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). Bob Carr was the longest-serving premier of NSW and a federal Labor foreign minister.
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Australia needs to hear its tone of voice in our conversations more than ever
Pearls & Irritations needs support at a critical time and when Australia needs to hear its tone of voice in our conversations more than ever. Continue reading »
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“Fragrant, methane-wrapped bullshit”: NZ should steer clear of AUKUS
I don’t want to appall the diplomats present by using a vulgarism, but Pillar two [of AUKUS] is fragrant methane-wrapped bullshit. Australia and New Zealand are beautifully placed to nurture and defend a different model of relationships between the prevailing power [the US] and the rising power [China]: A different approach from the one that Continue reading »
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Détente: Towards a balance of power between the USA and China
Former Foreign Ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, other former Cabinet Ministers, former State Premiers, a Nobel Laureate, diplomats, writers, academics and human rights advocates are among 50 Australians supporting an appeal to establish détente between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. Continue reading »
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“I told you so”: No Aussie subs in 2030s, total reliance on the Yanks
The sweetest words in the English language: I told you so. Continue reading »
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We must do everything in our power to build a comprehensive new détente between the US and China
We, and our fellow 50 Australian signatories, believe that it is time for the United States and China to enter into a comprehensive new détente, formally pledging to treat each other as mutually respectful equals, to resolve differences peacefully and to work together to advance global and regional goods like nuclear arms control, the mitigation Continue reading »
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Détente: Towards a balance of power between the USA and China
Former Foreign Ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, other former Cabinet Ministers, former State Premiers, a Nobel Laureate, diplomats, writers, academics and human rights advocates are among 50 Australians supporting an appeal to establish détente between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. Continue reading »
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AUKUS consensus is collapsing under weight of Labor blunders
When Anthony Albanese addressed his federal electoral council on July 6 he rebutted criticism of AUKUS by saying Labor governments always have to prove themselves on national security. Continue reading »
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Taking the high ground: let kindness have its day
I lost any reservations about The Voice after seeing a movie. Continue reading »
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The Palestinian catastrophe: Occupation, Illegality and Apartheid
It is time for us to use the words Occupation, Illegality and Apartheid. We are applying these words to an occupying power truculent and implacable in its determination its occupation will never end, committed to a creeping annexation to deliver it a permanent hold over Palestinian land and Palestinian people. … Twenty years ago it Continue reading »
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Australia’s biggest AUKUS risk? America, our dangerous ally
The biggest enemy of AUKUS is not the resistance of ALP branches and unions but its own over-engineered grandiosity, its naive ambition. Continue reading »
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What have you done for US lately?
If Albanese is such a buddy of Biden’s, why is Assange still in jail? Especially after our titanic strategic favours. Continue reading »
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Taiwan solution is diplomacy rather than nuclear hell
I have yet to meet an Australian voter willing to go to war over Taiwan. Further, I haven’t heard of any Australian military leader with a clear idea of Australia’s role in a showdown between China and the US. Continue reading »
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Menzies told the US, ANZUS did not apply on Taiwan. Why not Albanese?
Call it Carr’s law. I’m pretty confident it withstands any testing. It’s simple: find someone talking up war with China and, if they were around 20 years ago, you find they were a supporter of the Iraq invasion. Continue reading »
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Polarisation and dysfunction in Washington
I enjoyed seeing Susan Glasser in The New Yorker take precisely my view of the polarisation and dysfunction in Washington and how it must be seen as an influence on US behaviour. Continue reading »
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Australia’s real status as a submissive ally
Like the occasional failure of a president to pronounce the name of our prime minister, US President Joe Biden cancelling his attendance at the QUAD is a reminder that America needs to balance bilateral relationships with 192 nation states and that up to 20 flatter themselves that their relationship is a special one. Continue reading »
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AUKUS, Assange, and the “seething pathologies” of the American Security State
We are permitting ourselves no character of our own under the architecture of the Alliance. It means we’ve accepted the status of a kind of client state, or American territory. I won’t say the 51st state. It means we’ve got even less independence than a US governor would have, former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr Continue reading »
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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 »
