalism is the coldest and most stupefying of idolatries: a faith that has forsaken the sacral understanding of creation as something charged with God’s grandeur, flowing from the inexhaustible wellsprings of God’s charity, in favor of an entirely opposed order of sacred attachments Continue reading →

Posted in Religion and Faith | 2 Comments

JON STANFORD: Second rate leadership Part 2 of 3: Defence  

Posted on 16 January 2020

“Australia is now a confident, wealthy nation that has the right to expect its leaders to rise above the second rate.” Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

MACK WILLIAMS. Alliance management ” It’s the elections now…stupid”!

Posted on 16 January 2020

The New Year has confirmed that the US Presidential election cycle is up and running and will pick up speed soon to dominate all forms of political discussion in the US until November. To paraphrase that old American cliché : “ It’s the elections stupid!” Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs | 1 Comment

PETER RODGERS: Human rights in Xinjiang and Gaza.(A Repost 22.10.2019)

Posted on 16 January 2020

US and Australian responses to China’s maltreatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and Israel’s blockade of Gaza reveal glaring double standards. But no worse perhaps than those of many Muslim states hungry for China’s largesse.  Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, International Affairs | 2 Comments

JOHN MENADUE. Our aggressive and violent ally is perpetually at war. An update from 9.8.2019

Posted on 16 January 2020

There is growing concern about Chinese ‘influence’. At the same time we seem unconcerned that we have ceded much of our defence and foreign policy autonomy to the United States. Chinese influence is minor compared with the control that we have ceded to the US and Donald Trump.That US control has  led us to  one disaster after another. Continue reading →

Posted in Defence/Security, International Affairs | 2 Comments

ANDREW FARRAN. Iran: The military track Military from Hybrid war to Denouement

Posted on 16 January 2020

What we are likely to witness, this year or later, is the 4th Iraq War – a process of reorienting the Levant around ideologically and sectarian driven forces and the undoing of the British-French (Sykes-Picot) colonial compact of 1916 (already well and truly undermined). Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

TERRY LAIDLER. Stop the Fires

Posted on 16 January 2020

The old paradigm we used for “fighting” fires has failed. The new paradigm has to be that we decide to “Stop the Fires” and the new question is not how do we contain or manage them or wait them out. It is: “How do we put these fires out?” Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments

MIKE SCRAFTON. How good are Royal Commissions?

Posted on 16 January 2020

Morrison’s call for a Royal Commission on matters related to the bushfires is puzzling. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that it was a thought bubble exuding from the advisors of a Prime Minster under great pressure. For the government there would seem to be little upside. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

RODNEY TIFFEN. The Murdoch Press and the Bushfires

Posted on 15 January 2020

The disastrous summer of bushfires has not been easy for Scott Morrison, but the News Corp newspapers have also had trouble rising to the challenge. Continue reading →

Posted in Media, Politics | 6 Comments

JOHN KERIN: Reform and the ALP

Posted on 15 January 2020

Australia’s oldest political Party, the ALP, is becoming ossified in its structure and totally resistant to reform. It also has many other challenges in representing today’s Australia as a progressive party. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 6 Comments

CAVAN HOGUE. More blessed to give than to receive? Repost from 18.12 2017

Posted on 15 January 2020

Provoking China to score cheap political points domestically does not advance Australian interests. While most Australians would prefer the US domestic political model to the Chinese, we are not going to change the Chinese system and so must learn to live with it. Complaints about Chinese attempts to influence Australian attitudes are naive. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments

NOEL TURNBULL. The Morrison Government tries to get empathetic

Posted on 15 January 2020

The Morrison Government’s is trying a new ploy – one which is beyond even the wildest satirical imagination. It has hired an empathy consultant. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

JAMES LAURENCESON.- China Trade Questions confound Australia’s Indo-Pacific shift.(EAF 5.1.2020)

Posted on 15 January 2020

The ‘Indo-Pacific’, stretching from the eastern Indian Ocean to the Pacific, is the Australian government’s framing of the international environment for its foreign policy. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

GILES PARKINSON.-Coal! Coal! Coal! for Australia, as bushfires and denial greet Olympic year(Reneweconomy 13.1.2020)

Posted on 15 January 2020
Posted in Environment and climate | Leave a comment

MINXIN PEI. Bush’s disastrous Iraq war paved the way for China’s rise. Is Trump about to make the same mistake?(SCMP and Project Syndicate 10.1.2020)

Posted on 15 January 2020

China joined the WTO and grew into an economic giant in the time the US was fixated on fighting al-Qaeda. It’s a lesson Trump appears not to have learned Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Politics | Leave a comment

GREG LATEMORE. Morrison’s Leadership – Some inconvenient truths about authenticity.

Posted on 15 January 2020

Morrison’s Leadership – Inconvenient Truths

Scott Morrison has recently confronted important truths about leadership – your credibility as a leader has to be earned and it is very easy to lose it. Just being confirmed in the position as a leader does not necessarily make that person a leader. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 6 Comments

J.A. DICK. War wisdom

Posted on 15 January 2020

Is it just and moral to assassinate an Iranian General?

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

ABUL RIZVI: Dutton and Pezzullo’s Asylum Seeker Bungle – November Update

Posted on 14 January 2020

David Crowe in the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Dutton’s Department received an average of 77 asylum applications per day in November 2019. That brings the total number of asylum applications in the last five and a half years to well over 100,000. But what is happening to those 100,000 people? Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

JACK WATERFORD.-Pot shots prove poor policy

Posted on 14 January 2020

Must we follow Trump down his Iranian rabbit burrow? Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

JOCELYN CHEY Two Systems One Strait

Posted on 14 January 2020

The re-election of Tsai Ying-wen at the weekend ensures the continuation of the status quo as far as relations between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic across the Strait. Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, International Affairs | Leave a comment