Writer
Greg Bailey
Greg Bailey is Adjunct Associate Professor of Linguistics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University. His main field of interest is ancient India literature and history.
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GREG BAILEY. The New South Wales Fires, the National Party and Climate Change. PART 1
In responding on Monday to the severity of the NSW and QLD fires two senior NP politicians made statements attacking the Greens in a manner that was most intemperate and which has attracted almost universal criticism? But was their underlying motivation genuine concern for those affected by these predictable fires, or a desperate attempt to Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. The New South Wales Fires, the National Party and Climate Change. PART 2
The intemperate language used by McCormack and Joyce points to the Nationals’ own desperation about their constituency. Equally it has given an opportunity to the prime minister to appear statesman-like and the ALP to remain silent. Both illustrate how politicians regard the attention span of the electorate in regard to worsening environmental conditions. Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. For A New Enlightenment
It has been pointed out numerous times that neoliberalism, the prevailing orthodoxy of governance, grew off the carcass of neo-classical economics. That this intellectual paradigm has failed is obvious to most people except for politicians in the Anglo-Saxon world and the EU. A new paradigm that brings together rigorous rationalistic thinking based on empirical evidence Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Lobbyists, corruption and neoliberalism
The revelations surrounding the fast tracking of visas for Chinese high rollers coming to Crown Casino and betting gargantuan amounts of money have been extensively covered over the last week in the media. Corruption there certainly seems to be and not a little incipient anti-Chinese sentiment in sheeting this back mainly to wealthy Chinese gamblers. Continue reading »
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Christopher Pyne: Consultancy as government
The sudden elevation of Christopher Pyne – formerly Minister for Defence Industries – to defence consultant with Ernst & Young may have taken some people by surprise. Surely, though, it was always on the cards, especially since he retired from parliament at a relatively young age of 51 and with a pre-election likelihood of not Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. The Australian Electorate and the ‘Sensible Centre.’
Now that the grieving over the electoral loss of progressive political forces is beginning to be transformed into sustained soul searching about the characteristics of the Australian electorate and the tactic used by the ALP, it is time to ask whether the ALP could have won given the forces rallied against them. In truth the Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Problematic Trends Emerging from the 2019 Federal Election.
Irrespective of who finally wins Saturday’s election-and it looks like the ultra-conservative forces–, certain deeply disturbing observations can be made about the state of the Australian polity and the electorate. These evoke cultural and regional fissures long existing in Australia and an apparent shift away from any kind of critical thinking in making political and Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Reflections on Five Years of Political Theatre and Nihilism (Part 2)
For the last three decades the Australian public has been told there will be massive changes which they will have to run with or just suck it up. Now, after five and a half years of floundering and negativism by the government, the people are waking up to what these changes have produced. Such changes Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Reflections on Five Years of Political Theatre and Nihilism (Part 1)
Retrospective reflections are now beginning on what might be the heritage of the five and a half year long Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments. In advancing such reflections attention should not just be focussed on the political infighting within the government, and between it and the opposition. Consideration should also be given to what has Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. An oldie at the climate march.
After travelling for an hour from outside of Melbourne, I reached the Treasury Gardens at about 12.05pm to concerted cheering from thousands of young voices. On the train teenage boys and girls from various local high schools in the northeast suburbs of Melbourne were working on signs they had made from pieces of cardboard, and Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. The Coal Wars. Where next?
In writing on this subject I was initially going to focus on the manner in which a lobbying company funded by Glencore had undertaken a marketing campaign in support of coal and to plant doubts about the capacity of renewable energy to substitute for coal. If this might have represented the beginnings of a conflict Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. The Liberal National Party, the Baby-boomers and the quest for victory in the May Election.
If, as seems likely from the polls, the ALP wins the next federal election it will not be through the failure of the LNP to throw up a massive scare campaign. Conservative parties ranging from the medium to the far right adopt lowest common denominator strategies to foment an underlying sense of fear that seems Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. State Labor Triumphs and Fear Campaigns Wilt
On Monday morning two days after the Victorian state election the ALP had 51 seats, the LNC 24, the Greens 1, other independents 1, with 11 still in doubt, but the outcome of which will not affect the Labor Party’s massive majority. No doubt there will be considerable speculation as to the causes of this Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Is the instability in Australian politics reflected in the society and economy?
Australia has had six Prime Ministers since 2008, with the likelihood of a seventh in May 2019. Is this an index of instability in Australian politics and society, one perhaps marked also by the massive swing in last Saturday’s Wentworth by-election? Is this instability a consequence of the emergence of a series of extremely ambitious, Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. On Lobbyists And the System That Sustains Them.
Lobbyists are increasingly being recognized as a blight on the political landscape and as one of the negative forces in the progressive weakening of democratic processes in government. That they have come to form a distinct component in creating and distorting policy, indeed in creating politics almost as a “privatized sphere” is now become incontestable. Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Whereto for the LNP and the ALP. Part 2.
What about the ALP which, despite its protestation about its commitment to social justice and the social wage, has also effected neoliberal outcomes over the past three decades? Just witness its recent support to Australia becoming a member of a revised TPPT. And it has done this even in the face of objection from parts Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Whereto for the LNP and the ALP. Part 1.
Australian politics as judged by the antics of the two major parties over the past three weeks is almost a (hyper-) reality television show, replete with microscopic media coverage of the principal personalities involved. Building up for many years this has implications for the survival of these parties, but disappear they certainly will not. The Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Who wins from Malcolm Turnbull’s dismissal?
Who wins from last week’s disastrous week in politics and what can we expect it to give rise to if anything? Nothing occurs in a vacuum and now that the carnage has been temporarily suspended the commentariat is attempting to find continuities and discontinuities that might possess some explanatory value. Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. The Australian Political Duopoly: are its days numbered?
Statistics of voting patterns over the past forty years have shown a consistent drift towards fringe and minor parties. Such a drift seems likely to continue whilst the duopoly of the LNP and the ALP continue to ignore the mainstream, both ideologically and as group worthy of receiving some intrinsic recognition. Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Australia and Canada: Mirrors of each other
Australia and Canada have considerable similarities in a whole range of areas, and both share serious relations with the recalcitrant United States, becoming increasingly more erratic under the ideological sway of the Republican Party and its current leadership. Yet what do most Australians know about this country on the other side of the world, from Continue reading »
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Greg Bailey. The IPA, Gina Rinehart and Transparency.
The Institute of Public Affairs and Gina Rinehart seem to be inextricably connected. In the last two weeks it has been revealed she gave a donation to the IPA which amounted to half of their entire budget for two years. Yet the source of this donation was not revealed on the IPA web site. Given Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Are Public Servants too elitist? What should their role be?
A recent article published on The Conversation “found attitudes of elitism among public servants, which effectively led them to resist public input…” and that “A clear democratic conduit between citizen and policymaker is largely absent.” But is this the best way to understand the present status of the Public service and public servants’ attitudes? Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Class Warfare As a Rhetorical Device.
Now that Bill Shorten and the Labor Party have begun to propose some sensible restrictions on the irresponsible tax reductions proposed by the LNP government the old adage of “class warfare” is being invoked again in the mainstream media and by hard right politicians. But how useful is this as a rhetorical device and will Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. The IPA and the Survival of the ABC.
Two prominent members of the IPA have just edited a book calling for the privatization of the ABC. This has long been a desire of this group, but with Minister Mitch Fifield, an IPA member, now taking the role of the LNP government’s attack dog against the ABC, is privatization a possibility? Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. John Lloyd and the IPA: Friends of the Public Service?
As if the Public Service did not have enough pressure placed on it – over the past three decades it has been politicized, it has been continually downsized and its professionalism has been called into question by an homogenous collection of party hacks, consultants and lobbyists, perhaps picking up on a long-standing public disdain for Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. The Business Council of Australia, a new political body appealing to the small business constituency?
The Business Council of Australia has hit the electronic and print media in the past few days, but for all the wrong reasons. It has been accused of setting itself up to run political campaigns along the lines of the main parties and the ACTU. Why is it doing this now and why is it Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. The Institute of Public Affairs, finance and the contradiction between individualism and corporatism.
Readers of Pearls and Irritations will be fully appreciative of the considerable influence exercised by the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) on the commentariat and political decision-making through its representatives in various parliaments and its presence in the media. And given its discernible influence or occasional lack of it – witness James Paterson’s aborted attempt Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. On the Importance and the Difficulty of Renewing Australian Democracy
John Menadue has offered a series of nine excellent practical proposals as to how the current two party system – which has virtually assumed monopoly status as a duopoly–might be converted into a multi-party system. This would seemingly reflect the real concerns of Australian voters whose voting patterns – by the increasing percentage of votes Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Lobbyists and the Privatisation of the Political Process
Recent exposures of the extent of lobbying in Canberra and the revolving door of politicians becoming lobbyists highlight the extent to which politics here and in other Anglo-Saxon countries has become privatized. The effectiveness of the lobbyists–who are essentially mercenaries–poses a threat to democratic process and contributes strongly to what I call “the privatization of Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. Populist Limitations on the role of the IPA in the New LNP government
On July 2 the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) had at least two of its members elected to parliament in the Double Dissolution, James Pattison and Tim Wilson and that Senators Bob Day and David Leyonhjelm, at times members of the IPA, also were reelected, albeit on small quotas. LNP politicians like George Christensen Continue reading »
