Andrew Farran
Andrew Farran in his younger days was a diplomat, Commonwealth civil servant and law academic (Monash). His subsequent business interests included international trade, intellectual property and publishing, and wool growing. He was a regular contributor to Pearls & Irritations from 2017 – 2020.
Writes extensively on international affairs and defence, contributing previously to major newspapers (metropolitan and rural). Formerly director of major professional publishing company. Currently apart from writing he directs a registered charitable foundation with links in both Australia and overseas.
Andrew's recent articles
8 April 2025
Trump's tariffs appear to be misdirected
President Donald Trump has said his recent raft of tariff measures amounted to Liberation Day for US traders and not a fatal blow for a global trading system that has served international commerce well for decades following the turbulence that existed prior to and up to the Second World War in the early 1940s.
25 March 2025
When war is around be careful what you wish for!
If anyone is yet to be disgusted with war and the reckless use of armed force, recent news from Gaza and Ukraine will change your mind.
26 February 2025
Trump has ruled out allies, implying too that with AUKUS we have bought a ‘pig in a poke’
What President Donald Trump has been saying about his friends and our allies recently clearly suggests that both the AUKUS arrangement (it is not a treaty), along with last month's down payment of some $US500k, has been and will prove to be a terrible mistake.
8 February 2025
The rules based order – is it over? What’s next?
It is becoming much clearer, if it ever was, that President Donald Trump doesn’t much believe in the rules based system. If he does or did, he wouldn’t be firing off salvos of tariffs as if they were missiles intended for another purpose.Which, of course, they are.
1 February 2025
The upending of UNRWA could be the end of the UN’s role in humanitarian affairs
The unilateral action of the Israeli government to ban the UN specialised agency UNRWA and its humanitarian work in Palestine is wrong, both morally and legally. Moreover it threatens the substructure of specialised agencies that underlies the UN system generally, on which relief and humanitarian assistance for poverty stricken or famine affected regions and their displaced persons, rely.
6 January 2025
The release of the 2003 Iraq War cabinet papers and what we were not told
We are constantly assured that our governments don’t lie. But in this case the enormity goes beyond a mere cover-up to protect deemed national security. That war was a lie from beginning to end.
30 April 2023
What the Defence Strategic Review does not tell us
There are a number of salient points arising from the Defence Strategic Review which have not been exposed to clear light - which might explain why the government has taken the approach it has. There are two scenarios behind the DSR: war over Taiwan with the US, or war with Indonesia by ourselves.
4 March 2023
Brexit over; now for common sense
The Brexit saga has played itself to death with much relief all round except perhaps at Britains political margins.
15 February 2023
The Defence Strategic Review and Australia's 'Alliance' obsession
How might the renown mid-20th century linguist Ludwig Wittgenstein have addressed the current defence strategic review?
17 January 2023
What ails Britain? Dont mention Brexit
Ive been asked to come out of blogging retirement, temporarily, to explain why Brexit has been at the root of Britains most serious problems since Brexit was decided in 2016 and which a growing body of commentators rate as a colossal mistake. Contrary to Boris Johnsons repeated assertions, Brexit has not yet been done and can never be.
8 December 2021
States of chaos: internal border closures a disaster during pandemic
Free movement between the states is central to the Constitution long-term lockdowns and officious regulation will have dire consequences.
19 November 2021
Brexit tensions push Britain and Europe closer to a damaging trade war
Complications over the Northern Ireland Protocol and pressure from Brexiteers are straining already fraught UK-EU ties.
30 October 2021
Farewell Chilcot and Barratt: public servants who truly served the public
Australian politicians could learn from two public officials one who scrutinised the Iraq War, and one who sought change to the way we conduct war.
29 September 2021
The French have much to be furious about
The Australian submarine contract was integral to France sustaining its defence sovereignty beyond Europe. Now the French feel betrayed by the contract's cancellation and how badly it was mishandled by the Australians.
8 September 2021
Afghanistan, the aftermath: Recognition or engagement?
What are the options for states, including Australia, in their dealings with Afghanistan following the retreat of the previous government and the assumption of power by the Taliban?
6 September 2021
ANZUS at 70: Is a strategic rethink overdue?
After 70 years of living with ANZUS, through one aborted action after another, surely now is the time to give the alliance a deep rethink.
19 August 2021
Have government responses to COVID-19 eroded freedoms?
Has it come to the point where it is imperative that we have a Bill of Rights as a bulwark againstcreeping arbitrary executivepower and oppression as such protections as might exist are beingsteadily and stealthilyerodedaway supposedly for the public good?
3 March 2021
Behind the scenes: Section 92, the High Court and State coronavirus border closures
Nearly four months after the High Court ruled in favour of the WA Government against billionaire miner Clive Palmer, who challenged WA's coronavirus border closure, we have the Courts reasons for its decision.
23 February 2021
Carbon tariffs and taxes should not be an item for the WTO
Carbon border tariffs would tie the World Trade Organisation in knots and detract from its core purposes. Such a tax would also discriminate against the poorest in the world. Without broad consensus they would be illegal.
1 February 2021
Taiwan: to war or not to war, is that the question?
Are we at risk of stumbling into a war with China over Taiwan - as happened in 1914 over a war with a rising Germany?
27 January 2021
Brexit still not done and dusted?
The lies and misrepresentations spun by Brexiters (and the UK government) ever since the 2016 Referendum are coming home to roost. While niggles and irritations were expected, they were seen as transitional. But major consequences for the British economy are heaping up.
13 January 2021
Section 92 case decided but Courts reasons still awaited
If national unity and the Federation were endangered in 2020 it was thanks to the Commonwealth government, the States, and the High Court, which bypassed a fundamental principle of the Constitution designed to secure the Federation and prevent discrimination among the States and their citizens.
8 January 2021
EU/China investment deal splits the West?
At a time when the United States and China are distancing themselves from each others economies, especially in the area of investment and high tech, while at the same time doing their best to undermine the global system for trade and investment, it may seem curious that on 30 December the EU and China concluded an in principle grand-daddy investment deal: that is, the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.
27 December 2020
Post Brexit? It is not pages of legal text that sustains communities. It is political commitment.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government may have got Brexit across the line, and avoided the embarrassment and discomfort the country would have suffered had they not, but clearly they have not delivered on what was promised at the 2016 referendum.
23 December 2020
Brexit on the threshold
What will become of Brexit in the next few days? The Chinese may wish their foe to live in interesting times. But nothing that the British and the Europeans could do for themselves could rival the chaos and pandemonium now besetting them across the Strait of Dover. Regardless of deal or no-deal post-Brexit, disruptions to trade and supply chains will characterise life in that region and beyond for many months, compounded of course by a surging COVID-19 mutation.
14 December 2020
Brexit: The cliff is being pushed further back!
The negotiators have been given a few more days to achieve what they havent been able to in more than four years. Has there ever been such a prolonged display of muddled statecraft - negotiations that affect peoples lives and businesses to a far greater degree than in any other deal?
22 November 2020
Brexit - denouement or disaster
As the process towards a post-Brexit agreement with the EU staggers towards its denouement (or otherwise) the gathering scene is looking increasingly bizarre. What has gone wrong to date is almost bound to go wrong again, as 31 December deadline approaches.
16 November 2020
Whats the point of FTAs (including RCEP, with China?
With virtual fanfare the much heralded Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Regional_Comprehensive_Economic_Partnership was signed this weekend with the ten nation ASEAN group in addition to Australia, China, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand. As with the former 12 nation Trans Pacific Partnership, the United States has withheld its participation. What are these mega trade agreements worth?
9 November 2020
The High Court and Section 92 again
David Solomons item on the above - https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/palmer-loses-border-war/ - is headed Palmer loses border war. It is not just Palmer that lost the war; in one way or another, as Australians, we all have.
19 October 2020
The wool trade: hostage to intransigence
Animal welfare groups object to the wool industry because of the process of mulesing, a treatment used to protect sheep from fly strike. They argue that mulesing is cruel and invasive regardless of whether painkillers are used. There is, however, an alternative to mulesing that is painless, bloodless and no less protective.
13 October 2020
Britain facing two potential devastations
Britain is facing two devastations in short order - a further surge in coronavirus cases; and achieving coherence from its imminent departure from the EU. Both will have deleterious effects on future economic growth, though long term from Brexit more so than the virus.
30 September 2020
Rafferty has taken charge of the ministerial decision making process.
While confusion over the supervision of quarantined returning travellers by private security firms in Victoria may have arisen from exceptional circumstances, a broader question concerning the unfettered exercise of Ministerial (Executive) power has come to the forefront of governing in this country.At stake, as seen, are due process and the liberty of the individual citizen.
27 September 2020
The High Court must rule on State border controls before more businesses are bankrupted and family relations traumatised.
No government, whether Commonwealth or State, has primacy over movement across State borders. Primacy lies in the Federal Constitution which states in Section 92 that trade, commerce, and intercourse among the States ... shall be absolutely free. A distribution of powers does not come into it.
13 September 2020
Brexit - a crash landing in prospect
Brexit is done but its end-shape is not. The final stages of the post-Brexit negotiations are shrouded in mistrust, misrepresentations, and most recently an intended breach of international law. The real intentions of the negotiators, both sides, remain clouded.
31 August 2020
Under the proposed Foreign Relations Bill the states might be down but they are not out
If Mr Morrison wants to ride roughshod over certain state interests in the external sphere he had better be prepared to brief counsel at the High Court.
20 August 2020
The longer term consequences of the pandemic may be fewer citizens rights
When we require a bureaucrats permission to leave the country, or to cross our neighbourhoods State border, one far removed from any known instance of a viral infection, our rights and liberties are indeed slipping. They are doing so right under our noses.
9 August 2020
Australia's dubious record in supporting international law.
As the world descends into power politics, less powerful nations must place their faith, and potentially their security, in the retention and development of a credible international legal system. That credibility turns on the respect and observance given to it by smaller powers. Australia is one but is it capable of pulling its weight in the ebb and flow of the challenges to the system or will it display a degree of opportunism, as at times in the past, which could undermine it? In its international relations Australia has oftentimes characterised itself as a good international citizen and...
5 August 2020
Section 92 of the Constitution lost to shortsightedness
It is a pity that the Commonwealth has formally dropped out of the Clive Palmer challenge in the High Court over State boundary closures as offending Section 92 of the Constitution - though prior to that it had made a written submission to the Court. The issues transcend Mr Palmers interests.
29 July 2020
Out of sight, out of mind. Whats happened to Trade?
Trade does not get the attention it requires as all external issues are viewed through the prism of the defence/intelligence agencies, subordinating the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade itself. This has become worse since trade was integrated into that department.
21 July 2020
Aristotles citizens and the Constitution
The renowned British economist Martin Wolf, writing in the Financial Times last weekend, has warned that a possible consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic is that Democracy will fail if we dont think as citizens.By citizens he is thinking of a stable middle class without which the state, any true democratic state, risks succumbing to plutocracy.
12 July 2020
An uncertain six months for Britain, Covid-19 and Brexit. Part 1
Over the next six months Britain may face greater uncertainty about the cohesion of its social and economic fabric than at any time since the threat of German invasion in late 1940.
1 July 2020
Militarism and Popularism, a dangerous mix
Popularism in defence matters must have its limits. Being carried away on a wave of popularism may be exciting but when reality strikes the repercussions could be severe.
16 June 2020
Regardless of the EU, the UKs trading status is about to default to the WTO
The UK has already left the EU. Thats the reality. What remains to be decided, before 31 December, is its future relationship with the EU. But there is more to it than that.
14 June 2020
Regardless of the EU, the UKs trading status is about to default to the WTO
The UK has already left the EU. Thats the reality. What remains to be decided, before 31 December, is its future relationship with the EU. But there is more to it than that.
24 May 2020
ANDREW FARRAN. Brexit Britain - The lonely little country
Will Boris Johnson maintain his stance that there will be no extension to the transitional period for completion of the UK/EU Future Relations agreement even though the time remaining is well short of the time required to settle and formalise the myriad of still seriously outstanding matters?
20 May 2020
ANDREW FARRAN. State border closures and Section 92
It is surprising that there has been little comment on, let alone challenge to, the extent of the States overreach with their Covid-19 border closures in the face of Section 92 of the Australian Constitution. This may be changing
30 April 2020
ANDREW FARRAN. Pandemics, paradoxes and the Federal system
There is still a question as we continue to confront the coronavirus whether the Constitution with respect to health and education needs clarification so that the imposition of border closures, regional lockdowns, school closures, etc., and decisions having legal implications, can be better determined.
23 April 2020
ANDREW FARRAN. Cleaning up after Brexit
Although Brexit is the name that within the UK Government cant be spoken the hard truth is that it is not yet done and the doing may prove a messy business. The cliff that looms on 31 December is coming closer. What degree of readiness will suffice to save a crash?
5 April 2020
Wither Brexit and the Trade System under Covid-19?
Where can the suspended post-Brexit negotiations go from here when the very multilateral trading system, along with globalisation, is on its uppers, under the curse of the CaronaVirus pandemic? What will the negotiators be able to come to grips with mutually as their respective constituents demand protectionism for their industries and their trade relations? It is already a different world