Government
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Modern Olympics: Russian athlete bans violate the charter
Will Australian athletes face a similar ban on participation in the Olympics for their government’s wars of aggression? Continue reading »
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The sin of Robodebt
What appears to be absent from the politicians and public servants appearing in the Robodebt Royal Commission is an understanding that it was a moral failure – a sin. Finding the sinners to punish in atonement might make us feel better for a moment, but it might not fix the sin. Continue reading »
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Brexit over; now for common sense
The Brexit saga has played itself to death with much relief all round except perhaps at Britain’s political margins. Continue reading »
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What our media don’t tell us: Has the D-Notice returned?
Many Australians have turned to non-mainstream sources of news. They are often more reliable, and cheaper. Without them, the Nordstream pipeline sabotage of September 2022 would still be unexplained. Continue reading »
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Superannuation tax changes and budget repair
The very modest superannuation changes have been well received by most people, but the worry is the unwillingness of the Government to acknowledge, let alone tackle, the much bigger fiscal challenges that lie ahead. Continue reading »
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The Windsor framework: oven-ready fudge
More than three years after Boris Johnson got Brexit done with his ‘excellent’ and ‘oven-ready’ deal, his second successor Rishi Sunak may have actually baked it, but only after changing the recipe from cake to fudge. But is there enough fudge to go around? Continue reading »
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Beyond words: Labor’s betrayal of Australia
From our Minister for Foreign Affairs Australians must expect ever more duplicity, more smoothing the path to war orchestrated by America, for America’s ends. It’s a struggle for words to convey the enormity of what we face. It is beyond our politicians. Australia is being dragged into war. No doubt. Continue reading »
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Ten election theories to test in New South Wales
A week a long time in politics? How about 28 years? Believe it or not the last time the Labor Party displaced a Coalition Government in New South Wales was in 1995. Continue reading »
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Aukus fallout: as US-China tensions grow, Australians reveal mixed feelings about nuclear submarine pact
Surveys reveal concerns that Aukus won’t make Australia safer, while fears grow of ‘secretive policymaking and little government accountability’. Some observers have also questioned the high cost of Aukus to taxpayers, suggesting there are other, less expensive ways to ‘deter China’. Continue reading »
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The lopsided distributional impacts of Australia’s profit-price inflation
With excess corporate profits accounting for 69% of additional inflation beyond the RBA’s target, current anti-inflation policy blames the victims of inflation, while ignoring its perpetrators. Continue reading »
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All over bar the shouting: the inevitability of a submarine farce
The AUKUS submarine fetish has colonised the minds of the Labor ministers and ejected practical commonsense. Continue reading »
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Richard Marles and the betrayal of Australian sovereignty
It’s clear that Australian sovereignty is being seriously, perhaps fatally, imperilled by the policies of successive Australian governments populated by Australians with divided loyalties. Continue reading »
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How will we know the migration system has been fixed?
The Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O’Neil, has declared Australia’s migration system is “broken. It is unstrategic. It is complex, expensive and slow. It is not delivering for business, for migrants, or for our population”. Continue reading »
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Be alert but not very alarmed as ASIO rediscovers bad, as opposed to friendly, foreign spies
The Director General of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Mike Burgess, is an intelligence professional whose views about threats to national security should be considered carefully, and on their merits. Continue reading »
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The silicosis epidemic – a symptom of wider regulatory failure
The epidemic of silicosis amongst tradespeople working with manufactured stone was predictable, preventable, and an illustration of a broken OHS system across NSW and the rest of Australia. Continue reading »
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Do China’s COVID-19 numbers add up?
Now that China is opening up, it’s a good time to reflect on their pandemic response. Continue reading »
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Young Afghan women are pivoting to online education after the Taliban ban
It has been over a year and half since girls’ secondary education was banned by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and recently, they banned women from studying at universities too – which led the future of many women and girls to darkness. Continue reading »
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SSNs for the RAN: A response to Brian Toohey
Brian Toohey (Pearls and Irritations, 14 February 2023) makes a number of criticisms of the recent four-part series on national security by Michael Keating and myself that was published in Pearls and Irritations earlier this month. He contends that we have made “assertions that should not go unchallenged”, particularly in regard to our support for Continue reading »
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John Pesutto – What are his chances?
Election night TV coverages blur into one big indigestible mass as the years go by. Yet every now and again a few stand out. Continue reading »
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Australia needs to think beyond China about data security
The discussion on TikTok and Hikvision infiltration in Australian government departments has centred inarticulately and dogmatically on the country of origin. But there are other more realistic and probable security threats lurking in plain sight. Continue reading »
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The “little Americans” that populate Australia
Greg Sheridan, in his opinion piece of Tuesday 21 February, provides yet another display of his spiteful, vacuous journalism – his erroneous claims that I am not the progenitor of the APEC Leaders’ Meeting, and that my views on Australian strategic policy are eccentric and at odds with the US alliance. Continue reading »
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The one hope for peace in the West Bank
Last Thursday, the Australian government condemned Israel for planting more settlements on the occupied West Bank: 10,000 extra units. It’s a big step to criticise Israel because in Australia its organised friends are a powerful lobby. But this was a huge breach of international law. And, as Penny Wong pointed out, a deliberate blow to Continue reading »
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China war pornography and hypoxia: Anticipating the Defence Strategic Review
Many government reviews or reports are leaked in part for reasons of bureaucratic politics and the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) is no exception. Continue reading »
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Thinking differently about sovereignty and economy
While Governments often promote consensus views that disguise racism, domination of the less fortunate and an ages old acceptance that violence can sustain dominant interests, recent articles in P&I have begun to challenge this conformity. Continue reading »
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Infrastructure policy ‘Pearl Harboured’
The Government’s response to the ‘independent’ review of Infrastructure Australia involves a surprise attack on public policy which should be rebuffed. Continue reading »
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The difficulties of health reform
When he was Treasurer Paul Keating complained that the resident galah in every pet shop across Australia was talking about microeconomic reform. Over the last few months the galahs have learned a new script: health reform. Continue reading »
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Don’t ask the government about the next war
This is war protest month, with more to follow. Will efforts against the Iraq war, that failed twenty years ago this week, succeed in heading off the next one? Continue reading »
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A plan for human survival
Among the world’s many pressing needs, the most urgent of all is a plan for human survival. And Australia should be the country to lead its creation. Continue reading »
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No basis for temporary protection visa scare mongering
Opening up access to permanent residence for long stay refugees on temporary visas is right and inevitable. The decision will not set off a major new surge of maritime asylum seekers. The Coalition and their supporters have selective memories. Temporary protection visas were never a deterrent anyway. Continue reading »
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By law, 50% of political candidates in Tunisia must be women
But is the Arab country’s pioneering gender parity laws and the ‘State Feminism’ introduced in the 1950s by Habib Bourguiba under threat from President Kaîs Saïed’s new electoral law? Continue reading »
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