Writer
Martin Painter
Martin Painter is Emeritus Professor of Public Administration, City University of Hong Kong. He is a graduate of the ANU and lectured at the University of Sydney Department of Government before moving to Hong Kong. He is currently a resident of Canberra, a keen birder and writes a blog at anthropocenebirder.com
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Enjoying Hong Kong and denying the crackdown, with a colonial face
Life might go on as usual for expats, but for native Hong Kongers, the new security law is having a real effect on their freedoms. Continue reading »
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Pandemic federalism and the national plan
With each state and territory facing different Covid situations, Australia is left with not one pandemic, but several. Continue reading »
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The COVID-19 ‘National Plan’ seems designed to fail
The end goal of the ‘National Plan to transition Australia’s National COVID-19 Response’ announced on July 30 is a nation willing and able to weather the endemic existence of COVID-19 in the community. But this may well be unachievable under the plan because of two fundamental flaws: it is a plan that allows for opting Continue reading »
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Encouraging COVID complacency is a dangerous political game
Targets have been repeatedly missed and vaccination rates in Australia are disappointingly low. In addition to vaccine hostility and hesitancy, we now have vaccine complacency: ‘Why bother? – the closure of the border is keeping us safe.’ And the Morrison Government’s recent messaging is reinforcing, even encouraging, this complacency. Continue reading »
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Australia’s Pandemic Trap is Snapping Shut
The 2021-22 budget assumes a policy that Australia’s borders will remain more or less hermetically sealed until mid-2022. As recently as late last year, we were promised opening up by July 2021. ‘Hermit Australia’, ‘Fortress Australia’, name it what you will, the trap that the Morrison Government has led us all into is of their Continue reading »
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The Commonwealth Government is continually avoiding responsibility for quarantine
Even when States and private providers proposed to manage appropriate, fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities, the Morrison Government denied approval and refused to provide the funds. Absurdly, the Commonwealth accepts responsibility for biosecurity when it applies to plants and organisms, but not for humans. Continue reading »
