Jerry Roberts

Jerry Roberts, born and raised in Mid-West USA, trained as a newspaper reporter in Perth and has covered politics, manufacturing, and Aboriginal Affairs. He has spent the second half of his life in outback Australia.

Jerry's recent articles

The great gates of Kiev: A Cold War story

The great gates of Kiev: A Cold War story

Europeans endured two world wars in the 20th Century. Surely they have no wish to begin the 21st Century with a third.

The class of 1942: The brilliance behind the Pastoral Strike

The three great figures in 20th Century Australian public life all met their appointments with destiny in 1942 Australias darkest hour. John Curtin was in Canberra. Weary Dunlop was in Singapores Changi Prison. Don McLeod was in Australias north-west, recruited to rescue what he called, with his wicked sense of humour, the black sheep of the family.

Childrens Hospital tragedy casts a shadow over Perth

Childrens Hospital tragedy casts a shadow over Perth

The death of a seven-year-old girl in the emergency department of Perth Childrens Hospital hangs like a cloud over the city and is bringing forth an outpouring both of grief and of questions about Western Australias health services.

Western Australia, the One Party State

Western Australias tourism slogan was once The Wildflower State. Then it became The State of Excitement to the amusement of Victorians. Now WA is the One Party State. After Saturdays election there is a government in the West without an opposition.

'Courageous move, Minister': WA Liberal leader's honesty a smart political move

A weakened, wounded bleeding WA Liberal Party is asking voters on Saturday to remember a first principle of democracy - a government needs an opposition. Policy is irrelevant. The only issue is whether a dominant Labor government is going to wipe out what is left of the conservatives in West Perth's Parliament House.

Drama in Perth as Election 21 nears

West Australians on the afternoon of Sunday 31 January were preparing for Monday's start of the school year when Premier Mark McGowan called an emergency media conference to announce the toughest lock-down rules the state has known.

West Australian Liberals gamble on youth

Like a football club hoping to climb up from the bottom of the ladder, the West Australian Liberals have gone for youth in their latest leadership selection.

Senate committee extends deadline on banking inquiry

'Parliament should endorse the Banking Amendment (Deposits) Bill 2020 to explicitly rule out the possibility of bail-in where authorities would allow banks to convert your deposits to shares in a banking crisis -- should be a no-brainer for any government.(John Hewson)

It is high noon in the wild West for Clive Palmer

Extraordinary legislation rushed through State Parliament this week to protect Western Australia against an estimated $30 billion damages claim marks a dramatic escalation of the Government's battle with Clive Palmer.

Clive Palmer complicates life for WA Labor

The legal and political manoeuvres of Clive Palmer are complications for Western Australia's Labor Government in the final months of its first term in office.

Save Australia's Dairy Industry

When John Dahlsen tells us we need to pay more for milk and our dairy industry needs urgent government intervention we should sit up and pay attention.

JERRY ROBERTS. Alan Jones charges into the cash fight

The Senate Economics Legislation Committee Report on the Government's cash-ban bill is a dismal whitewash of our banking cartel that betrays the fine work performed during the inquiry by Senators Alex Gallacher and Rex Patrick.

JERRY ROBERTS. Labor's deadline is near. Do we have an Opposition?

The Senate Economics Legislation Committee is due to submit its report on the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019 on Friday 28 February. Labor Senators on the committee have led critical scrutiny of the proposed legislation.

JERRY ROBERTS. Dangerous banking and religious legislation should be discarded.

Doctors are obliged to warn patients about the risks of surgery before wheeling them into the operating theatre. When the surgery is cosmetic and unnecessary the risks should be weighed even more carefully. Politicians should exercise similar caution with unnecessary, high-risk legislation.

JERRY ROBERTS. Church and State again

Having withdrawn its religious discrimination legislation, the Government has acted with the speed of an Olympic athlete to bring it back to the public. Perhaps the Prime Minister and Attorney are inspired by the sporting heroes who have stirred up this spurious debate.

JERRY ROBERTS. A matter of behaviour.The CFMMEU and the Banks.

The wheels are falling off the Government as Parliament winds down for Christmas. Both Coalition Government and Labor Opposition should consider a comment made by Pauline Hanson, who has asserted her authority with a sorely needed dose of common sense.

JERRY ROBERTS. The Labor Party, religion, sex and that sort of thing

The second greatest disaster for Labor following the May election loss is the daily earbashing from mainstream media dishing out gratuitous advice to the Party on how to change policies and win the next election. Absolutely the greatest disaster is the possibility that people within the Party will listen to this stream of right-wing drivel. Labor has enough trouble digesting its own internal review.

JERRY ROBERTS. Thinking about economics

Whether anybody -- anybody at all -- understands the workings of the world economy, or even the national economy, is a moot point but there are lots of interesting theories.

JERRY ROBERTS Income management by the Cashless Welfare Card

The Cashless Debit Card when seen in the context of drug testing at Centrelink, tax cuts for the comfortable, religious protection laws. the Witness K trial and open slather for financiers adds to the impression that our country now resembles more closely Margaret Atwood's Gilead than Ben Chifley's Australia.

JERRY ROBERTS Income management by the Cashless Debit Card

The Cashless Debit Card when seen in the context of robots and drug testing at Centrelink, tax cuts for the comfortable, religious protection laws, the Witness K trial and open slather for financiers adds to the impression that our country now resembles more closely Margaret Atwood's Gilead than Ben Chifley's Australia.

State and federal issues upset WA Labor State Conference

A long-running dispute within the West Australian Labor Party about the future of Fremantle Harbour was the issue behind the rocky start to Labor's State Conference but the fight between Anthony Albanese and union leader John Setka added spice to the political weekend in Perth.

JERRY ROBERTS -Religious Discrimination

The Attorney General and Prime Minister are working on religious discrimination legislation that is unnecessary and dangerous. The Attorney is being lobbied by religious extremists who will never be satisfied. This is a classic race to the bottom of a type all too familiar in contemporary politics.

JERRY ROBERTS The Religious Right is wrong and dangerous

Israel Folau is arguing that he is entitled to act in an offensive manner because he adheres to a set of childish superstitions about heaven and hell that most of us grow out of when we work out the Tooth Fairy and begin to have doubts about Father Christmas.

Liberal leadership change in WA shows conservative confidence

Liza Harvey's unopposed ascension to leadership of the West Australian parliamentary Liberal Party points to growing confidence among conservatives in the West but Mike Nahan deserves high praise for holding the fort after the Liberals' 2017 rout.

JERRY ROBERTS Mining, taxation and Australia

Turning points in political history are few and far between. Election 2019 was not one of them but the failure to instal the mining tax in 2010 was just such a pivotal moment. One of the consequences of that failure was Labor's fiddly set of tax polices rejected by voters on Saturday 18 May.

JERRY ROBERTS. The dumbing-down of politics, religion and trade unions

Getup! is campaigning in Western Australia against Attorney General Christian Porter. In the parochial West, as in Peter Duttons Queensland seat, this foreign presence may favour the incumbents. By the same token the trade union campaign to change the rules by changing the government could help the Coalition. The present government is not responsible for the decline of trade unionism which goes back to a time before anybody had heard of Scomo. Dumbing down politics (and religion) works against the Left and favours the Right.

JERRY ROBERTS. Labor's targets in Western Australia.

Even without the extra hours time difference from daylight saving, West Australians often know the result of federal elections before they vote on Saturday evening. This will most likely be the case again in May, despite Scott Morrisons dramatic journey to Christmas Island.

JERRY ROBERTS. The banking culture in context.

Our banks are urged to change their culture and the federal government proposes a Commission to fight corruption but such measures scratch the surface. Our problems are not hidden behind closed doors. They are in plain sight. They are in full public view. Our society worships false gods. Old Testament scholars advise us that such stories end badly.

JERRY ROBERTS. Sir Joh and The Donald

Queenslands longest-serving Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, cultivated the public image of a country bumpkin. A book about his career was called The Hillbilly Dictator. Donald Trump has taken a similar act to the international stage. Has the world ever seen such a performance? No Hollywood star goes close to The Donald. The President of the United States wins all the Oscars.

JERRY ROBERTS. Australian banks and the global financial system.

As we consider trivial matters such as which political party will form the government of Oz can we find time to look at the serious side of life? What is important? Banking and the world financial system for starters.

JERRY ROBERTS. The Holy City.

The Jerusalem embassy is Scott Morrisons first serious mistake as Prime Minister, but Australians think Tel Aviv is a subsidiary of Telstra so he may get away with it. It is the bread and butter domestic issues that win and lose elections. There may be subjects that interest Australians less than Middle Eastern politics but I cant think of one.

JERRY ROBERTS Armistice Day thoughts

In 2014 publishers gave us some superb books describing the origins of the First World War including Christopher Clarks spellbinding The Sleepwalkers. In the four years between 2014 and 2018 has the world moved towards peaceful coexistence? Do we learn from history? You must be joking

JERRY ROBERTS. Globalism meets economic nationalism. Don't write off Trump or Morrison.

The most interesting political action worldwide is happening in Europe and right now the focus is on Italys coalition government of left and right standing up to Brussels rules. Similar forces are at work in the United States of America. Are these working-class pressures building up in Australia? I hope so but we will learn nothing about them from the Wentworth by-election.

JERRY ROBERTS. Pomp and circumstance. The Royal tour.

There is some debate whether it was H.L. Mencken or P.T. Barnum who said that nobody ever went broke under-estimating the intelligence of the public. Either way, the executives of Australias self-proclaimed Royal Network followed the advice faithfully when preparing for the current Royal tour. They assumed that the entire population of our continent is brain-dead. Judging by Channel Sevens coverage of the visit by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the assumption was warranted.

JERRY ROBERTS Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen, Steve Bannon and the TPP

When Bill Shorten on camera announced that Labor would support the TPP he looked like a schoolboy telling the teacher that the dog ate his homework. Bill knew his excuse was phony. Will the TPP be the issue that finally forces the ALP back to the labour movement or will the Party fudge its way into office as it has done throughout the 30 years of neoliberal ascendancy?

JERRY ROBERTS. Is Ken Wyatts position tenable?.

Ken Wyatt is one of the few high-class acts in a low-class environment known as the Australian Federal Parliament. If he is driven out of the place it will be the Parliaments loss, not Kens

JERRY ROBERTS. The Cuckoo and the Nest.

Of all the abuse heaped on the head of Malcolm Turnbull the heaviest spray came from Noel Crichton-Browne, a past President of the West Australian Division of the Liberal Party, a Senator and political power-broker par excellence.

JERRY ROBERTS Whither Labor?

Stan Grant in his interesting post of 10 September asks which kind of conservatism our Prime Minister will practise. Since we are about to commence a decade of Labor in office in Canberra a more pertinent question is what type of Labor Government will it be?

JERRY ROBERTS. What is the issue?

Young Australian families are living in brand new suburbs on the outskirts of our cities. They now constitute a significant proportion of the nations population. A few years ago, these suburbs were sandhills and bush. They have no post-settlement history. Do they have a culture? What interests these young couples? In political terms, what is the issue?

JERRY ROBERTS Media monstrosities and a fundamental political error

The two overpowering impressions remaining after last weeks political drama are an abuse of media influence correctly identified by Chris Uhlmann and a mistaken view among some Liberal MPs about the nature of their Partys base.

JERRY ROBERTS Politics and Religion

Fraser Anning has given us the most spectacular take on The White Australia Policy since Labor legend Arthur Calwells 1947 quip: Two Wongs dont make a White. Calwell later explained that he was making a joke at the expense of the member for Balaclava, T.W. White. I accept his explanation just as I accept Senator Annings statement that he did not know the dark Nazi use of the words, final solution.

JERRY ROBERTS. What was the plan?

Peter Dutton was set up to lose the next election and to lose it badly. That would have left the Liberals in an even more chaotic mess than they are in today. To whom should they turn for salvation? Why, of course, to Captain Chaos himself Tony Abbot. That was the plan.

JERRY ROBERTS. Will Turnbull call a snap election and let the people decide?

The 19 August Fairfax-IPSOS poll showed the Coalition with 33 per cent of the primary vote and Labor with 35 per cent. John Menadue added the two figures and deduced that 32 per cent would not have voted for any of the major Parties. The problem for pollsters after the drama of Tuesday morning in Canberra will be knowing what question to ask.

JERRY ROBERTS. West Australian white ants move into interesting territory.

Putting aside the anonymous gutlessness of the West Australian Parliamentary Liberals and the colossal arrogance of The West Australian Newspaper, the campaign against Opposition Leader Mike Nahan has raised a useful question. Which is more influential in election campaigning conventional newspaper and television or the brave new world of Facebook and Twitter?

JERRY ROBERTS Why kill Bill?

Despite the failure of the strategy in the Super Saturday by-elections, Malcolm Turnbull is more determined than ever to kill Bill. What drives this homicidal obsession?

JERRY ROBERTS. Termites and other animals.

When West Australian Opposition Leader Mike Nahan appeared on the news under fire for dual citizenship I hope everybody else shared my reaction. Not again, I moaned. Surely, we had enough of this nonsense in the federal Parliament. Do we have to go through it in the States?

JERRY ROBERTS. The weirdest by-election of them all

On a day of weird and silly by-elections the weirdest of all was held in Perth. For Sydney-siders who have never heard of the place, thats a remote capital city on the Indian Ocean side of the continent.

JERRY ROBERTS. A Win-Win Weekend for the Liberals.

Whichever way you look at it, Saturdays by-election in the hills of Perth was a heavy blow to the West Australian Government and Premier Mark McGowan and a corresponding boost for the Liberal Party.

JERRY ROBERTS. Share the Blame.

It is not just the bankers who have lost status under the spotlight of our Royal Commission. Australias governing classes in their entirety are diminished. Our politicians on both sides of the House, our regulatory bureaucracies, the media, our Professors of Economics and Business Administration, our independent think tanks and their incessant propaganda of deregulation and privatisation It is time for all of them to go back to school.

<