All Articles
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Legal responses to gendered violence in Australia
How do we address community concern about increasingly high rates of male violence towards women in Australia? Continue reading »
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Are America’s right and left converging on foreign policy?
The interview of Jeffrey Sachs, a Social Progressive, by Tucker Carlson, a Social Conservative, makes riveting viewing since its an insight to where the polar enemies of American politics may be converging on their big picture view of US foreign policy. Continue reading »
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Mismanagement of Australia’s monetary system
I submit that the current Australian monetary policies are not in the best interests of the population. Continue reading »
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Giving Medicare teeth is a chance to fix its flaws
Doctors tried to stop it at first, but half a century later Medicare is an untouchable brand in Australian healthcare and politics. While we’re lucky to have it, Medicare isn’t perfect. Expanding it to cover dental care is long overdue, but that shouldn’t mean repeating Medicare’s mistakes. Continue reading »
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Environment: Optimistic predictions for the energy transition
Renewable energy and its applications are pushing fossil fuels out of business – but will it be fast enough? Climate scientists are encouraged to be more vocal to stave off a ghastly future. Continue reading »
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Lock ’em up, or maybe not
Incarceration is widely seen as the ultimate penalty (short of execution), and so, serious, and not-so-serious, offences are measured by the extent of the jail term. The question is, does that achieve the aims of the criminal justice system? Is incarceration a deterrent, and does it reduce the risk of re-offending? The answer provided by Continue reading »
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The mistaken conventional wisdom about nuclear energy
Recently, three articles have appeared in P&I about nuclear energy, one by Richard Broinowski on 29 August, one by Jim Coombs on 2 September, and a third by Joseph G. Davis on 3 September. All of them are negative about nuclear energy. The negativity in each case is driven by a fundamentally mistaken but widespread Continue reading »
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Collaboration across government levels is essential to progress
John Menadue’s suggestion that Greens and Independents need to start thinking about their “bottom line” in preparation for a minority Labor Government is excellent. A key area for progress is collaboration across government levels. Despite talk for years and federal/state meetings, not much progress has occurred. In order to do better we need to look Continue reading »
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Albanese has a second chance with AUKUS
Australia is to spend mind-boggling money to weaken its own security. Minister RIchard Marles has released a National Defence Strategy which centres on what he calls “projection”. That is, Australian forces threatening China from China’s surrounding waters. The Albanese Government’s defence policy manufactures grievous risk for Australia. That risk must be understood by the government. Continue reading »
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A wave of censorship – Israel is the last collapsing rampart of ‘Western civilisation’
Israel was created as a rampart of “Western civilisation” in the barbarous east, but now the rampart is at risk of being overwhelmed. Continue reading »
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ABC’s belated reporting on 7 Oct helps justify genocide
Mick Hall analyses an Australian Broadcasting Corporation story — 11 months into a genocide — on the Israeli military’s use of the Hannibal Directive to kill its own citizens. Continue reading »
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Private equity bares its tactics in private healthcare shakedown
An article published in the Medical Journal of Australia earlier this year points to increased private equity (PE) activity in Australian healthcare, conservatively estimating A$4.5 billion in acquisitions across general practice and selected specialties in 2022 alone. The paper refrains from extensive commentary on the drivers and implications of this trend. However, it points to Continue reading »
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A foul formula: Zionism x Appeasement = Genocide
The capitulation by seemingly intelligent and decent-minded national leaders to the Holocaust Industry’s relentless campaign to validate any action by Israel in the current conflict in Palestine is seriously affecting the political landscape. It seems that the leaders of “the Western World” have learned nothing from nearly a century of calamitous events. Continue reading »
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The defence of self-defence
The self-defence trope used to characterise Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza Continue reading »
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In a wheel chair to the peripheries
Eighty-seven-year-old Pope Francis’ trip to Indonesia, Papua-New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore shows he’s not slowing up. Continue reading »
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Desperate junta even more brutal – Asian Media Report
In Asia media this week: Myanmar recalls retired veterans. Plus: Race starts for Japan’s new PM; US Gaza stance an obstacle for AUKUS; Kolkata protests over gruesome rape-murder; China-Africa summit strengthens South-South ties; Pope’s Indonesia visit contradicts ‘clash of civilisations’. Continue reading »
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Population growth, capitalism, the environment and context
As Andrew Taylor and Supriya Mathew point out in a recent article in P&I, the current indications regarding population growth are that it will shortly begin to decline in the majority of countries during this century and has already done so in the wealthier (first world) countries. This forcefully raises the question of whether this automatically presages Continue reading »
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The cursed stone resists return
In an age of logic and evidence-based reasoning, modern research has revealed a thousand-year curse. It could be stopping the superstitious and spiritually-conscious Javanese from vigorously striving to return a thieved “emblem of Indonesian cultural heritage”. Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
On X today: US Politicians launch a bill against China’s world leading genomics team and Andrew Wilkie addresses arms trade with Israel. Witness the devastation for a 13-year old in Palestine while Palestine takes its permanent seat in the UN General Assembly. Finally, a moment from the US presidential debate – Donald Trump and Kamala Continue reading »
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When should we expect interest rates to fall?
The Reserve Bank has explicitly warned against any expectation that interest rates will start to fall soon. On the other hand, the Treasurer recently claimed that the Reserve Bank is smashing the economy, implying that interest rates should fall soon. Who is right? Continue reading »
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Antisemitism and our universities
In today’s papers the Education Minister Jason Clare announced the decision to appoint a new National Student Ombudsman who will combat anti-Semitism at Australia Universities. He explained that Jewish students “don’t feel safe at university” and that it was obvious that antisemitism was a serious problem at tertiary institutions. Continue reading »
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Avoiding an ‘exclusion’ disaster in the Pacific – a different lesson from Ukraine
The most senior US officials, including President Joe Biden himself, refer to US alliances with individual or groups of countries in the Indo-Pacific as benign and defensive in nature. These references contrast with warnings about the possible “knock-on” effect of a Russian victory in Ukraine which, it is said, could encourage China to seek to Continue reading »
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Palestine defines us
The citizenry of past nations engaged in genocide woke up each morning focused on their challenges of everyday life, not those of the people their rulers were butchering. The victims may have been across continents or within the same population, and so awareness of the slaughter varied, but propaganda and dehumanisation were the ever-present balm Continue reading »
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How long can US lawmakers ignore these images of child carnage in Gaza?
“A healthy conscience can’t simply ignore the mutilated bodies of tens of thousands of dead Palestinian children,” said one human rights activist. Continue reading »
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‘The Bibi Files’: Documentary reveals the police interrogations behind Netanyahu’s graft trial
FRANCE 24 reviews “The Bibi Files”, a new documentary by filmmakers Alexis Bloom and Alex Gibney, which features never-before-seen footage of Israeli police interrogating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his family and his inner circle on corruption allegations. The documentary was screened as a work-in-progress at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival on Monday, hours after a Continue reading »
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Australian wheat and the BRI: The economic geography of the world’s grain trading
The global wheat trade is undergoing a transformation, shaped by geopolitical shifts, strategic investments, and historical legacies. Central to this evolution is China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its expected impact on traditional trade relationships, including those with Australia. Continue reading »
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Why we’re still at war with terror
The talented comic song-writer Tom Lehrer, from a family of secular Jewish New Yorkers, complained during the Vietnam war that nothing was funny any more. He would agree now about the war in Gaza. Continue reading »
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Young people no longer see Labor as the party of protest
The response to a piece I wrote for the SMH/Age recently has been very interesting in a number of ways. It has also been very revealing. I have been called a “dog”, been accused of rewriting history and of “letting the side down”. Every one of the responses had ignored the basic premise of my Continue reading »
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Look at who is running Israel
In a recent significant article in the US journal, Foreign Policy, David E Rosenberg, the economics editor of Haaretz, clarifies how a minority of religious extremists have come to wield so much power in Israel today. It is a chilling, informative read. Continue reading »
