Writer
Andrew Farran
Andrew Farran in his younger days was a diplomat, Commonwealth civil servant and law academic (Monash). His subsequent business interests included international trade, intellectual property and publishing, and wool growing. He was a regular contributor to Pearls & Irritations from 2017 – 2020. Writes extensively on international affairs and defence, contributing previously to major newspapers (metropolitan and rural). Formerly director of major professional publishing company; now of a major wool growing enterprise.
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ANDREW FARRAN. The fog of the Irish Sea still overhangs Brexit.
The House of Commons vote on 12th June has saved Prime Minister May for another day but has also left open the role Parliament might play in the outcome of the EU negotiations. A (definitive) White Paper on Britain’s negotiating terms can be expected after the European Economic Summit meets later this month. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Parliamentary report on Section 44: Despite serious democratic deficit, referendum can wait!
There could be no clearer case for an early referendum than the fact that over half of all Australians today have barriers to nomination under s.44. In practice, the Report states, some may never be able to overcome these barriers and nominate. Indeed, 10,779,230 people (46% of the population) were born overseas or have one Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Brexit: Crashing out a real possibility
The Brexiters deeply distrust the motives of the Remainers who are seeking ways and means of frustrating the process of withdrawal as exampled by the House of Lords’ actions recently requiring that the final draft agreement be submitted to Parliament for its approval and if not approved, that the government be directed to reopen negotiations. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Stalemate and Lawlessness over Syria.
On ABC News Radio (Monday 16th April) Paul Barrett, a former Deputy Secretary of DFAT and former Secretary of the Department of Defence was asked in an interview whether the military actions over the past weekend in Syria by the United States, the UK and France were legal in both international and domestic law. He Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Parliamentary inquiry on proposal for a Bipartisan Defence Agreement to govern future procurements.
Currently the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade is inquiring into the benefits and risks of a Bipartisan Australian Defence Agreement, as a basis of planning for, and funding of, Australian Defence capability. A comment on this reference by Richard Tanter, based on his submission to the Standing Committee, was posted Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. The Brexit withdrawal agreement for the transition tabled
The Brexit negotiators have produced a lengthy and complex draft agreement to provide for all procedural aspects of Britain’s withdrawal over the transitional period. It is concerned to preserve acquired individual rights and to enable the institutions (including judicial and law enforcement institutions) to operate effectively meanwhile. The substantive issue of Britain’s trade and ‘community’ Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. The ASEAN Summit – lots of hyperbole and some successes
While the ASEAN summit was a public relations success it demonstrated to all that the only common factor in the group is that they belong to the one region. If tensions with China were to increase it might not last long as a group. With unresolved ethno-nationalist issues at play we cannot expect much change Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Brexit: How to get it done!
According to a leaked Treasury document, which the Remainers claim was fiddled, the UK would be worse off in any alternative trading arrangement to the present – varying from two to eight percent of GDP over the next 15 years; and that none of the possible third country alternatives, including with the US and Australia, Continue reading »
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The ‘hidden state’ behind the latest batch of repressive legislation
From the back-reaches of the ‘hidden state’ has come this latest batch of suppressive legislation ostensibly to protect our secrets and to counter surreptitious foreign influences. Instead it will facilitate yet again the tendency of Australian governments to commit to overseas military adventures, sometimes illegally, without proper Parliamentary consideration and pubic approval. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. A hard or soft Brexit. More likely Black and White
Letter from London Britain finds itself trapped like a fish with no way out other than capitulation to the best terms it can get – in relation to which the remaining 27 EU members have the upper hand. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. India riding roughshod in commodities trade.
India’s decision on 21 December to slap overnight a 30% tariff increase on Australian imports of lentils and chick peas is just not what a stable, orderly trade system needs. But even so, do we need another discriminatory bilateral so-called ‘free trade’ agreement with yet another country (India) when all these taken together are a Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. The Iranian demonstrations.
There are few signs that the country is yet a tinder box for a counter-revolution requiring just a spark to set it off. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. An alternative perspective for a realistic defence policy for Australia
In defence terms how do we operate in a region where China will by 2030 have a GDP 25 times greater than ours and whose current military expenditure is already 25 times greater, when the US will be concentrating increasingly on issues of its own elsewhere? Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Eternal vigilance or eternal military deployments?
Prime Minister Turnbull recently visited the Philippines to attend regional economic and trade talks attended also by US President Trump. Given the presence of both, what do we know about their commitment of military assistance to their host, President Duterte of the Philippines, to ‘contain’ insurgency in that country? Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Parliamentary eligibility – did the High Court get it wrong? (Part 2)
Prime Minister Turnbull now asserts that the onus is on individual Parliamentarians to prove their non-dual citizenship status (a status that previously did not disqualify). How can the onus of proof be put on them when that determination may be in the hands of an external authority? Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Parliamentary eligibility – did the High Court get it wrong?
The response to the High Court’s decision in the Parliamentarians eligibility case has been largely uncritical and disappointing. While Section 44 (i) of the Constitution allows for a simplistic literal interpretation the Court’s failure to transpose that provision into the social and political context of the present day, and have better regard for its historical Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Middle East World Cup – match schedule unravelling – a report.
The Middle East World Cup should be advancing towards the Finals but the match schedule is in disarray due to disqualifications and suspensions. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Trump is being reckless with the Iranian nuclear deal
President Trump’s decision this past weekend to de-certify the nuclear deal with Iran displays a recklessness almost on a par with his apparent readiness to vaporise North Korea with nuclear bombs. He is in error in citing non-nuclear aspects of the Iranian government as bearing on the agreement. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN: Korea – could nuclear war come out of clear blue sky?
A decision about joining in the Korean conflict at any point could be the most critical war decision ever taken by Australia. Parliament should be allowed the time to take it. Whatever, the decision must not be taken by the Executive alone [Editorial in the Bulletin of Australians for War Powers Reform (Issue #55 of Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Not the time to deny natural justice to the Kurds.
Will the revived march of the Kurds for an independent homeland be the time when the Sykes-Picot agreement, which amidst the chaos of the First World War divided the Arab world between British and French influence and control, becomes finally unstuck? Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. After North Korea: breakdown of regional non-proliferation?
“The existence of a nuclear threat is not sufficient reason to go nuclear; if it were [these Asian states] would have nuclear arms by now. In each case, the reliability of the US security commitment is the dominant variable”. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. The Korean impasse: transformed geo-politics.
While in recent weeks North East Asia has been on the edge of a precipice, the likelihood is that the military stalemate will grind on indefinitely. A decisive act by any of the principal parties would lead all into negative territory. Only an unlikely unilateral move by Kim Jong-un to abandon his nuclear/missile ambitions would Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. SAS Special Forces to the Philippines – Useful tactical move or first step on another escalator?
Reports that ISIS is relocating to the Philippines following defeats in Iraq and Syria have raised concerns about its possible spread elsewhere the region. The Australian government has offered support to the Philippines, but it should think more deeply before it slides into a conflict that develops into something it can’t control Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. We should discuss Pine Gap!
Whether the leaked documents from the US National Security Agency were revealing, as claimed by the ABC’s Background Briefing on Sunday morning (http://ab.co/2vSXdhD), enough has been known about the Pine Gap facility long enough for some searching questions about its accountability to be well overdue. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. John Howard and the Coalition’s views on war powers could lead to conflict in South China Sea
Recent comments by former Prime Minister John Howard is indicative of just how easily conflict situations can engage quickly and end badly in the hands of a ‘strong’ Prime Minister who takes the Howard view that the Executive alone has an unchecked power to commit to war. As Howard’s view on the ‘war powers’ is Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Afghanistan in the wake of the Pakistan Prime Minister’s dismissal
President Trump must decide soon whether the US should remain in a holding pattern in Afghanistan. As Trump has little personal skin in the war to this point he may decide that enough is enough leaving everyone to ponder what it was all about. Is the recent dismissal of the Pakistani Prime Minister a further Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. The Fall of Mosul and Raqqa opens the door for Australia’s exit from the Middle East
Now that ISIS has for all intents and purposes been driven out of Mosul and Raqqa the time has come for the Australian government to step back and review its diplomatic policies, and military commitments, in that region and focus back on the region of primary concern: East and Southeast Asia and the Southern Pacific. Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Apparently all not well among our elite Forces
It appears that all is not well between and among our elite military forces, and between them and their hierarchies above, possibly right up to the government itself. After all it is the government that has committed these elites into battle situations leading to allegations of unlawful killings of civilians, in this case in Afghanistan Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Britain and Brexit: The Starting Pistol Fires!
No amount of political pressure from the EU would force Britain to accept a package it doesn’t want, and vice versa. A closure without agreement because of the Article 50 deadline would be an ‘own goal’ for all parties. Yet we may be seeing another replay of familiar European conflict themes, a century after these Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. More troops to Afghanistan: at best a patch job; at worst perpetuating futility
Whereas economic globalisation might seem for a time to be on the wane, in the military sphere globalisation is on the rise. Regional alliances are being transformed into global alliances. ANZUS has been merged de facto into NATO, and where NATO is persuaded to go so shall we. Australia has been involved in Middle East Continue reading »