Politics
-
COVID 19 and Victoria: responsibility in Australian politics – Part 2
The COVID epidemic has laid bare many of the stresses that have been building up in Australian society, polity and economy over the past four decades. Continue reading »
-
Protests against Indonesian economic reform: stability and a minimum wage have gone
Indonesian President Joko Widodo wants to snare foreign investors. They’re a wary lot. Though excited by big markets and the chance of bigger returns, they’re fearful of losing fortunes, and with good reason: Risk. Continue reading »
-
Darylgate: a Federal matter as well
A week is a short time in politics. In less than that time, an affair emerged that had lasted five years if you believe Gladys, or seven if you believe Daryl. Continue reading »
-
Home Affairs is too heavy handed to handle immigration
The 2020 Budget highlighted the dependence of Australia’s economic growth on a continually rising population. The Covid-19 border restrictions have caused negative net migration for the first time in more than a century. In a double whammy, the pandemic-induced anxieties have caused a drop in annual births per woman from 1.69 to 1.58. Continue reading »
-
Who runs Crown? Packer’s enablers
The latest revelation is that Crown is being formally investigated by AUSTRAC for breaches of money laundering regulations. But these are the tip of what is becoming a fairly substantial iceberg. Continue reading »
-
Exorbitant cost of the Coalition’s renewed interest in manufacturing
Before the budget Scott Morrison announced through Michelle Grattan a $1.5 billion plan to boost manufacturing in six priority areas – resources technology and critical minerals processing, food and beverage, medical products, recycling and clean energy, defence and space. Not surprisingly there was no critical examination by the mainstream media. Continue reading »
-
China is not the urgent threat; climate change is
Spending priorities by the federal government are increasingly questionable, if not indefensible; they raise fundamental questions about the competence and intelligence of our policymaking elites. Continue reading »
-
Joseph McCarthy smiled in his grave
McCarthyism was re-incarnated when Senator Eric Abetz asked three young Chinese Australians to “unequivocally condemn” the Chinese Communist Party. Congratulations to Chiu, Jiang and Chau for having the courage to defend themselves when bullied. Continue reading »
-
Forgotten East Timor: Island, principles, people
Did Gough Whitlam greenlight Indonesia’s violent seizure of East Timor in 1975? The invasion and 24-year occupation took the lives of up to 300,000 people in a population of 650,000 living on a wretchedly poor leftover from European colonisation. Continue reading »
-
The renaissance of nuclear energy is a myth
Nuclear energy is often abused to secure power political and geopolitical strength. Renewable energy, on the other hand, strengthens democracy, participation and prosperity. Continue reading »
-
Will our Glad have a chair when the music stops?
Spare a thought for the personal tragedy of Gladys Berejiklian, a genuinely hard-working and on the face of it a decent premier of NSW. Brought low because she formed a long-term personal relationship with a spiv, one whose general dishonesty and abuse of power seems to have extended to trading on her credit. Continue reading »
-
Abetz fearlessly proclaims he is not a Fascist by birth
Likely, none of the three distinguished Australians of Chinese ethnicity appearing a Senate committee hearing expected to be comprehensively done over by two ideologues from the Australian right – Senators Eric Abetz and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. Continue reading »
-
COVID 19 and the transformation of Victoria – Part 1
As Melbournians waited with bated and unbated breath for the announcement last Sunday about relief from the Stage Four lockdown, the pressure that has been increasing dramatically for the past month has eased. Will a new normal be reached? Continue reading »
-
Reform of the waterfront, with its dogs and security guards, was minor compared to what’s needed for health sector
Medicare funds the established system of health care delivery, a system that has not seen major changes since Medicare was established 56 years ago. It needs serious reform and particularly in the way the health workforce is structured. The pandemic has revealed serious weaknesses. Continue reading »
-
Necessary but insufficient: Anti-corruption commissions won’t stop corruption
Unfortunately, it’s patently obvious that we need anti-corruption commissions to expose corruption in Australian politics. But history shows such commissions to be necessary to expose corruption but insufficient to prevent it. Continue reading »
-
A once in a century opportunity missed- A Liveable Income Guarantee
Ignoring for now the failure to promise an increase in Newstart, the general chorus emanating from commentators on the budget has been critical of the omission of serious money for social housing, for an increased childcare subsidy, and for increased rental assistance – all of which would have provided instant and widespread stimulatory bang for Continue reading »
-
Gladys’ arrogance paves the way for Federal ICAC
The most remarkable thing about the revelation of Gladys Berejiklian’s love life was that it was remarkable at all. Continue reading »
-
The ACT Election – a loss for Liberals but not really a win for Labor
The ACT election on Saturday was the 15th consecutive Australian election in which the Liberal Party has lost ground. Why has it swung so far to the right, away from its own principles? Continue reading »
-
Part 1: From CES to Job Network
The best way to assess Australia’s controversial system of contracted employment services is to track where it came from, how it affected services, and how and why successive governments have adjusted it. For, despite a widely expressed view that the policy was a complete failure it has endured for 23 years. Continue reading »
-
Trump pressures South Korea over China
When most around the world had battened down the hatches for a rough ride through the last days of the US Presidential election campaign, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has become seriously preoccupied again with the Trump administration. Continue reading »
-
The wool trade: hostage to intransigence
Animal welfare groups object to the wool industry because of the process of mulesing, a treatment used to protect sheep from fly strike. They argue that mulesing is cruel and invasive regardless of whether painkillers are used. There is, however, an alternative to mulesing that is painless, bloodless and no less protective. Continue reading »
-
The Gladys and Daryl Show. Having to squirm in open hearings acts as a disincentive to venality
If Gladys Berejiklian, and her ludicrous consort, have to take one for the team, let it not be for tiny misdemeanours but for being parties to a corrupted mindset of the spoils of public office. Continue reading »
-
Why values matter in a crisis
A crisis is a test of leadership. A test of systems. And a test of relationships. But it is also a test of values. Continue reading »
-
‘Loose talk’ by MPs worsens China tensions: China is not an enemy: Houston ( AFR Oct 16, 2020)
Former Defence Force chief Angus Houston says ‘‘loose talk’’ by MPs has made tensions with China worse than necessary and has called for an urgent reset in the relationship between Canberra and Beijing. China is our partner. China is not an enemy. Let’s get that straight. Continue reading »
-
In for a penny, in for a pound: $90 billion for an obsolete submarine fleet
So much for Australian sovereignty. We are locked out of repairing key US components of our subs’ computer systems, and the Coalition has committed our submarine fleet to the extraordinarily dangerous role of helping the US conduct surveillance in the South China Sea. Continue reading »
-
Jacinda Arden wins in an unprecedented landslide
It is sometimes said that New Zealand is a young country that boxes above its weight. The same might be said for its Prime Minister Jacinda Arden. In the triennial election bout she defeated the woman who seems pleased to be nicknamed “Crusher” Collins (because as a minister she ordered hoons’ cars to be crushed). Continue reading »
-
The altar boys at The Australian
The usually reliable NewsPoll last week delivered a bombshell as unexpected as it was unwelcome to its Murdochratic media proprietors Continue reading »
-
Queensland votes Part 1: Marching to the beat of a different drum
Queensland elections are always different from other states in that regional issues often take pride of place, and personalities often seem more important than policy differences between the parties. Continue reading »
-
Megaphone Madness: how reckless media impeded Victoria’s Covid-19 recovery
The media we consume influences our compliance with Covid-19 recommendations. Poor media coverage in Victoria is impeding the state’s recovery. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up, 18 October 2020
Plastics: littering the ocean floor, not being recycled, not easily replaced, may or may not provide oil and gas producers with a prosperous future. Populations of vertebrates have declined by 68% in 50 years. Continue reading »