John Menadue

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.

John's recent articles

Brian Lawrence. Bracket creep and income tax priorities in the May 2016 Budget

The May 2016 Budget will frame a political narrative about rising average incomes over recent years and the budgetary measures that will ensure that the trend will continue in the next year and beyond. This will occur despite the impact of cuts in Government expenditure over a range of services and cash benefits. There are two past Budget documents that summarise this kind of narrative in average living standards over the past two decades: The last Budget of the previous Coalition Government in May 2007 provided a summary of the actual and projected improvements in real disposable incomes...

Mark Gregory. What the government doesnt want you to know about the NBN

The Coalitions National Broadband Network (NBN) plan is in trouble and the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should heed the mounting calls for Coalition NBN plan to be dropped before the nations digital future is harmed irreparably. In June it will be three years since Turnbull, as Minister for Communications, launched the Coalitions NBN plan, extolled its benefits and introduced the slick, catchy and ultimately misleading slogan Fast, Affordable and Sooner. Whilst the governments commitment may appear to have been laudable at the time, the rationale behind the decision to shift away from building a network that would connect...

David Peetz. Having a say at work.

Theres a phrase you sometimes hear about the workplace: leave your brains at the gate. Workers use it to summarise the dismissive view their bosses have about the contribution employees can make and about how much say workers have in what they do at work. Not all bosses are like that. But it seems most employees want more say at work sometimes called voice or participation in decision-making or even workplace democracy. Having a say at work Two trends have affected employees ability to have more say at work. The first is the decline in...

Editors, East Asia Forum. Australia's fraught decision on submarines

The submarine deal would fundamentally change the Australia-Japan security relationship. Australia is about to embark on its single biggest ever military acquisition. The Future Submarine Program (SEA1000) will see Australia purchase 12 submarines to replace its ageing Collins-class fleet. The SEA1000 has been a source of ongoing controversy with criticism over the lack of transparency of the process, debate about its strategic implications amidst the shifting regional geopolitical landscape, and questions about Australian economic interests and the creation of jobs in the local shipbuilding industry. The Australian government under prime minister Tony Abbott initially ruled out a...

Tony Broe. Coordinating Community Aged Care & Hospital Aged Health Care

Getting Australian Health Services right depends on delivering both Aged Care & Health Care effectively for frail high risk older-old people. Reducing inappropriate hospital admissions, shortening length of stay, returning frail people to their homes rather than Residential Care, all depend on accessible, locally based, Community Aged Care assessment support and management systems. For around 30 years a simple, geographically based, Australian system State Geriatric Medicine Teams with Commonwealth Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACATs) provided local access for many frail older people and up-to-date information on the complexities of local Aged Care services. This system is being dismantled...

Tony Wood. The $50 b. submarine project.

Jon Stanford's papers on the submarine project make an important contribution and deserve widespread circulation particularly among our decision makers. The replacement submarine decision has profound implications for all Australians. Its intention is to provide a deterrent to potential adversaries, but also to offer to the young members of our defence force weapons at least comparable with those they might face in opposition. To achieve this it is proposed we spend more on this project than we have ever spent before on military equipment. The Stanford papers make a fair case that the present proposal will result in failure...

Bill Carmichael. Overblown rhetoric about Free Trade Agreements.

The goal of trade policy is not limited to increasing export opportunities. Nor is it just about improving trade balances. Rather trade policy is about taking opportunities to improve the economys productive base. When assessing a nations experience with bilateral trade agreements, this is the test that should be applied. In each bilateral agreement Australia has completed to date, projections of the potential gains for Australia, based on unimpeded access to all markets of the other country involved, were released prior to negotiations. These studies did not, and could not, project what was actually achieved in the ensuing negotiations....

Richard Woolcott. A modern Australia for the 21st century.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said it is a great and exciting timefor Australia. Indeed, it is a time of great opportunity for the Australian Government elected later thisyearto take bold action which will transform Australia into an updated, modern member of the Asian and South West Pacific Region.   After World War II the United States wanted to implement ideals and practices it believed should be applied throughout the world. The spread of democracy was the overarching goal. Now,however, the United States, exhausted byunsuccessfulwars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now faces the rise of States with greater economic...

Jon Stanford and Michael Keating. A more efficient submarine solution.

This week the Melbourne Age, SMH and the Canberra Times carried the following article written by Jon Stanford and Michael Keating on the $50 b. submarine project. This article is based on a three part article written by Jon Stanford and posted in Pearls and irritations. See link to three articles below. John Menadue     The 2016 Defence white paper proposes a substantial increase in expenditure on major assets for the Australian Defence Force. The largest item, and the most costly acquisition ever for the ADF, is the $50 billion project for 12 future submarines. ...

Evan Williams. The seven sacred cows of Australian politics

We are indebted to the Hindu religion for that useful term sacred cow. As every schoolboy knows, Hindus venerate the cow and forbid its slaughter or abuse. Our political landscape abounds in sacred cows institutions or practices that are considered beyond criticism, immune to scrutiny and supported by politicians of all parties. Some sacred cows are worth having, of course. Perhaps the most sacred is the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal much loved by MPs when it delivers them well-deserved salary rises at regular intervals. Other sacred political cows are harder to account for. Heres my list of the top...

Mark Harris. Obesity: it is time to tax sugar sweetened beverages?

Obesity rates are increasing in the Australian population (Figure 1). There is a widening socioeconomic gap with low socioeconomic groups having the highest rates. There is some evidence that obesity rates in children may be levelling off but not in low socioeconomic status children. Overweight and obesity contributes significantly to the burden of disease (about 9% in Australia at present), loss of quality of life and premature mortality (death before completing expected life span) in Australia. Obesity is a complex problem requiring complex solutions. There is no magic bullet. Ultimately obesity occurs because of an imbalance in the amount...

'We are the forgotten people'; the anguish of Australia's invisible asylum seekers.

Nearly 29,000 asylum seekers are in Australia on temporary 'bridging visas'. These people may be free from detention but - with many denied education, healthcare and the right to work - they remain locked in desperate poverty and with no idea what their future holds. See link below to an article in The Guardian Australia. The preparation of this article was assisted by the Asylum Seekers Centre in Sydney and other organisations and people across Australia. http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/13/we-are-the-forgotten-people-the-anguish-of-australias-invisible-asylum-seekers

Kerry Breen. What ails the national registration scheme for Australias 600,000 health professionals?

In response to one element of a 2005 Productivity Commission report , the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) decided that the state and territory systems of registration of health professionals, some in existence for over 150 years, would be replaced by a single national scheme . The new scheme, based on a national law adopted by all jurisdictions, is run by the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Authority (AHPRA) which commenced operation in July 2010. It now covers 14 health professions and 600,000 health professionals. By the end of 2016, AHPRA will have been subject to two federal parliamentary inquiries (see...

China and North Korea: the long goodbye.

Jonathan D. Pollack from The Brookings Institution quotes Ambassador Wu Dawei, Japan's long-time leading negotiator on the Korean nuclear issue, who expressed mounting frustration that North Korea lets China's advice 'go through one ear and out the other ear'. Ambassador Wu suggests that North Korea ' had signed its own death warrant'. For link to Pollack article, see below. http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/03/28-china-north-korea-sanctions-pollack#.Vv2jy9wxlqc.email

John Menadue. Health reform and cooperative federalism. Part 2

In part 1 of this series, I set out why I was attracted to the development of an option set out in a COAG paper on health reform which suggested the establishment of a commonwealth hospital benefit which would replace the PHI subsidy. Regional Purchasing Agencies to address the' blame game' in health. In part 2, I examine another option in the federalism discussion paper which is for The commonwealth and the states and territories to share responsibility for all health care through Regional Purchasing Agencies. The discussion paper outlines the proposal as follows: Option 4: The...

Klaas Woldring-electoral reform,who are the reformers?

Electoral reform in Australia is extremely important. The self-interest of the parties should not dominate it. I believe an entirely Independent Inquiry should be held about Australias electoral systems altogether, similar to the Royal Commission in NZ in the 1980s. There are also very major problems with the single-member-electoral district system, problems that have much wider ramifications than the voting system alone. The resulting two-party system has become an absolute negative in itself. Consequences for other governance systems are particularly disturbing and wasteful, e.g. amending the archaic Constitution has become almost impossible and is clearly avoided by the major parties...

Institute for Public Affairs: the think tank with arms everywhere.

In this blog on 1 April 2016, Greg Bailey wrote about the close relationship between the Liberal Party and the Institute for Public Affairs.https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/blog/?p=6023 In the SMH on April 7, Elizabeth Farrelly also wrote about the Institute for Public Affairs 'The think tank with arms everywhere'. See link below: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/institute-for-public-affairs-the-think-tank-with-arms-everywhere-20160406-gnzlhq.html

John Menadue. The health insurance lobby at work at the expense of the public interest.

For many years, Ian McAuley and I have been highlighting the damage to our health system and the Australian economy as a result of the $11 b. p.a. subsidy to the private health insurance industry. We have highlighted the following and never has there been a rebuttal by these vested interests. The subsidy favours high income groups. Taxpayers money is being used to help the more wealthy jump the hospital queue Through gap insurance PHI has underwritten enormous increases in specialist fees. Despite the claims PHI has not taken pressure off public hospitals. It has made it worse by...

Lara Moroko & Sarah Duffy. Thrashing the brand: ANZ and CBA could pay a high price for choosing profit over people.

The recent CBA and ANZ scandals show that the big banks fail to understand the long-term pay off from investing in their relationships with people over short-term profit. ANZ stands accused of unconscionable conduct and manipulating the bank bill swap rate(known as the BBSW) in its favour, short changing its customers and generating illicit profits. In the same vein, it has been reported that employees of CommInsure, CBAs insurance arm, have deliberately, and in some cases illegally, removed medical details or taken action to avoid or delay the payment of claims. If these allegations are true, these practices...

Evan Williams. Rams. Film Review

Rams is a strange and beautiful film from Iceland. And we dont hear much about Iceland these days. As a child, I pictured a place of endless glaciers and permanently frozen lakes, and was surprised to discover that it was also a place of gentle hills and verdant summer grasslands, with streets and houses and a capital city whose name I could never remember. Iceland was in the news the other day when their prime minister, Sigmundur Gumlauigsson, was revealed to have hidden large stacks of money in an overseas tax haven and forced to resign. I was reminded of...

David James. CommInsure expose proves spin doesn't always win.

One of the challenges facing business journalists in Australia is the wall of spin they face whenever they are trying to uncover an uncomfortable truth. The spin ranges from outright lying to being highly selective with the facts. Most journalists either struggle to get beyond the wall, decide it is to their benefit not to attempt to scale it, or are simply too busy to even contemplate its existence. Consequently the spin, by and large, wins. Journalists always need sources to create stories it is essential to their careers and so are readily drawn into trade-offs: access to...

John Menadue. Bad apples, corporate culture and leadership.

The recent scandals at CBA,ANZ and now Wespac have focused us on business culture. But the CEOs keep telling us that there is no business culture problem but only a few bad apples. If only that were true. The issues are more systemic than they would suggest and the problem covers a wide range of companies and not just the banks massive tax avoidance by large multinational and private companies, the Seven/Eleven franchise, labor hire companies, child care and vocational education and training. The ANZ and Wespac are accused of manipulating the bank swap rate (BBSW) in its...

Bryce Barker. Of course Australia was invaded - massacres happened here less than 90 years ago.

Much has been made in the last few days of the University of New South Wales diversity toolkit offering teachers guidelines on Indigenous terminology. The most controversial directive was a line about using the term invasion to describe Captain Cooks arrival here: Australia was not settled peacefully, it was invaded, occupied and colonised. Describing the arrival of the Europeans as a settlement attempts to view Australian history from the shores of England rather than the shores of Australia. This story made the front page of the Daily Telegraph. Radio personality Kyle Sandilands quickly condemned it as an attempt to...

David Peetz. Productivity in the Construction Industry: Did it surge under the Coalitions Reforms?

On 7.30 recently the Prime Minister dismissed the Productivity Commissions findings on productivity growth in the construction industry in favour of those from a small consultancy firm. He used it to support a claim that the previous Coalition governments legislative reforms in that industry had led to a 20% increase in construction productivity, which had flatlined under Labor. Actually, though, things were a bit different. To see how we know it didnt, and why he said it did, we look at (i) whats it all aboutwhat reforms are we measuring; (ii) what the official data show about productivity in...

Ian Marsh. Whats wrong with Australian politics? Part 3.

Heres a puzzle. Over the past decade or so Australian politics has veered from one crisis to another. In that same period New Zealand has enjoyed effective and constructive government. Whats the difference? Lets start with the different records. First Australia. Here is a rough summary. Five prime ministers in five dysfunctional years. Internecine party warfare. Gridlocked policy. Chronic leadership and factional rivalries. Intractable internal ideological conflicts. These factors in various combinations have stymied both Coalition and Labor governments. Then there are failed public consultations. They meander meaninglessly as in the Turnbull/Morrison approach to tax and the Rudd...

James Morley. The idea that conservatives are better economic managers simply does not stand up.

Conventional wisdom holds that conservative politicians are more prudent stewards of the economy. These politicians are often happy to reinforce this view by citing their business acumen and denigrating the experience or lack thereof of their opponents. Think of Mitt Romney as multi-millionaire businessman versus Barack Obama, former community leader. Donald Trump also highlights his business experience, although his track record suggests hes done far worse at managing his fathers wealth than a monkey throwing darts at The Wall Street Journal. In Australia, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has positioned himself as...

Graeme Hugo, Janet Wall and Margaret Young. Migration between Australia and South East Asia is a two-way process.

Migration flows between countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Australia are generally viewed as going in one direction: toward Australia. In practice, however, data on this migration system reveal a much more complex picture that includes Australian emigration, significant temporary movements in both directions, and close connections between the two regions even after migrants permanently return to their country of origin. Australia has experienced significant inflows, particularly in the post-war period; almost half of its population of 23.2 million is either foreign born or has at least one immigrant parent. Unsurprisingly, therefore, it is usually...

Negative gearing has created empty houses and artificial scarcity.

In the SMH on March 28, 2016, Laurence Troy and Bill Randolph discuss the problem of negative gearing encouraging owners to leave houses empty. In this article they say 'At the last census there were nearly 120,000 empty dwellings in the greater Sydney region alone, representing nearly one fifth of the projected new housing demand to be met by 2031, or equivalent to nearly five years of projected dwelling need. When this is combined with under-utilised dwellings, such as those let out as short-term accommodation, the total number of dwellings reaches 230,000 in Sydney and 238,00 in Melbourne.' Dr Laurence...

Jon Stanford and Michael Keating - Submarines; cost, capability and timelines.

This article is a response to the article posted yesterday by Paul Barratt and Chris Barrie. 'The case for building the future submarines in Australia.' Both Paul Barratt and Chris Barrie have served at the highest levels in Defence and their views are clearly worthy of very serious consideration. Indeed, their contention that a military-off-the-shelf (MOTS) solution is impossible because Australia does have a unique role for a submarine and that the future submarine (FSM) should be built in locally, is shared by many people. Nevertheless, it is surprising that Mr Barratt and Admiral Barrie do not discuss...

Ian Marsh. Disaffected electorates? Dysfunctional political systems? Part 2 of 3.

Malcolm Turnbulls has created the grounds for a July election. This crafty electoral ploy offers short term gains. If the cross bench resist, the election is legitimate. If the cross bench cave in, he will have demonstrated bold leadership. Moreover, he will have attained legislation that is highly prized by his Liberal heartland. Then he can call the scheduled election later in the year. But in neither election scenario is he likely to achieve a Senate majority. Further, there is talk of preferencing the Greens. There may also be guile here. This might give him leverage on social issues...

John Menadue. The fake discussion about state taxes.

Malcolm Turnbulls ruse is obvious. He wants us to forget all about deficits and debt and the need for budget repair. To avoid these issues, he now tells us that if we want improved health and education services, we cannot have them because the states have refused his offer on state taxes and he will not increase commonwealth taxes. But we know that large increases in commonwealth government revenue are possible without any increase in income tax rates. There are numerous proposals on ways to increase revenue without increasing tax rates. The most recent was from the Committee...

Ian Marsh. What wrong with Australias political system? Part 1 of 3.

Most people are familiar with the power of incentives in economic markets. They know that efficient price signals can channel investment into productive assets and these same signals can drain funds from unconstructive pursuits. The same process more or less works at other levels. Both good and bad performance is demonstrated by similar calculations. In turn these calculations draw on a variety of other metrics prices, volumes, demand, supply, growth estimates and so forth. People also know these numbers are reasonably reliable because they come from credible institutions. Thus markets are reasonably free and undistorted. The Bureau and...

Mike Steketee. COAG and hospitals: look beyond the funding to fix our health system.

Before Malcolm Turnbull and the states start haggling over hospital funding, it's worth looking at why the system costs so much to run. Maybe it's not just cash, but waste and inefficiencies that need addressing, writes Mike Steketee. Why do our hospitals cost so much to run? Like$55 billion a year and rising rapidly? It is the question worth asking before Malcolm Turnbull and the premiers start haggling at today's COAG meeting over how best to pour more money into hospitals. Yes we are an ageing population and the health system is devising ever more clever ways to...

If we strike a deal with Japan, we're buying more than submarines.

In this article in the Melbourne Age, Hugh White comments 'So before we decide whether to select the Japanese (submarine) bid, we have to ask if an alliance with Japan is good for Australia.' See link to full article below: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/if-we-strike-a-deal-with-japan-were-buying-more-than-submarines-20160314-gni3hl.html

John Menadue. State income taxes another political diversion?

Malcolm Turnbulls suggestion of states entering the income tax field may please state rightists in the Liberal party, but it will damage our national aspirations and our national society and economy. In the repost below, Michael Keating, almost two years ago emphasised the importance of the commonwealth governments domination of income taxes since 1942. This commonwealth government supremacy has been a key factor in building our successful national economy and society. Or as Paul Keating has said, the commonwealths income tax monopoly is the glue that holds us together. We federated to overcome the confusion of six different...

Evan Williams. Eye in the Sky. Film review.

Id just come home from a screening of Eye in the Sky, Gavin Hoods fine thriller about a terrorist cell in Kenya, when the news came through that Taliban suicide-bombers had killed more than a hundred people in Pakistan. Timely reminders of the reality of modern warfare and its distinctive horrors arent hard to find these days. A couple of weeks earlier we had the ISIS attacks in Brussels; before that it was Paris. Stories abound of Al-Shabah atrocities in North Africa, and the nightmare in Iraq and Syria shows no sign of ending. Theres still plenty of scope for...

John Menadue. Budget repair and private health insurance.

Readers of this blog will be aware that I have been expressing concern about the serious consequences of the government subsidy costing $11 b. p.a. for the private health insurance industry. This subsidy has serious budget consequences: it is skewed in favour of high income earners; it has not taken pressure off public hospitals; it has underwritten a dramatic increase in private specialist fees; it penalises country people who have very limited access to private hospitals; it weakens Medicare's ability to control prices; it's premium increases for over a decade have been at three times the rate of CPI increase...

John Menadue. White mans media.

On 26 March I provided a link to an article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian, who commented 'The atrocities in Brussels happen almost daily in the streets of Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus. .. A dead Muslim is an unlucky mutt in the wrong place at the wrong time. A dead European is front page news. We have again seen this distortion of the news being played out in the bombings in Lahore. Over 70 people were killed, including many children. A week earlier, 33 died in a terrorist attack in Brussels. Just contrast the media coverage, the response by...

Mike Steketee. Election 2016: Beware the (very) long road to ruin

The risk with such a long election campaign is that unanticipated events can scuttle a party's chances. And in the 2016 campaign it's the Coalition that has everything to lose, writes Mike Steketee. Elections can throw up many imponderables and the longer the campaign runs the more likely they are to do so. After Bob Hawke won in 1983 against Malcolm Fraser, his personal popularity and that of his party kept rising. The drought broke - although not even Hawke claimed credit for that - and the economy was on the way back up after the worst recession...

Garry Woodard. Should Australia do more on the South China Sea?

No. The Prime Ministers statement in regards to the Middle East that this is not the time for gestures or machismo applies in spades to what we do in the South China Sea. Australia should act prudently and, though some will see this as a contradiction, transparently and after full parliamentary and public debate. Australias relative propinquity gives us an interest in the outcome of the territorial disputes between countries in the South China Sea, but will our interest in seeing a peaceful resolution be helped or harmed by introducing an Australian naval presence? As Australia already has a...

What a godsend politicians and journalists are to ISIS.

In The Guardian, Simon Jenkins writes about the way that the ISIS recruiting officers will be thrilled at how things have gone since their atrocity in Belgium. He points particularly to the 'paranoid politicians and sensational journalists' who have perhaps unwittingly provided great support for ISIS. Jenkins comments 'The atrocities in Brussels happen almost daily on the streets of Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus. Western missiles and ISIS bombs kill more innocents in a week than die in Europe in a year. The difference is the media response. A dead Muslim is an unlucky mutt in the wrong place at the...

John Menadue and CPD. Building a regional framework on refugees and forced-migration.

For several years a group of us at the Centre for Policy Development (CPD) have been endeavouring to develop a regional framework for the management of refugee issues in our region. We strongly feel that no country in the region, including Australia, can handle refugee flows on their own. A regional framework based on cooperation and burden-sharing is essential. For over two years we have been pursuing the case for a Track II Dialogue in the region. We have felt that this is necessary to break out of the impasse on refugees that Australia and other countries face in...

Yang Razali Kassim. Will Mahathir and Anwar's uneasy alliance unseat Najib?

The unthinkable is happening in Malaysian politics. Former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad and his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim have joined hands in a seemingly impossible alliance to unseat Prime Minister Najib Razak. Never before in Malaysian history have such sworn enemies buried their hatchets for a common cause. By launching his rainbow core group of concerned citizens of various political stripes and leanings to Save Malaysia, Mahathir has once again thrust himself into the eye of the political storm. With Anwar still in jail, the disparate forces that opposed Najib over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) investment fund...

Evan Williams. 'The Daughter' film review

The ads for the new Australian film The Daughter are proudly informing us that the film comes from the same producer who gave us The Piano and Lantana. And thats some pedigree. Lantana and The Piano were both distinguished Australian films (though the Kiwis shared some credit for The Piano), but whats this about the producer? With all due respect to Jan Chapman, the producer of The Daughter, producers dont make films. They raise the money for them, hire the main players, acquire all the rights and turn up to collect any best-picture gongs on Oscar night, but they dont...

Jonathan Karnon. No-one should get dud hospital care.

In 2013-14, Australian governments spent A$105 billion on health; A$44 billion of that was on public hospitals. The Commonwealth government is increasingly concerned with the size of the health budget and has acted to reduce the inappropriate use of Medicare benefits. But the Commonwealth government has less influence on public hospitals because the state and territory governments control their expenditure. State governments are facing tighter budgets as demand for heath care increases due to an ageing population, greater rates of chronic disease and more service use generally. The collection and analysis of data on the performance of...

John Menadue. A dismal humanitarian response to the Syrian tragedy: political inertia, bureaucratic failure and security obsession.

In earlier blogs I have highlighted the contrast between Canada and Australia's programs to settle Syrian refugees. Australia continues to be a laggard. In Parliament last week, the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, said that a total of 29 refugees had been settled as part of a 12,000 intake that Tony Abbott had announced in September last year. In November last year, the Canadian government announced that it would accept 25,000 Syrian refugees. The latest official figures from the Canadian government reveal that 26,176 Syrian refugees had arrived. Many more are in process. The arrival of only...

John Menadue. Asian refugees, the Rohingya and a regional refugee framework.

Despite hopes for a change of refugee policy in Australia, Malcolm Turnbull is faithfully following Tony Abbotts path in almost every respect. As in so many issues Malcolm Turnbull is not there when we need him. The exaggeration of our refugee problems by Malcolm Turnbull and others shows up in UNHCR figures. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, regional countries face far greater problems over irregular movements and displaced people than we do. For example in 2015 Malaysia had 272,000 people of concern to the UNHCR. Thailand had 625,000. Indonesia had 13,000. Bangladesh had 233,000. Myanmar had 1.5...

Greg Barton. Out of the ashes of Afghanistan and Iraq: the rise and rise of Islamic State.

Since announcing its arrival as a global force in June 2014 with the declaration of a caliphate on territory captured in Iraq and Syria, the jihadist group Islamic State has shocked the world with its brutality. Its seemingly sudden prominence has led to much speculation about the groups origins: how do we account for forces and events that paved the way for the emergence of Islamic State? In the final article of our series examining this question, Greg Barton shows the role recent Western intervention in the Middle East played in the groups inexorable rise. Despite...

Peter Gibilisco. Disability support services - effectiveness and efficiency.

Let me be frank. There are many stringencies that have to be faced in the provision of disability support services. We all know this whether we are recipients of in-home one-on-one support, residents, workers or management of disability support services, or even as officials of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). We all are under the pump in an economic climate where there is widespread political anxiety about budget blow-outs and a possible collapse of our financial and economic system. We all know this. So when I make my professional contribution, as a resident of such a health-care...

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