Politics
-
Canberra Shuffles its China Briefcase to decouple,rather than improve relations.
After more than half a year’s delay, Foreign Minister Maryse Payne has announced the appointment of a new Chair of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, Ms Pru Bennett, a senior advisor to the global strategic advisory Brunswick Group. Continue reading »
-
Dirty Dyson demolishes his own reputation
It seems impossible that the reputation of Dyson Heydon, retired High Court judge and one-time royal commissioner, will ever recover from the trashing it got this week. Continue reading »
-
The Grattan Institute’s Fiscal Recovery Plan
The economy is presently receiving an unprecedented, but time-limited, level of fiscal support. The report just released by the Grattan Institute provides a very good analysis of what is now needed to sustain the economic recovery. Continue reading »
-
Pathological philanthropy in the Australia-US Alliance
With confirmed coronavirus cases in excess of two million, the number of new, confirmed cases across the country approaching 45,000 per day for most of the last ten weeks, and resultant deaths in excess of 126,000 (and climbing), the decisions made across the United States to open the economy should not surprise. Continue reading »
-
The ABC-Out of sight, out of care
This continues yesterday’s feature on ABC Australia, our underfunded and neglected TV presentation to the Asia Pacific. Look on, ye neighbours, and despair. Continue reading »
-
Multicultural Australia in danger in resurgent pandemic. Part 2 What we know but need to know more about and why.
The national medical bureaucracy needs to make one change to its data collection about COVID-19 that will be disruptive in the short term but very productive in the medium and longer term. It may save lives, reduce morbidity, protect social cohesion and help save the economy. But it hasn’t. Why is that? Continue reading »
-
Habemus Taoiseach: Ireland has a new government at last
Last Friday evening, as white smoke wafted from the chimney above Ireland’s parliament building, Leinster House in Dublin, the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) came out onto the steps and announced to the assembled throng in Kildare Street, ‘Habemus Taoiseach’ (We have a prime minister). Continue reading »
-
The Myth of Chinese Money in Australia
Fears amongst the Australian public of China buying up the country run deep. Opportunistic politicians and commentators have long shown a willingness to tap into this unease to boost their own following. Continue reading »
-
Our dream run over COVID has come to an end
Australia awoke last week to the strains of Spike Milligan’s poignant refrain, “I’m walking backwards to Christmas.” Continue reading »
-
Judge Dyson, moving in the lower circles of hell
If Dyson Heydon is guilty of the sexual harassment allegations made against him, most people would agree that he deserves what he gets. Continue reading »
-
Multicultural Australia in danger in resurgent pandemic. Part 1: The problem
A dark hole sits at the heart of multicultural Australia – the data by-pass on how the COVID19 virus pandemic is affecting our culturally diverse communities. Continue reading »
-
West Bank annexation – ‘Another glorious chapter in the history of Zionism ’?
It is an anxious time for an unlikely combination of Benjamin Netanyahu and the publishers of world atlases and gazetteers. Will they have to pulp existing supplies because of his intentions? Or will he fail for a change and save them the trouble – at least, for now? Continue reading »
-
Why Australia needs to join global condemnation of Israel’s annexation plans (SMH 25.6.20)
As early as next week, Israel proposes to forcibly annex up to a third of the Palestinian West Bank, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it “another glorious chapter in the history of Zionism”. Continue reading »
-
Australian Soaps to the Pacific – Good Diplomacy?
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade launched an initiative to send commercial (soaps) Australian television programs to stations in the South Pacific. This will do little to enhance vigorous and discerning projection of Australian news and values in the region. Continue reading »
-
Stuck in the craw of the Coalition
What is it about the ABC that gets stuck in the craw of the Coalition? Continue reading »
-
High Court Judges and not just Dyson Heydon
A High Court judge colluded in the dismissal of a Prime Minister. The separation of powers was put aside. My confidence in our institutions took a battering. Continue reading »
-
An open letter to the Prime Minister from ABC friends and supporters
Your recent statement “ There have been no cuts to the ABC “ sadly reminds us of Tony Abbott’s similar bold election promise in 2013, yet this was followed by major cutbacks in his first Budget as Prime Minister. Continue reading »
-
Knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Universities are not, and must never be, walled citadels – protected enclaves sheltering from the societies that surround and nurture them. Continue reading »
-
The inevitability of fundamental change in the world and what China wants
“The coronavirus pandemic will change the world order forever. When the Covid-19 pandemic is over, institutions in many countries will look as if they have failed. It is not a question of whether this judgment is correct from an objective point of view. The reality is that after the coronavirus, the world will never be Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up, 28 June 2020
Stories from the USA, Britain and Australia about the links between Black Lives Matter, climate change and inequality. Investment in renewable energy continues to climb but it remains woefully inadequate to head off a climate catastrophe. Abandoned oil and gas wells spew out methane but Themeda Green brings happiness. Continue reading »
-
Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy Continue reading »
-
Proposed University Funding is Policy Ideological Vandalism
Minister Tehan’s targeted university funding proposal is part of an ongoing government plan to destroy the ‘hotbeds of left-wing ideological fervour’ seen as centred in arts and social science faculties. Continue reading »
-
What is to be done about the Chinese in Oz?
During the last Federal elections, our political leaders went on WeChat, to impress the PRC émigrés. They seemed not to care about the feelings of the huayi Aussies who have mostly come here since 1951. Continue reading »
-
Worried about(Chinese) agents of foreign influence? Just look at who owns Australia’s biggest companies
The attention being given to possible covert influence being exercised by China in Australia shouldn’t distract us from recognising that very overt foreign influence now occurs through investment. Continue reading »
-
Searches, Seizures and Sanctions in Australia’s Immigration Detention Camps
A disturbing and distressing new development has occurred in the Commonwealth’s policies with respect to immigration detention. Pursuant to an amendment to the Migration Act (Cth), non-citizens who have committed criminal offences in Australia are now subject, under s.501, to mandatory cancellations of their visas. Continue reading »
-
Dyson Heydon bites the dust
Former High Court of Australia judge, Dyson Heydon, was chosen by ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott to run a royal commission to put “the boot into the unions”, Bill Shorten and Julia Gillard. The whole exercise was a disaster. Continue reading »
-
Government fails to value the humanities, ignoring the realities
The Government’s decision to more than double the cost of most humanities degrees is ignorant, cowardly and even malicious. A government that feels a need to constrain critical thinking must give us great cause for concern. Continue reading »
-
Confronting anti-Asian racism shows Australia’s commitment to democratic values.
The question of whether there has been an increase in anti-Asian racism has become a political football between Australia and China. Claims that China’s warnings are politically motivated and that COVID-19 related racism is on the rise are not mutually exclusive but denials of growing anti-Asian racism in Australia go against the personal experience of Continue reading »
-
A rose coloured view of the dangers of Pine Gap
Fifty years ago this month Pine Gap, the American military base in the centre of Australia, commenced operations. With no public fanfare, this anniversary might have passed by unnoticed if former National Security Agency electronic intelligence analyst at the base, David Rosenberg, hadn’t drawn it to attention. Continue reading »
-
Morrison throws the switch to vaudeville
Fresh from his redemption after The Great Bush-fire Debacle, Scott Morrison is reverting to type. In a farcical press conference he stated that Australia’s institutions and businesses were being targeted by a sophisticated state-based cyber actor. Continue reading »