Government
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“Yes” on the Voice is a vote for a better future
Despite their occupation of our continent for over 60,000 years, our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are not recognised in the Constitution, the document on which our nation is founded. Continue reading »
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The World Cup and the folly of media laws
Long departed architects of media laws have left a lasting stain on the media landscape and the intellectual and cultural milieu of Australia. Continue reading »
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National Cabinet’s new housing plan could fix our rental crisis and save renters billions
Wednesday’s National Cabinet meeting set itself a huge task: to fix Australia’s rental crisis. Thankfully, given rents are rising at their fastest rate in decades, the plan it produced just might do the trick. Continue reading »
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Rise of the Global South: Saudi Arabia, Iran join BRICS
With the increase in the number of BRICS countries, this emerging international order dominated by the countries of the Global South will ultimately become the primary international order in the world, gradually replacing the fading international order dominated by the US and the West. Continue reading »
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Ita out – so what’s next for the ABC?
The Albanese ALP government now has an opportunity to reinvigorate and rebuild the ABC. Continue reading »
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The intergenerational report – a climate fairy tale
The future is already upon us. The forty-year Intergenerational Report (IGR) is a divertissement. Continue reading »
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The Voice: walking with the Australian people for a better future
“For me, indigenous recognition won’t be changing our constitution so much as completing it.” – Tony Abbot, 2015. Continue reading »
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Growing concern at Gusmão’s direction for Timor-Leste
Australia’s leading financial media platform, the Australian Financial Review, raised the red flag about the future of Timor-Leste this month, with International Editor Professor James Curran’s article, Timor-Leste on brink of failure. Continue reading »
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We won’t fix inflation while economists stay in denial about causes
Led on by crusading Reserve Bank governors, the nation’s economists are determined to protect us from the scourge of inflation, no matter the cost in jobs lost. Continue reading »
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The Big 4, government procurement and the rivers of gold
Australian governments are now amongst the biggest users of external consultants on the planet. Continue reading »
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Why are government officials manufacturing false espionage threats?
Government ministers and senior officials are conditioning Australians to become frightened, very frightened. Continue reading »
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The APS: Balancing responsiveness and independence
Since the Robodebt saga there have been many calls for a more independent public service that can be trusted to provide competent advice frankly and fearlessly. In that case a key issue is how departmental secretaries are appointed and dismissed. Continue reading »
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Time to grow up? Australia is becoming a militarised US outpost
I hesitate to stray into the florid world of military strategists, senior public servants, cabinet ministers and assorted think tanks, but what on earth is going on with Australia’s so-called defence policy? The Albo government seems hellbent on turning Australia into a militarised outpost of the US whose ‘pivot’ to the Asia-Pacific region has led Continue reading »
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Campbell’s AUKUS appointment did not meet standards of public service
There are solid grounds for suspecting that the appointment of Ms Kathryn Campbell, of Robodebt notoriety, to the Department of Defence’s AUKUS division did not meet the normal standards required for other appointments in the public service. Those responsible for the appointment of Ms Campbell and the suspension of her salary have got little to Continue reading »
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Australia’s biggest AUKUS risk? America, our dangerous ally
The biggest enemy of AUKUS is not the resistance of ALP branches and unions but its own over-engineered grandiosity, its naive ambition. Continue reading »
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The AUKUS folly: Albanese and the US presidential election
There never was a chance of overturning the AUKUS folly at the Labor conference. As unpalatable as it might be, the only possibility of extracting Australia from America’s war planning now lies in the bizarre milieu of American politics. And it’s not forlorn. Continue reading »
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Anthony Albanese is paralysed and failing to grasp the moment
A good many people who worked hard for a Labor government are now astonished at its lack of ambition. More nagging for those who have dreamed of Labor in action has been the complete refusal to countenance any shift in national security policy, in human rights law, in planning aggression against China, and in a Continue reading »
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Yes for the Voice: How to translate into Chinese?
The Yes for the Voice campaign must work harder on a multicultural education campaign in the last weeks leading up to the referendum. The Chinese-Australian community is still uninformed about the issues and open to rumours and disinformation. The outcome could well depend on achieving understanding and consensus between disparate ethnic communities. Continue reading »
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From Kandahar to Canberra: Why is Human Resource Management considered low priority?
In both government and business circles the rising stars avoid working in Personnel. They consider it a dead end. Yet in my view it is the most important area in order to achieve human flourishing and marginal productivity. In Afghanistan, Human Resources staff are strong willed and resilient: what can their Australian counterparts learn from Continue reading »
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Real chance of Trump victory in the US election
There are some worrying signs in recent polling which raise the disturbing possibility that a third-party campaign by the Green Party may once again divert enough votes from the Democratic Party candidate, in this case almost certainly Joe Biden, to get Donald Trump over the line in some key states and thereby deliver another Trump Continue reading »
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The ABC of university governance: an evaluation
What is the ABC of university governance? Public universities are uniquely orientated as research and innovation and teaching and learning institutions and, unmistakably, are fundamentally concerned with academic governance. Therefore, the ABC of university governance comprises three key dimensions: Academic (A) governance; Business (B) governance, and Corporate (C) governance. These dimensions, respectively, focus on scholarship, Continue reading »
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The ALP can improve democratic representation
The need for major governance system change in Australia is becoming more obvious daily but this is not obvious to the party in power federally and in five states, the ALP. Therefore, it is useful to reflect on this so that more ALP members begin to encourage their politicians to act accordingly. A preparedness to Continue reading »
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Australia, alliances and deterrence: AUKUS will not make us safer
By entering the AUKUS Partnership in 2021, Australia has undertaken to co-operate with the United States and the United Kingdom, two nuclear-weapon states, with objectives that include acquiring nuclear-powered submarines that would be armed with conventional weapons. This has the potential to weaken both the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), by setting a Continue reading »
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Labor offers new help for renters and first homebuyers, but PM must aim higher
Along with a new scheme for first home buyer assistance, Federally-led rental reform is now on the PM’s agenda. But this week’s National Cabinet and Party Conference housing announcements need to be integrated into a coherent and ambitious long-term strategy. Continue reading »
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Why is Australia afraid to call out rights violations in India?
Last month, news emerged that two Indian women belonging to the minority Kuki tribe in Manipur had been raped and then paraded naked in public. Continue reading »
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What the Voice means for Australia’s reputation
The outcome of the Voice referendum will affect Australia’s reputation – a fact voters should consider, writes John McCarthy. Continue reading »
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3 ways the Victorian government’s bail reforms fall short – and why it must embrace ‘Poccum’s Law’
The bail reform bill tabled in the Victorian parliament this week seeks to undo some of the worst parts of the Bail Act, which was condemned as a “complete and unmitigated disaster” in the coronial inquest into the passing of Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson in 2020. Continue reading »
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Federal Liberals continue to back Victorian ultra-conservative Deeming despite expulsion
The Liberal Party is in deep trouble. As our main “conservative” party, the fact that it is besieged by far right figures is reason for vigilance by the rest of us. No party holds government forever, and a “conservative” or anti-incumbent vote must not be an accidental vote for theocratic politics. Figures like Moira Deeming Continue reading »
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“Our government is about to redefine us as willing backers of US militarism” – Anthony Albanese in earlier days
“At the height of the Cold War, Prime Minister Menzies agreed to the British request for a permanent site to test nuclear weapons… This was a political decision by a government that was subservient to the British government, and today there are parallels, with the Australian government being once again subservient to the decisions of Continue reading »
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At National Conference, the ALP has the chance to recognise Palestine as a state
The 1948 Palestinian catastrophe, known to Palestinians as the Naqba, saw 750,000 of their predecessors driven from their lands, over 500 villages and towns destroyed, the extent of the killings, destruction and dispossession denied and no-one held accountable. How should Australia respond? Continue reading »