A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media.
On ABC’s Saturday Extra this weekend(in case you missed it):
- 730am Julie Bishop’s legacy as Foreign Minister and the effect of political instability on our global reputation, with Michael Fullilove, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute
- 745am What are the German Foreign Minister’s plans to establish a European monetary fund, not just to circumvent US sanctions against dealing with Iran, but as part of a ‘new western order’, with Sebastian Dullien from the E the European Council on Foreign Relations.805am Royce Kurmelovs is the author of a new book, Boom and Bust, about the long-term effects of the mining boom on everyday Australians.
- 820am Panel discussion recorded at the ABC on how we go about building a constructive relationship with China that serves both countries adequately. Jason Yat-Sen Li, Chairman of Vantage Asia Holdings, Richard McGregor, Senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute, Jocelyn Chey, former Consul-General for Australia in Hong Kong and Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University, Canberra.
- 845am Thirty years as an incidental tourist with Peter Doherty, Nobel Prize Winner and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne and author of The Incidental Tourist.
Other commentary
“A man of faith is again leading the country, but what will that mean?” John Warhurst’s article in the Fairfax papers looks at how Morrison’s Pentecostal faith may have shaped his political ideas: Pentecostalism is a growing religious movement in Australia. On the same subject the ABC’s Religion and Ethics Reporthas a short program “The Pentecostal Prime Minister”. In an earlier articlein Eureka Street, Warhurst pointed out that in earlier times those prime ministers who had religious conviction were of Catholic, Anglican or traditional Protestant affiliation.
Still on the matter of religion in politics, “Christian PM should have a heart for climate” writes Cristy Clark in Eureka Street.
The Productivity Commission has produced a research paper “Rising inequality? A stocktake of the evidence.”. It finds that by indicators of income, wealth and social mobility, inequality has widened over the last thirty years, but that widening has been modest. Unsurprisingly some commentators have used the paper to back their assertion that inequality is not a problem in Australia. But the paper needs to be read carefully, with attention to base years (the late 1980s were the peak of a boom), to international comparisons (we compare well with the US and UK, but not with the Nordic countries) and to the experiences of particular groups – particularly the gap between the young and the old.
There is an amount of hype of the possible shocks of technological change, but the reality is different. “Slow change can cause the biggest disruption” is the strong message from a report “Disruptive innovation: Ten more things to stop and think about”, compiled by the Citi. Each of its chapters covers technologies that are already in place such as 5G networks and solid-state batteries, but which are yet to transform our economies. And each chapter makes an informed guess about who will be the winners and losers.
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