Writer
Bob Carr
Bob Carr is a former Premier of New South Wales (1995–2005), a former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (2012–2013) and the former Director of the Australia–China Relations Institute, the University of Technology Sydney (2014–2019).
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We’ve long said no to US. A yes now could be nuclear
It’s Parliament House, Canberra, on a Sunday afternoon. There is a meeting of the national security committee of cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, about a crisis in the Taiwan Strait, where the US and China are in air and naval combat. There’s an inflection point when someone – a minister or the PM Continue reading »
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The one hope for peace in the West Bank
Last Thursday, the Australian government condemned Israel for planting more settlements on the occupied West Bank: 10,000 extra units. It’s a big step to criticise Israel because in Australia its organised friends are a powerful lobby. But this was a huge breach of international law. And, as Penny Wong pointed out, a deliberate blow to Continue reading »
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Bob Carr – Keep the peace between China and the US: our goal
If there is conflict between the US and China this is how things might go- a crisis meeting of the Australian cabinet with a resigned air and desultory exchanges, until someone – defence minister or prime minister – says something like, “Well, there’s no alternative, is there?” Continue reading »
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Australia can safely improve its relations with China. Here’s how
In 2012, the then-prime minister of Vanuatu Sato Kilman, was passing through Sydney Airport. Without warning, the Australian Federal Police swooped and arrested his Australian secretary on charges of tax evasion. Kilman was furious a staffer had been “kidnapped” and, back in Port Vila, threatened to tear up the agreement under which Australia trained his Continue reading »
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If Albanese asks for Assange’s freedom, Biden has every reason to agree: Bob Carr
Two years ago at my local ALP branch, I moved a motion urging the party to support dropping extradition proceedings against Julian Assange. Maroubra ALP is not inner city. It might be regarded as a bastion of the right. The motion was carried, near unanimously. After the debate, one member came up and said: “I Continue reading »
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Is criticism of Israeli settlement policy anti-Semitic? Israeli nationalists insist it is
Calling out China for its persecution of Uighurs is not to be a Sinophobic racist. Calling out Myanmar for its crimes against Rohingya people is not to be anti-Buddhist. Calling out Saudi Arabia and Egypt for their murder and suppression of dissidents is not to be Islamophobic or anti-Arab. And calling out Israel for its Continue reading »
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The Israeli lobby and Labor
In 2021, Australian journalist John Lyons published Dateline Jerusalem: Journalism’s Toughest Assignment. It examined the pro-Israel lobby in Australia which I have described as the most powerful foreign influence operation in our country. Lyons quoted Chris Mitchell, the long time editor of The Australian, saying that the Israel lobby became more right-wing after the 2003 Continue reading »
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On back of urgency on climate, Australia is tipping centre-left
The American Civil War had more than one cause. But it would not have happened without slavery. Saturday’s route of Scott Morrison’s Liberals has several explanations but would not have happened without climate. Continue reading »
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I oppose Israel boycott, but laws against it are classic overreach
Anti-BDS laws would make Israel the only nation protected under Australian statute from this kind of criticism and penalise innocent Australians. Continue reading »
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The one word that will stop sleepwalking our way to war over Taiwan.
Are we sleepwalking our way to war? Australia should be reminding China and the US that it’s vital to avoid conflict over Taiwan. Continue reading »
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‘We share your alarm’ about climate change: Former PMs’ letter to Pacific leaders
Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull and Bob Carr have written to Pacific leaders to apologise for Australia’s inaction on climate change. This is their letter. Continue reading »
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Bob Carr: Israel lobby’s overreach far exceeded any other diaspora community
For casting light on the savage lobbying the Australian media — and politicians — receive from the Israel lobby, John Lyons should be congratulated. Continue reading »
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Whitlam confirmed ‘great man’ theory
If someone had said at the start of the year I would be going to China, Gough Whitlam’s aide Graham Freudenberg recalled, I would have said going to the moon would be more likely. Continue reading »
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Where are the grown-ups? The talk about China and war is dangerous
“So what’s the plan?” asked an investor after I had spoken at the Lonsec Symposium about Australia-China relations. Days earlier, Defence Minister Peter Dutton talked war over the Taiwan Strait. His former department head said our “warriors” were ready to go fight. Continue reading »
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America’s silo society has to face its racial demons
In past upheavals, Americans at least all shared the same news. Now there is an apartheid of the national spirit that is creating deeper divisions than ever…If people were given the choice between democracy and whiteness, how many would choose whiteness? Continue reading »
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World leaders deserve to know about Australia’s abysmal climate change policy, so I wrote to them
Australia’s leaders are playing with climate policy, pitching a nationalist and populist message to their base. Continue reading »
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The US electoral system is a shambles. They could learn a lot from Australia. (The Guardian Oct 29, 2020)
Systemic voter suppression and rules still being set for an election within days – this is American exceptionalism. Continue reading »
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There’s an essential starting point for grasping the crisis engulfing US politics
In the 50s the head of CIA counterintelligence James Angleton said Russian stratagems were like “a wilderness of mirrors”. The same phrase captures the maze of the US constitutional and electoral system, a wilderness of mirrors that can warp, even falsify, the choice of voters on November 3. Continue reading »
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How Australia’s climate policy fell victim to the conservatives (SMH Sep 11, 2020)
It took one lunch with George W. Bush in 2001 for John Howard to agree to dropping ratification of Kyoto, without a word to his ministers. We became the president’s closest friend in resisting climate change. Continue reading »
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Joe Biden’s bold climate policies would leave Australia behind (The Guardian Sep 2, 2020)
Australia may be sailing perilously close to being cast by Biden’s team with other climate resisters Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Continue reading »
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Sinking billions of taxpayer dollars into gas would make Australia an international pariah (The Guardian, August 21 2020)
The Morrison government’s post-Covid recovery commission has called for an astonishing level of support for a declining carbon fuel. Continue reading »
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Coalition toes party line between US and China (SMH, 3 August 2020)
“Don’t sell your soul for a pile of soybeans,” warned US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a year ago, when Australian foreign affairs and defence ministers met their United States counterparts. Continue reading »
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We now know gas is far from the clean fuel it’s claimed to be (SMH 16.7.20)
Australia’s recovery will be driven by gas says the prime minister. A task force headed by Andrew Liveris- a business figure with career doused in carbon- recommends subsidies to ramp up the industry. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Hidden Reality of Australia-China Relations
The best reading on the state of Australia-China relations is in documents we can’t see. That is, in the cables sent from Canberra to their capitals by ambassadors of Asian nations. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. While the world looked the other way, corporate giants abandoned coal (SMH 15.5.20)
Can we deal with a pandemic and global warming at once – both urgent, one an immediate hit, the other a decade-long burn? Well, yes, because – even with front pages dominated by COVID-19 – last month saw an astonishing concentration of decisions by international corporates to ditch carbon. And they slipped by, with the Continue reading »
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BOB CARR supports Pearls and Irritations.
Pearls & Irritations is unique, indispensable, provocative and refreshing. It really does make a difference. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Erratic US Pacific policy is leaving Australia stranded (Australian Financial Review 8-11-19)
The Canberra hawks hope that our tough stance on China will encourage US resolve. But that underestimates the flightiness of Donald Trump. Continue reading »
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Vale Paul Francis Patrick Whelan
Bob Carr Tribute to Paul Whelan October 31, 2019. Former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr paid tribute to his Police Minister Paul Whelan for his achievement in implementing the Wood Royal Commission recommendations to reform policing in NSW. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Abandoning the Kurds confirms Asia’s view that US power is waning (SMH 9.10.2019)
The Syrian Kurds were more than allies. They were a US client, recruited by the Obama administration for house-to-house combat against the Islamic State caliphate. This America, however, cares little for core relationships and sweeps them aside. The decision shatters the US reputation in Arab states already doubting the reliability of Trump’s pro-Sunni gestures. But Continue reading »
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THE HON BOB CARR. Tribute to Graham Freudenberg.
The speech arrived on the Premier’s desk already clipped into the black leather folder. Did my staff realise that coming from the pen of the master and being a speech of welcome to a US President I would be disinclined to change a word? If so, their instincts were right. Two weeks after Bill Clinton Continue reading »
