Politics
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Peak Sinophobia in Australia?
Sinophobia in Australia, promoted over recent years by naïve MPs, opportunistic academics and jejune journalists, has now entered its neo-McCarthyist phase…. Continue reading »
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AMA lobby’s aged care money grab
The Australian Medical Association, a lobby group and peak body for doctors, has offered up a thinly disguised money-grab in the form of expert recommendations in response to the Aged Care Royal Commission…. Continue reading »
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Who wants war with Iran? Not Australia
Iran has resented the US ever since the CIA and MI6 overthrew Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953. For its part, the US has wanted vengeance against Iran ever since the Islamic revolution ousted their ally and Israel’s, Mohammad Reza Shah. Iran is the last of the seven countries listed in 2000 by the Neo-conservatives to… Continue reading »
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Cracks form a year out from South Australian election
One year out from the next South Australian state election and Steven Marshall’s Liberal government is starting to lose its mildly progressive safe covid manager gloss as old and new scandals and blunders start to bite…. Continue reading »
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Prince Phillip: royalty remains central to Australian identity
With the death of Prince Phillip on Friday the reaction in the Australian media has been immediate and overwhelming. Stories about his humorous, and sometimes offensive, statements have been repeated ad nauseum and the extent of his service to the broader community in the Commonwealth has been lauded. This saturation coverage reinforces how powerful the… Continue reading »
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Is Ben Roberts-Smith the Biggest Anzac Story since Gallipoli?
When Brendan (“Biggles”) Nelson, AWM Director at the time, heard about the early allegations againt Robert-Smith and other soldiers, he fumed: “Where is the national interest in tearing down our heroes?” It’s my very strong view that the alleged controversies involving special forces, unless involving the most egregious breaches of the laws of armed combat,… Continue reading »
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Morrison’s minders at the heart of his doldrums
Perhaps a day will come when the champion rorters, liars, and conscious mis-managers of public resources are before a serious corruption commission and out on their ears…. Continue reading »
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Melissa Parke successfully settles defamation case against pro-Israeli commentator
Melissa Parke has successfully settled defamation legal proceedings with pro-Israeli commentator Colin Rubinstein over his claims that Parke had been anti-Semitic in her remarks on Israeli treatment of Palestinians…. Continue reading »
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WA election: an untold story
Of course, the main story about the WA election is the scale of the Labor victory. However, there is an untold story: the total failure of the “don’t give Labor total control message.”… Continue reading »
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Response to Brendan Coates on Retirement Income System
While Brendan Coates makes some valid criticisms of Paul Keating’s recent claims about Australia’s retirement income system, his own claims and assumptions (and those of the Retirement Income Review) are also open to question…. Continue reading »
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Australian Labor and Palestine in 2021
I cannot imagine anyone in the ALP in 2021 who does not hope for the emergence of a Palestinian state? How this outcome might occur is where differences emerge…. Continue reading »
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Ministerial staff can’t be strangled but they can be leashed
It is probably too late to throw partisans out of ministerial offices, or even to strangle the triennial increase in the number of ministerial staff, whether or not they are to be subjected to ordinary rules of civility and respect for each other. But it is not too late to set some enforceable public standards… Continue reading »
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2021 Tasmanian State Election Overview
Less than a fortnight into the campaign, the 2021 Tasmanian state election already has voters astonished and bewildered with party infighting, candidate ticket instability, policy backflips amongst other features undermining public trust on full display. Of which are compounded by the blatant political opportunism in the timing of the election date which the Government has… Continue reading »
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Lobby Land. The power of the health lobby. Health ministers may be in office but they are not in power. An update.
The major barrier to health reform is the power of providers- the health lobby. A succession of Australian health ministers Liberal and Labor for three decades have failed in any serious health reform. We have been going around in circles. It is very depressing. The new shadow minister Mark Butler could succeed as Minister if… Continue reading »
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A nauseating colonial cringe by our media for an upper class Steptoe.
The BBC scrapped all regular programming to cover Prince Phillip’s death. The complaints roared in from viewers, listeners and online followers who complained that it was all too much and they wanted their regular programs back… Continue reading »
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A culture of corruption is engulfing the Morrison government
A culture of corruption is engulfing the Morrison government. It’s not just the endless graft and largesse – the million-dollar contracts to Liberal linked companies, the generously (mis)allocated ‘grants’ to coalition seats, the personal sinecures to retiring party faithful, the cruel illegality of Robodebt – we’ve become inured to all that, this is a corruption… Continue reading »
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When will Australian political parties professionalise their preselection processes?
The shocking ongoing revelations about men behaving badly in the Australian Parliament has exposed a number of individuals for their misogyny and antiquated attitudes to women generally and their female colleagues in particular. They are discredited dinosaurs who do not belong in any modern workplace ,let alone in the national forum for charting best practice… Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up, 11 April 2021
Factions of the Liberal and National parties continue their coal wars in NSW. Scientists in the USA recommend solar geoengineering research but a community backlash delays experiments in Sweden. Health workers hold up the Adani’s mine development…. Continue reading »
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Oligarchy versus Democracy: choices of power for leaders
At coffee with some mates recently, we puzzled over this – it seems the political choice evident in world affairs at present is not between democracy and communism but between democracy and oligarchy…. Continue reading »
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Washington’s Delusion of Endless World Dominion
Empires live and die by their illusions. Visions of empowerment can inspire nations to scale the heights of global hegemony. Similarly, however, illusions of omnipotence can send fading empires crashing into oblivion. So it was with Great Britain in the 1950s and so it may be with the United States today…. Continue reading »
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy… Continue reading »
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Shifting national interests put Biden’s alliance strategy in doubt
The Biden Administration’s approach to China is anchored in the strength America draws from its alliances. The President and the Secretaries of State and Defense have made this clear. This is an anachronistic basis on which to construct a strategic policy given today’s strategic realities…. Continue reading »
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Is Australia’s retirement income system delivering on its potential?
‘The Australian retirement income system is effective, sound and its costs are broadly sustainable’ according to the Retirement Income Review chaired by Mike Callaghan…. Continue reading »
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Why cities planning to spend billions on light rail should look again at what buses can do
Many cities in Australia and around the world have recently made or proposed investments in new light rail systems. They often do so in the belief this will not only increase public transport use, but also lead urban renewal and improve a city’s global image. However, compared to light rail, my research shows a system of buses running along dedicated corridors, known… Continue reading »
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21st century democracy: blurring the lines
President Biden, at his first press conference, said this: “Look, I predict to you, your children and grandchildren are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded: autocracy or democracy? Because that is what is at stake, not just with China”…. Continue reading »
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Morrison’s over-hyping of vaccine delivery
If the mass vaccination of Australians against the severe effects of Covid-19 proves to be a complete political debacle for the government, it seems likely at this moment that it will be more a consequence of its being over-hyped by the prime minister than of serious mismanagement of the program, or even the incompetence which… Continue reading »
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What would US-China war really mean?
Do the commentators who talk of war with China actually think about what this would mean?… Continue reading »
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To Halt ’30-Year Race to the Bottom,’ Yellen Calls for Global Minimum Tax on Corporations
“A high global minimum tax can change the face of globalization—by making its main winners (multinational companies) pay more in taxes, instead of them paying less and less.”… Continue reading »
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The usual suspects and mates, making a killing from vaccinations
Australia has the right to whinge about Europe’s withholding of solid vaccines orders. We have done that, even as we have accepted the decision with reasonably good grace. We have to, more or less, because there is no immediate hope of reversing the decision through law courts or military invasion, and because our moral, as… Continue reading »
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Labor’s National Conference reaffirms the Party’s call for recognition of the State of Palestine
Labor’s 30th March 2021 National Special Platform Conference reaffirmed the Party’s call for recognition of the State of Palestine…. Continue reading »
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