Politics
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Richard Butler. Russia and Syria: The continuation of politics by other means.
In their addresses to the UN General assembly, last week, Presidents Obama and Putin focused on the civil war in Syria. Both emphasized the need for the war, now in its 5th year, to be brought to an end. They both said that a political solution needed to be found, but they differed on a Continue reading »
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Ranald Macdonald. The ABC and a Call to Arms.
A CALL TO ARMS –Why this Country needs you to act. That is the title to my talk today and my exhortation to you all. The latest figures show over 400 ABC staff already “removed” from the ABC, as we edge towards its 500 target. The recent change in Prime Minister-ship has NOT changed expectations Continue reading »
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Mark Carney and climate change – an historic speech
The following are extracts from a speech given by Mark Carney, The Governor of the Bank of England at a Lloyd’s of London dinner on 29 September 2015 He outlines how climate change is a huge financial risk, particularly for investments in unburnable fossil fuel assets. He points out that the vast majority of these Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Border control gulags have had their time
What are the chances of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten agreeing by Christmas that it’s time to close the refugee processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island? Turnbull and Shorten already agree that the boats coming from Indonesia should be stopped. The boats are now being stopped, if need be, with turnbacks, which neither side of Continue reading »
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Libby Lloyd. Coming to grips with our domestic war
For many reasons there is currently a much greater interest in the issue of domestic and family violence. This derives from increased media attention, the significant increase in intimate partner homicides (64 so far this year), the vastly improved police and legal response, constant revision and improvement of state and federal laws, as well as Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The government just does not get it on Free Trade Agreements.
I hope readers are not getting tired that I have said many times that the government continues to exaggerate the benefits of bilateral FTAs, most recently with Japan, Korea and China. With so little to show after two wasted years – increased debt, increased deficits, and not ‘stopping the boats’ despite telling us of success Continue reading »
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Why the Rich are so much Richer in the US
Nobel Prizewinner Joseph E. Stiglitz has been at the forefront of the debate in the US and elsewhere about growing inequality. In a recent review in the New York Review of Books, James Surowiecki comments on three recent books by Stiglitz. He says: “The numbers are, at this point, woefully familiar: the top 1% of Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Economic Management, Lobbyists and the Coalition Government.
On Abbott’s political departure David Marr wrote in The Guardian “Within days of his fall he’s looking like a prime minister Australia once had a long time ago”. Most people and organisations who have given him unwavering support ever since his narrow win as Opposition Leader in 2009 were remarkably quick in endorsing Turnbull’s judgement Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Murdoch is losing his touch.
Two weeks before the fall of Tony Abbott, Rupert Murdoch tweeted “Abbott, far the best alternative”. The Liberal Party ignored his tweet and chose Malcolm Turnbull. Rupert Murdoch’s declining influence is becoming plain to see. At the last SA state election, the Adelaide Advertiser backed the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party lost. At the last Continue reading »
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Why fighters are quitting ISIS.
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at Kings College London points to the ways that many thousands of recruits who journeyed to Iraq and Syria may now be regretting their decisions. The more defectors speak out, the more the ISIS cause will suffer. The ICSR Report Executive Summary follows. John Continue reading »
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Climate Change and Refugees.
We have had a wake-up call about how Western and particularly US policies have destabilised the Middle East with the resulting exodus of refugees. Half of the Syrian population has either fled or been displaced within their own country. Climate change in the Middle East is adding to the problem. This is examined in a Continue reading »
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David Charles. Innovation, Disruption, Growth and Jobs of the Future
What a difference a day makes to so many things including innovation. Immediately prior to the replacement of Tony Abbott by Malcolm Turnbull the Commonwealth Government barely had innovation, to say nothing of digital disruption and start ups, on its radar. Its major achievements in the area of funding for innovation were mostly notable for Continue reading »
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Refugee Diary.
It is one thing to endure the terror of barrel-bombing by the Assad regime and the barbarism of ISIS in Syria. But this is only the beginning of a harrowing trek by Syrians in their journey to safety and freedom in Germany and elsewhere. Verica Jokic, an ABC journalist gave a compelling account on Radio National on Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. Fiscal Repair – both Revenue and Expenditure.
With Federal Budget deficits projected to continue indefinitely, the one thing that is generally agreed is that fiscal repair and consolidation is absolutely necessary. Where there is debate, however, is about how much of the repair job must be achieved by expenditure savings and how much by increasing revenue. In this regard, the new Treasurer Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Transfield, Manus and Nauru
Transfield and its subcontractors are profiteering from lucrative contracts to run detention centres on behalf of the Australian government on Manus and Nauru. All the indications are that there is widespread abuse and oppression particularly on Nauru. It is a disgrace. Present policies on Manus and Nauru are unsustainable yet Minister Dutton remains as Minister Continue reading »
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Dean Ashenden. Could Turnbull give a Gonski?
Until last week, Gonski’s last hope – and an increasingly promising one – was a Labor victory in 2016. Now, that hope has dimmed, but another has appeared. It would make political, ideological and policy sense for the Turnbull government and its new education minister, Simon Birmingham, to go back to Gonski. The story so Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell. The Royal Commission – Damning with faint understatement.
The reports issued by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse at times seem quietly understated. The Commission seems to invite readers to draw their own conclusions – damning or otherwise – from the facts the Commission has found. This is particularly true of its report into its Case Study No Continue reading »
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Bob Kinnaird. China FTA and a diplomatic appointment.
As the government’s exaggerated claims of economic benefit and job creation from ChAFTA are increasingly exposed, the lead DFAT negotiator on the China FTA is set to be appointed the next Australian Ambassador to China. According to reports in the Australian Financial Review and Crikey, Ms Jan Adams DFAT Deputy Secretary was nominated before the Continue reading »
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Harold Levien. Solving our Housing Problem.
The new Turnbull Coalition has the opportunity to rewrite the economic policy, or lack of it, of the previous Abbott-Hockey Government. This greatly exacerbated Australia’s housing problem and was pushing Australia into recession. The Reserve Bank’s Governor Stevens recently explained that repeated interest rate reductions were attempting to stimulate the depressed economy. He suggested the Continue reading »
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Michael McKinley. Disorder in the Australian National Security Mind
Strategy is difficulty to practice and even more difficult to master. Its components – knowledge leavened by wisdom and imagination – cohabit with military science only in the most tense and difficult of relationships. That said, there are three nearly invariable rules that should govern the thinking and acting of a strategic actor – nation Continue reading »
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Ian Marsh. Revolving Prime Ministers.
As has been widely noted, Malcolm Turnbull is our fifth prime minister in as many years. You have to go back to the 1901-1909 pre two-party period for a roughly similar record. Then it was six leaders in seven years. But the analogy is only superficial. The protagonists – Barton (briefly), Watson (briefly), Deakin, Reid Continue reading »
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Arja Keski-Nummi and Libby Lloyd. Resettling Syrian and Iraqi Refugees: A Program for Government-Community Action
Australia has one of the best refugee resettlement systems in the world. So said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres some years back. We have achieved this reputation not by good luck but because successive Australian governments have understood that early intervention and support in the settlement process are fundamental to long term Continue reading »
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Walter Hamilton. Japanese Sleepwalking
Defying public protests and opinion polls that show most Japanese oppose the move, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and Shin-Komeito ruling coalition are pressing ahead with legislation to nullify the nation’s constitutional ban on overseas military action. The so-called ‘right of collective defense’ law is being voted out of the committee stage of Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Slogans vs Facts.
In my post of 16 September, I referred to the continual exaggeration over the benefits of Free Trade Agreements. There has been quite a pattern of this type of exaggeration with slogans rather than facts. One example of slogans and one-liners has been the Abbott government’s claim that it ‘Stopped the Boats’. This is just Continue reading »
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Bruce Kaye. Refugees in Australia and the Good Samaritan.
When I was a teenager a famous preacher of the day, Dr Gordon Powell, was the minister at St Stephens Presbyterian Church Macquarie Street Sydney. I recall hearing some of his sermons and in particular a sermon from a series of sermons he preached on the “Hard Sayings of Jesus”. He remarked at the Continue reading »
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The Exaggeration over Free Trade Agreements.
I have posted many blogs in the last couple of years concerning the Free Trade Agreements with the Republic of Korea, Japan and China. I have pointed out that the years of negotiation of these agreements occurred under the Rudd and Gillard governments. The Abbott government gave the agreements the final touch. The other issues Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Turnbull and Abbott
Bill Shorten aside, most Australians will welcome our new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. He offers a more rational, humane and consultative style of leadership. His main problem will be how to reconcile his own progressive views on such issues as climate change, a republic and gay marriage, with the hard-heads in the parliamentary Liberal party. Continue reading »
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Rod Tiffen Lord Leveson, your country needs you, again.
Two events in the past week show the importance of the Leveson Inquiry reconvening to complete its second report. The Leveson inquiry was set up by British Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2011 at the height of the phone hacking scandal centered on Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper. Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Refugees and German redemption.
Imagine if Australia were to open its doors to 240 000 refugees. That’s twenty times our offer to take 12 000 Syrians, or around the same number as our total annual immigration in all categories. It’s what Angela Merkel’s offer of 800 000 places would come to if scaled to Australia’s population. Although some may Continue reading »
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“U.S. should bear blame for European refugee, humanitarian crisis”
Disastrous intervention by the US has been the cause of many major refugee flows including the current flows out of the Middle East. The people’s Daily published an interesting article on this subject on 7 September. The article refers to refugees from Syria, Lybia, Iraq and Afghanistan. It could have added that one of the Continue reading »
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