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P&I Guest Writers
This post kindly provided to us by one of our many occasional contributors.
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JESSICA IRVINE. Labor’s housing tax changes will help cure our property addiction (SMH 1.11.2018)
It seems a requirement of modern political scare campaigns that they be not only breathless, but logically inconsistent. And so it is with the mounting fear campaign being waged against Labor’s policy to, if elected, reform the tax treatment of investment properties.Labor’s changes would, we hear, both accelerate price falls under way in Sydney and Melbourne Continue reading »
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MICHAEL MCGIRR. Christianity tells stories; Islam finds designs (Eureka Street, 30.10.18)
My year ten class studies Islam, one of the most formative influences in the world that my students will inhabit and hopefully improve. I have a profound respect for Islam. Westerners, and especially western Christians, often fail to acknowledge the debt they owe to Islam, a tradition that had a huge role in bringing Europe Continue reading »
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TIMOTHY SNYDER. Donald Trump borrows from the old tricks of fascism (The Guardian, 30.10.18)
The governing principle of the Trump administration is total irresponsibility, a claim of innocence from a position of power, something which happens to be an old fascist trick. As we see in the president’s reactions to American rightwing terrorism, he will always claim victimhood for himself and shift blame to the actual victims. As we Continue reading »
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AARON PATRICK. Tweet victory: How Libs lost Wentworth. (AFR 1.11.2018)
Five days before the Wentworth byelection, when Liberal candidate Dave Sharma was starting to claw back support in the seat Prime Minister Scott Morrison was desperate to save, Facebook and Twitter lit up with a warning: if local doctor Kerryn Phelps doesn’t come second, the Liberals win. Continue reading »
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PAUL KRUGMAN. Hate is on the ballot next week (New York Times 31 October 2018)
In America 2018, whataboutism is the last refuge of scoundrels, and bothsidesism is the last refuge of cowards. In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re in the midst of a wave of hate crimes. Continue reading »
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RICHARD HOLDEN. The best way to boost the economy is to improve the lives of deprived students. (The Conversation 25.10.2018)
What if we had an opportunity to double the size of the tourism industry, or to quadruple the size of the beef industry, or to boost the economy by more than any of the presently proposed tax switches? What if we could do it while permanently improving the lives of disadvantaged young people? We surely wouldn’t let Continue reading »
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JAMES O’NEILL. Australia and its Israel Embassy: What are they thinking?
According to recent media reports, the Liberal candidate in the Wentworth (Sydney) by-election, former diplomat David Sharma said he “was open” to the idea that Australia’s embassy in Israel could be shifted from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In a separate tweet he went further and said Australia “should consider recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Continue reading »
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CARMEN LAWRENCE. Waste in the Commonwealth/State divide in education
In the seemingly never ending debate about the best way to fund our schools, relatively little consideration is given to the effects of the declining influence of state governments and the increasing exercise of power by the Commonwealth. However, in our discussions in the panel which reviewed school funding in Australia – the so-called Gonski Continue reading »
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MOHAMAD BAZZI. How Saudi Arabia wins friends (New York Times, 29.10.18)
After the Khashoggi murder, the kingdom has fallen back on the tactic of wielding its oil wealth to buy loyalty. Continue reading »
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IAN TRESISE. A View on the Need for Systemic Change in Health & Wellbeing Education
There is a very strong need in our community for a refreshing whole-of-government approach to confronting the major health issues of our day. This starts with the recognition that many of our political institutions were developed for an Industrial Age era, where a silo approach to delivering policy, exacerbated by a federated service delivery model, Continue reading »
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VICTOR MERRICK. Anwar Ibrahim — is he for real?
Malaysia’s prime minister-in-waiting shows signs of irritability as reformist mask starts to slip. This article was published by UCA News on the 23rd of October 2018. Continue reading »
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AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS. Turnbull warns Morrison over Israel embassy move after Indonesia meeting (the Guardian 30 October 2018)
The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned his successor against moving the Australian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem after meeting with the Indonesian president on Monday. Continue reading »
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BERNIE FRASER- Neoliberal failure, putting the economy ahead of society -A repost
At The Australian Institute’s Revenue Summit in Canberra on 17 October 2018 Bernie Fraser raised an important question as to why with Australia’s 27 years of successive economic growth there is so mush social disquiet and sense of unfairness in the community. Bernie Fraser was formerly Secretary of Treasury and Governor of the Reserve Bank Continue reading »
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KIM RICHARD NOSSAL. Canada and Huawei: Letting politics slip in.
Canada has decided not to join Australia and the United States in barring Huawei Technologies Ltd of Shenzen from participating in the development of Canada’s 5G mobile networks. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau argued that his government’s decision on Huawei is based “on evidence and data”, and in particular on recommendations from the Communications Security Continue reading »
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ROMAIN FATHI World War 1: The blood-bath in vain (the Conversation, 03.09.18)
But politicians and military leaders had to justify the dead and the enormous sacrifices they had demanded from their people. Thinking back, the most chilling part of the vain bloodbath is that the citizens of the belligerent nations did support the war and its sacrifices for years, some until the breaking point of revolt. Continue reading »
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RENA PEDERSON. Target the Generals, Not “The Lady” (American Interest 11.10.18)
Despite the outcry, Aung San Suu Kyi does not deserve most of the blame for the tragedy unfolding in Myanmar. The Nobel Foundation got it right. Continue reading »
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RICHARD ROBISON. The crisis of the Right in Australia: the liberals are gone and the hard-right can never triumph.
Now that the dust has settled after the coup that toppled former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull it is clear that this was more than a tale of revenge and malice within the Liberal Party. But while Turnbull’s son, Alex Turnbull, might be right in his assessment that the Liberal Party has been taken over by Continue reading »
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JEFFREY D SACHS. Killer politicians: Curtain of deniability lifting (Asia Times 25.10.2018)
“Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” asked Henry II as he instigated the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in 1170. Down through the ages, presidents and princes around the world have been murderers and accessories to murder, as the great Harvard sociologist Pitirim Sorokin and Walter Lunden documented in Continue reading »
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GARRY EVERETT. Critical yeast in critical times.
The title of this piece is taken from an address by Bishop Vincent Long, to the Concerned Catholics of Canberra, on the 11th of September this year. The Bishop had been invited to outline his vision for a Catholic Church, in the post Royal Commission (into sexual abuse) era. He addressed the topic by focussing Continue reading »
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NASSIM KHADEM. Why Australian company directors have started caring about climate change.
For the first time Australian company directors have nominated climate change as the number one issue they want the federal government to address in the long term, according to a survey of more than 1,200 company directors. Continue reading »
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ALEX TURNBULL. Coalition embraces economic vandalism with worst possible energy policy (The Guardian 27.10.2018)
When I saw the government’s latest energy policy proposal, I was disappointed but not surprised. Just a few weeks ago I was speaking with a few utilities analysts and players, wargaming the absolute worst thing a party with just a few months to live could do to Australia’s energy policy and how far they could Continue reading »
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OLIVER YATES. Scott Morrison needs to realise Liberals are prepared to lose the election over climate change.
After Wentworth the government should know how passionate Liberal party members are about the environment. This article was published by The Guardian on the 23rd of October 2018. Continue reading »
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Louise Adler reviews ‘Bibi: The turbulent life and times of Benjamin Netanyahu’ by Anshel Pfeffer (the Australian Book Review)
In 1901 the cultural Zionist Israel Zangwill, borrowing a phrase from Lord Shaftesbury, declared, ‘Palestine is a country without a people, the Jews are a people without a country.’ That cliché has continued to influence the impasse in the Middle East for almost a century. Continue reading »
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MARTIN WOLF. Latest climate change report shows inaction is shameful (Financial Times 25 October 2018)
It is five minutes to midnight on climate change. We will have to alter our trajectory very quickly if we wish to have a good chance of limiting the global average temperature rise to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. That was a goal of the Paris agreement of 2015. Achieving it means drastic reductions Continue reading »
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BRAD CHILCOTT. The deck is stacked against average Australians
Corporations exist to deliver profits to their shareholders. Unions exist to deliver fair wages, access to benefits like annual and sick leave to workers and to ensure workplaces are safe for all employees. Continue reading »
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GREG AUSTIN: A repost-Australia, Israel and the Pentecostal PM
Israel may prove to be the biggest winner from the prime ministership of Scott Morrison. Events this week raise not only a legitimate question about the degree of political influence being exercised by Israel in Australia but also a question about Morrison’s political common sense. Continue reading »
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SHAUN HANNS. There is no clear empirical basis for the current policy against resettling those on Manus and Nauru in Australia.
The following policy piece by Shaun Hanns has been sent to all Federal Members of Parliament. (John Menadue) I am writing to you as a concerned private citizen using publicly available data. However I was, until recently, an officer of the Department of Home Affairs and that this has informed my views. I have spent Continue reading »
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REG LITTLE. Australian universities and China.
Comment on Australian universities and China needs to correct the universal Western oversight of the reality that China’s past, present and future can only be understood in the context of its unique classics and millennia of recorded history. Continue reading »
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Shinzo Abe’s China visit will push infrastructure and sea ties to counter US tensions (South China Morning Post, 20.10.18)
First visit to Beijing by a Japanese prime minister since 2011 expected to bring economic cooperation that prepares the way for warmer political relations. Continue reading »
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GABRIELLE CHAN. Anyone but Nats’: Rural figures come out against Barnaby Joyce and Nationals. (The Guardian 24.10.2018)
Prominent rural advocates have become increasingly vocal over a potential return of Barnaby Joyce to the National party leadership as the prospect of a concerted independent push in rural areas gains momentum after the Wentworth byelection. Continue reading »
