Writer
Bob Carr
The Hon. 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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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 »
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BOB CARR. Making a multilateral Belt and Road (East Asia Forum)
Between 2012 and 2030, China will add 850 million people to its middle class. This is unprecedented in human history, even exceeding the numbers of the European, North American and Japanese industrial revolutions. It is the biggest rolling back of poverty within any nation. China deserves to be taken seriously and have its international personality assessed Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. The China panic and John Fitzgerald.
In a contribution to Pearls and Irritations published on April 16 I took up a point made by Gareth Evans who argued in March that “in Australia a new form of Sinophobia is emerging.” He said this was one of the reasons Chinese-Australians are underrepresented in senior leadership. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Australia could be the big loser in a US-China trade deal, not that Donald Trump seems to care (South China Morning Post)
Australia sticking its neck out for the US on the issue of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei will not stop America from striking a trade deal with China that could result in Australian exports suffering Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Australians with Chinese origins need to come together.
A new burst of messaging on China Panic has been unleashed by Four Corners and newspapers, again giving the impression that hostile forces are threatening Australia. Last month former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans noted “a new form of Sinophobia is emerging.” He said this is one of the reasons Chinese-Australians are underrepresented in senior Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Real diplomacy could have avoided China’s coal revenge (Australian Financial Review, 3 April 2019)
The ban on Huawei itself isn’t the problem, but the way that some arms of the government rubbed China’s face in it. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Disaffected electorate knows the real score (The Australian, March 18 2019)
Why in a sports-mad nation, with football as an overarching religion divided into different denominations, has the promise of two new stadiums been such a vote loser? Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. NSW state election: time for Gladys Berejiklian to show she cares for environment
If Gladys Berejiklian wants something as much as a day without stadiums, it is one without a mass fish kill. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. The Best of 2018: How the Israeli Lobby operates.
The letter was in the bulging file marked ‘Premier’s Invites’. The invitation was to an annual dinner where a peace prize was presented to a person chosen by the Sydney Peace Foundation at Sydney University. This year they had decided to present the award to Hanan Ashrawi. I knew her from CNN and had been Continue reading »
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Bob Carr replies to China critics (Australian Financial Review, 12.11.18)
That the mob always gets it right is cornerstone wisdom of Australian politics, often confirmed by polling that shows the public’s deeply rooted common sense. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Chinese Australians are the silent minority on foreign policy (Australian Financial Review, 25.10.18)
Imagine the crucial byelection had not been in Wentworth but in another Sydney electorate, Barton. Instead of a 12 per cent Jewish population, it is one with a 34 per cent Chinese population. And imagine that, in the context of this byelection and after lobbying by the Chinese community, the federal government had announced it Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Australians have no interest in joining U.S. cold war against China
Alexander Downer chewed ruminatively on his steak: “If you want a cold war with China, you will get a cold war with China.” Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. How the Israeli Lobby operates.A repost
The letter was in the bulging file marked ‘Premier’s Invites’. The invitation was to an annual dinner where a peace prize was presented to a person chosen by the Sydney Peace Foundation at Sydney University. This year they had decided to present the award to Hanan Ashrawi. I knew her from CNN and had been Continue reading »
