All Articles
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A memory jogger that China and Australia once were allies. ( A slightly amended post update from September 7, 2014)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought to draw Australia into his enmity towards China and he did so in the Australian parliament recently. Unfortunately Tony Abbott allowed himself and Australia to be drawn into Shinzo Abe’s agenda of hostility to China which is not in Australia’s interest. Continue reading »
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JOHN PRICE: James Madison on Parties
Madison: Federalist #10 … the trouble with parties Right about the time the first fleet was sailing to Botany Bay, three of the American founders, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wrote a series of articles designed to explore the most controversial issues encountered by the constitutional convention in Philadelphia. They were published and Continue reading »
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Roger Dargaville: Five policy decisions that led to today’s energy crisis
If you aren’t a long-term energy policy news junkie, you’d be forgiven for thinking today’s crisis arrived fairly suddenly. But we arrived here thanks to a series of policy decisions under previous governments – state and federal – that left Australia’s energy system ill-equipped to cope with the demands placed on it. Continue reading »
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Jeffrey Sachs: Reaching a just and lasting peace in Ukraine
On June 6-7, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network convened a study group of experts in international affairs, military and security affairs, and international relations among the US, European Union, Ukraine, and Russia. Their statement follows. Kindly note that the statement is solely that of the individual participants of the study group, and not that Continue reading »
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Paul Collins: Pope Francis keeps them guessing
For a week or so the Vatican rumour mill has been in overdrive. How sick is Pope Francis? Will he resign? Where next for the papacy? Continue reading »
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Ilhan Omar says 49 million facing famine ‘Should be the biggest story in the world right now’
A United Nations study finds that Russia’s war on Ukraine and the intensifying climate emergency have pushed the number of people facing famine globally to an all-time high. Continue reading »
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Richard Heller: Universities can spearhead regional development & the distributed university model
Universities should take an expanded leadership role in regional development, the Distributed University model provides a mechanism. Continue reading »
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Oliver Frankel: Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness
This is the latest monthly digest of articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material about housing stress/affordability and homelessness. Continue reading »
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Binoy Kampmark: Julian Assange in Ithaka
“Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is where you’re destined for”. P. Cavafy, trans. Edmund Keeley Continue reading »
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Weekly roundup Saturday 18 June
Weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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Environment: Can astronomical phenomena inspire us to solve earthly problems?
Forget war, climate change, famine and dysfunctional economics for five minutes, lift your eyes to the pre-dawn skies and see five of our planetary neighbours. Continue reading »
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Alfred de Zayas and Richard Falk: The unjustified criticism of High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s visit to Xinjiang.
An artificial atmosphere of hostility, sustained by geopolitical agendas, double standards, fake news and skewed narratives has made it difficult to tackle specific human rights problems particularly in Xinjiang. Continue reading »
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China’s peace keeping soft power and its new MOOTW regulations
On 15 June President Xi Jinping signed into force new regulations regarding China’s Military Operations Other Than War usually abbreviated as MOOTW. Eryk Bagshaw of the Sydney Morning Herald immediately declared them to be “an expansion of his country’s military capabilities, giving the defence forces the power to protect its interests abroad”. The Herald offers Continue reading »
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Ecological services are essential for the sustainable future of our planet home
This a plea for understanding of the crucial functioning of ecological services, a complex issue requiring the interrelationship of many disciplines and most importantly a fundamental reform of economic ideology. These services must be central in the promised Independent Environmental Protection Agency. Continue reading »
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KEITH MITCHELSON: Media advocacy for tax-avoiding, transnational behemoths – the international fossil-fuel companies
The web of international trade has been lauded for a century as a positive binding force connecting nations, making the world a safer place. Who would think it could also do the opposite. Continue reading »
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The minimum wage decision, inflation and the low paid
The Real Unit Labour Cost is presently 20 per cent lower than it was in 1986 meaning the growth in productivity gains to employers has been substantially higher than the growth in real wages. Continue reading »
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Support for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who is under attack over Xinjiang visit.
Michelle Bachelet has announced she will not be seeking a second term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Former UN rapporteurs, Alfred de Zayas and Richard Falk, are supporting her against the attacks she has received for her visit to Xinjiang in May, which includes unjustified demands for her resignation. Alfred de Zayas and Continue reading »
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Will the Greens be smarter this time
The Greens will have more seats in both houses of Parliament. That is welcome. But in the past they have not used their power wisely. The perfect became the enemy of the good. Continue reading »
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Subcontracting war
In the year since last July, the Morrison Government spent almost $3.8 billion on consultancies. This paid to the big end of consulting town for more than 8400 contracts with Accenture, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC. Other consultancies are small but aspirational, often run by recently retired public servants. Where is the accountability, Continue reading »
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An Australia-France entente cordiale?
Part of cleaning up Morrison’s AUKUS mess will be to find ways of using France’s more balanced relations with the US and China into a moderating role in the Asia-Pacific region. Albanese has just such an opportunity in his foreshadowed meeting with Macron. Continue reading »
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US hysterics over a Cambodian naval pier
The Chinese navy will struggle to threaten the region or launch a war from a tiny pier earmarked for upgrade at the Ream Naval Base. Continue reading »
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The American sophist: Blinken weaves a Bidenesque fantasy
In a time of multiple crises the sophistry of our leaders is more than dangerous. The narratives their words weave might advance their personal agendas but will leave the world ill-equipped to handle pandemics, wars, social upheaval, and climate disruption. Continue reading »
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Floods, mental health & love in Lismore
A principle known for centuries by Indigenous peoples, teaches that the health of the land affects the wellbeing of people, a principle familiar to citizens of Lismore in northern NSW. After catastrophic floods submerged homes and commercial properties, one thousand citizens still live in emergency accommodation and thousands more survive in homes where walls, ceilings Continue reading »
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Geraldine Doogue: Engaging young Australians with their ABC
Another highly engaging Classic 100 music countdown came to a close at 4pm on Sunday, enthralling many thousands of Australians, linking them like maybe nothing else, to their ABC. Crucially, younger Australians engaged like never before with the Classic 100, according to the network’s website. Altogether, 215,486 listeners took action and voted—a record, with an Continue reading »
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Prince Charles and the battle for the Republic
As a republican, I’m not sure whether to rejoice or rage at the latest display of idiocy by the presumptive future King of Australia, Prince Charles. One the one hand (hooray!) he has demonstrated once again his unfitness to succeed Queen Elizabeth, who, understandably, is beginning to show her considerable age and restrict her public Continue reading »
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A Spanish court calls: Mike Pompeo, we want you
On June 3, Judge Santiago Pedraz of Spain’s national court, the Audienca Nacional, issued a summons for former CIA director and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify in an ongoing investigation into the conduct of private security firm UC Global and its founder, David Morales. Continue reading »
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Vale Francis Gerard Brennan
Francis Gerard Brennan, who died on June 1 at the age of 94, will be farewelled in a Requiem Mass at St. Mary’s Church, North Sydney on June 17. He was a Justice of the Federal Court and the High Court of Australia, and Chief Justice of the High Court 1995-1998. Continue reading »
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When reality trumps good manners: The last frontier of tolerance
Smothered in evidence. Floundering in the sea of your own haemorrhaging ego. Repeating the same drivel over and over again. Your game is tired. We’re all bored. We see through you. Continue reading »
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Julian Schultz searches but does not find ‘the soul of the nation’
When a book called ‘The Idea of Australia: A search for the nation’s soul’ is touted as ‘A brilliant successor to Donald Horne’s ‘The Lucky Country’, and as ‘A triumph of art, politics, literature, history, and the deepest scholarship’, one would expect a truly exciting read that clarifies or refocuses ‘the idea of Australia’. Continue reading »
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Not a ‘windfall’ more a ‘guided weapon’
In his Farewell Address, 17 January 1961, stepping aside as the US President, ex-General Eisenhower warned his nation. Continue reading »
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